0:06 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:15 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. 0:39 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 201. 0:47 Well, Veegs, it happened again. 0:52 Another lovely Friday night, but this one started off much better. 0:55 They were playing really well. 0:57 Played pretty solid first period. 0:59 It was up one nothing, two late goals by Myers. 1:02 It's three nothing. 1:03 Everything's looking great. 1:05 And then everything wasn't looking great. 1:08 You know, I don't feel like energy has been the issue so far for the Gophers. 1:12 Like I feel like when they come to start the series, you know, the energy is at least there. 1:18 But the brains on Friday night, whether they're at home or on the road, the brains are not fully operational. 1:28 And, you know, those are some of the problems that are holding this team and this program back from hitting some of the expectations that people are putting out there for them. 1:37 And you can tell it's kind of getting to the coach just a little bit. 1:43 Well, you mentioned he, you were commenting on some of his comments this week, just a little while ago saying, you know, you know, you can only kind of throw the garbage can so many times a season. 1:52 You can only kick the garbage can. 1:54 Kick the garbage can, there you go. 1:55 Three times a year. 1:56 If anybody's a big fan of Letter Kenny, their coach has some epic garbage can kicks just for people if, you know, they're getting a little bored on a Thursday night waiting for a hockey weekend to come around, kick the can, Letter Kenny. 2:11 Yeah. 2:12 Well, what can you do? 2:12 If anyone is watching live on Twitter, Facebook or the YouTube channel, throw us some questions. 2:19 We're taking questions tonight, you know. 2:21 It's kind of an open session since we don't have a guest. 2:25 So it's kind of actually looking forward to not having a guest being just because it's kind of nice to sit back and just relax for a little while. 2:32 Just a little therapy session. 2:33 Kind of. 2:34 And we think we need it. 2:35 Gopher Nation. 2:36 Yeah. 2:37 I'm done picking sweeps until this team can prove to me they can win on a Friday night. 2:42 Yeah. 2:42 I mean, the issues for this team are pretty consistent in making mental mistakes throughout the game. 2:51 You know, the big ones for me right now are forwards who are missing the net. 2:56 Basically creating a turnover, feeding the other teams offense. 3:01 The other different one is forwards leaving the zone too early, trying to get an offense, stretching out, maybe leaving their defenseman and their goaltender defenseless. 3:13 Even I noticed that, Veegs. 3:14 I'm not a great hockey mind, but I kept watching it last week, even though they won that Saturday night, I still saw it happening. 3:22 I bet you Veegs notices that, because if I notice it, you notice it. 3:27 That's one of the easy ones to spot. 3:28 You only stretch out and it's like, oh, nobody's open. 3:31 You can't get the puck through there. 3:33 It's really frustrating. 3:34 Three, taking bad penalties in the offensive zone. 3:38 We've seen this happen to number nine way too frequently. 3:43 When that happens, you start killing penalties right from the start, your ice time gets all messed up, and they count on Walker to kill penalties with McLaughlin too. 3:53 So, you're starting to mess up your pairs there. 3:57 We saw Huglen get an opportunity to kill some penalties. 4:00 So, those are the first three. 4:02 Maybe we'll take a little pause here a little bit. 4:04 You can reflect on those, and then we'll get back to the other ones later. 4:09 Maybe it's time to let Jack sit and watch the game. 4:12 We know how well that would go over with Motsko. 4:16 Our friend Jess Meyers keeps kind of prodding Coach Motsko after the game. 4:22 And this week, it was like when he kind of mentioned that it's the dumbest question he's ever heard. 4:29 Yeah, that was Bob's initial reaction to the question on Friday night. 4:36 And then on Saturday, Jack came back, saw a little less work, got the shutout. 4:42 And so at Availability on Tuesday, Bob's like, and we got this guy over here telling me to bench the guy, put him back out there. 4:50 What does he do? 4:50 He gets a shutout. 4:54 So I don't know when Gopher Puck Live YouTube is going to be posting that availability. 4:59 But that's basically Bob talking to me and Pointy and Jess about the question. 5:05 So I'm collecting Jess Meyers' Matzko reactions. 5:12 We got the, are you crazy from a couple of years ago? 5:14 We got Dumbest Question and maybe we'll add that one to the pile. 5:18 I hadn't had a chance to look at the availability today, but maybe tomorrow morning I'll put it all together if it's available for us to put together. 5:26 So well, they do say that college hockey is one of the longest seasons of all sports. 5:32 I think Jess and Bob might be looking forward to winter break, which is just six games away. 5:38 Six games away and we'll get a little winter break for these two. 5:42 Oh boy. 5:44 So Steve Larson, Jack is not going to sit. 5:49 Yeah, I think unless Jack gets an injury like he almost did the other night, which was kind of a scary moment, or if he gets sick or something, that's probably the only way Jack's going to sit. 6:01 For this team to get to the heights that wants to reach, Jack needs to find his game. 6:07 And I think the only way he's going to find it is by playing. 6:10 I don't know if it helps this team to put in. 6:13 Brennan Boynton, who's basically had four practices all season because of a myriad of issues affecting him. 6:21 Justin Close, nice guy, did a nice job when he stepped in, but I don't think a guy like that is ready to see 40 shots. 6:31 No. 6:32 Typically goalies, you can look good for a little bit, but when you start seeing 40 shots, any little deficiency, they start to slip through. 6:41 It's probably not a good plan. 6:43 Quite honestly, Veegs, we're not going to see either of those two goalies, unless let's say they give up five at Michigan and they just pull a goalie during the game. 6:51 Otherwise, realistically, we're not going to see either of those two play until the exhibition against Team USA. 6:58 Yeah, and the workload for a college goalie, saying that maybe they'd need a break, if anything, it would be a mental break and that's going to come over winter break here. 7:08 And he can reset his mind a little bit because I don't think we're seeing a lot of physical issues or technique issues with Jack. 7:16 We're just seeing him not be sharp, sharp like we're used to seeing. 7:21 And some of that just, you know, yeah, I would say sitting him is not going to help in that way. 7:28 He got a shutout Saturday night, didn't have a lot of work. 7:34 And the positive thing besides him getting the shutout Saturday night is that the team did come back and played solid. 7:40 Could have done better hitting the goal a little bit better, but team defense played really great in front of him. 7:47 Much smarter play by the team. 7:50 Yeah, you didn't see the turnovers, a lot of odd man rushes, you didn't see dangerous plays at the blue lines. 7:57 Breakaways. 7:58 If we get into it, some of the other things that this team needs to do, be smart around the blue lines. 8:04 Both breaking the puck out, we saw on Friday night, Ryan Johnson trying to do a 360 right into pressure, turn it over, rush going the other way. 8:15 A shot from distance, it was a nice shot, but it was from distance, that found the net. 8:20 That was troubling. 8:21 And then you also have your defensemen at the offensive blue line, who are sometimes trying to do too much, walking the puck around, getting into trouble, creating rushes the other way as well. 8:30 So, you know, those are probably a couple more problems that are recurring with this team. 8:35 You know, Bob says, this team is going to be its best when they play patient. 8:39 And that's what they did on Saturday. 8:41 And looked at the goals they got from Sorenson Nyes on Saturday. 8:45 Two very skillful plays. 8:47 Yeah, Nyes, wow. 8:50 Wow. 8:54 I hate to see it if he really finds his game because wow. 8:57 Yeah, I think he has been the biggest surprise maybe in college hockey this year. 9:02 You know, he's just gone up and up and up, you know, after struggling a little bit with Tri-City and the USHL, you know, maybe going through that growing pain that hockey players need to go through sometimes where they get into a series of games where they don't find the net. 9:18 They're not on the score sheet. 9:19 And just keep working and grinding your way through it. 9:23 Good things will happen. 9:24 He had a great World Junior summer camp, looking like he'll be going to Edmonton for the World Juniors this year and make a huge impact for the Gophers. 9:36 Our boy, Mote, another player seems to be struggling, surprisingly struggling, Jackson Lacombe. 9:44 Well, you know, other teams know who he is now. 9:47 And they know what things can get him into trouble. 9:50 I thought one thing we noticed with Ohio State this weekend, I thought they really scouted Minnesota really, really well. 9:57 And they were giving Minnesota some fits in the special teams. 9:59 And I thought they were taking things away. 10:02 You know, another team that did that was UMD and St. 10:05 Claude State. 10:06 You know, they really knew how to pressure the Gopher defenseman right from the start. 10:10 And, you know, it's a growing pain for those guys to go through, you know, being targeted and they just have to be smarter, you know, playing honest hockey. 10:19 You know, that just means not forcing the play when you don't have to. 10:24 Veegs, I know a big thing for you over the years is entrance into the offensive zone, not losing the puck at the blue line, make it a smart play. 10:32 If they're stopping you, maybe dump and chase, things like that, how is the team doing in that department? 10:38 You know, it hasn't been as bad as it's been in the past couple of years where you're just seeing players be reckless on entries. 10:46 You know, you see a couple of times once they gain the zone, they maybe expose the puck a little bit too easily trying to create something that's not there. 10:55 Or the worst thing this year is just shooting the puck either into a non-dangerous area, you know, up right at the goalie's gloves or missing the net and sending it the other way. 11:06 Those have been kind of the issues on entries that I've noticed this year more than anything. 11:11 Minnesota has enough skill, especially at home, to spread out the blue line and create gaps for a fourth player to come through and possess the puck so they can get their offense going. 11:22 But the problem is once you cross that blue line, if you shoot and miss, your possession is over. 11:29 And that's what's happening right now more than anything. 11:32 I think they need to be more patient with once they do get in the zone, working the puck around. 11:37 I think we saw that on the Sorensen goal Saturday night. 11:41 You know, Nye has made a nice shot block in his own end. 11:45 The Gophers got in transition and they didn't just waste it by throwing the puck around or whatever. 11:51 They got into their ground game below the dots. 11:54 They made some plays and then Sorensen, you know, got a puck on that and scored. 12:01 It's frustrating. 12:04 Well, it is frustrating. 12:05 It's frustrating. 12:05 It's a complex game. 12:06 Yeah, it definitely is. 12:08 I'm just, you know, you see the way they started Friday night and then it just fell apart, lost confidence. 12:16 Jack was not great Friday night. 12:19 It didn't help. 12:20 There's some things he could have had. 12:21 Couple of pucks were upper corner. 12:23 They weren't terrible shots. 12:25 But as we've always said in the past, sometimes you just need the goalie to make a save. 12:34 And sometimes, I mean, sometimes you just need them to make that save because it could be the difference in the game. 12:42 And we're just seeing less of that this year. 12:44 That's, I think, where people are frustrated. 12:47 Yeah, I think you are seeing less of it. 12:49 The problem is on some of those is that the defense needs to know that their goalie isn't on as a game and they gotta play better gaps so that players aren't able to seam the puck across the ice and force Jack to have to find his way across the crease and keep his angle and get square. 13:09 Give him some easy shots where the puck is just gonna stay down one side of the rink so Jack can commit to a shooter and just know that that shot's coming because that player doesn't have any other thing to do. 13:22 It's when the puck is moving across the ice where Jack's gotta slide across and get set again, you're gonna get into trouble. 13:31 And I think the team can help him out a little bit because he was there for them a lot last year when they got off to their good start. 13:39 If you're watching us live on Twitter, just use the hashtag, hashtag GPL Podcast. 13:44 We'll see your question. 13:45 I'll try to get it on the air and talk about it. 13:48 Obviously, if you're watching on Facebook or on YouTube, we can see your questions coming through and we'll get them up as we can. 13:55 I noticed one came in right before we went on the air on Twitter. 13:58 I just put it in the question mark here. 14:00 Ryan Davis with Middlestead, Thomas and Chelsea, or wait, yeah, Chelsea. 14:05 All signing national letters of intent. 14:07 Is it safe to say Faber, Johnson and LeCom are gone up this year? 14:12 Or where do we go with that? 14:13 I mean, we've talked about recently, there are no freshmen back there. 14:19 You got to keep the line coming. 14:22 This year, there wasn't, but obviously, some of these guys might not be around. 14:28 Yeah, I mean, they're definitely going to be losing Brinkman. 14:30 He's going to age out. 14:32 I just don't see any way that Bob is going to be trying to extend 50 years to guys like that. 14:38 So, I think they're going to have to replace one there. 14:41 And they're short this year. 14:43 They are. 14:44 They didn't go 10 like they did previous years. 14:46 Yeah. 14:47 Usually, you'd like to have a few more defensemen than they currently have on the roster. 14:51 Like on Monday, they only had 4D for practice. 14:55 And so, that makes even practicing kind of challenging. 14:59 And Bob mentioned it this week. 15:00 He's like, we've been so banged up. 15:02 I think our conditioning level as a team is going down a little bit because the way Bob is kind of operating some of these things is they're almost doing like half ice zone work, where there's just one defenseman going at a time because they don't have enough numbers to really do full ice type stuff. 15:21 And they have things that they want to work on in zone with the guys that they can practice with. 15:27 So it gets to be a little bit of a challenge for them to figure that out. 15:30 So I think those three are going to come in. 15:33 I was a little surprised. 15:34 I think that Cal Thomas was one of the guys that signed his NLI. 15:38 But when you sign that letter, it means that the school has offered you a spot for that next fall. 15:45 There's always a situation where a player could defer their enrollment and say, I just want to get everybody else out of my ear and commit to a school like Mason Evers did that. 15:56 I think he signed his letter a year early and then played a year juniors and then came that next fall. 16:02 So that happens from time to time. 16:04 But I wouldn't read too much into it that all three of those guys are gone. 16:09 Because heck, Johnson and Faber got broken up on Friday night. 16:15 You know, those are probably their top two defensemen, and even they were struggling. 16:18 And we talked about it at the beginning of the season, too, when we kind of learned that they're only have eight defensemen compared to eight or ten they've had previous years. 16:26 Could be a little thin. 16:29 And, you know, we're finding out that is a little thin, you know, we've had some guys out and, you know, you know, that's hockey injuries happened. 16:36 So I'm kind of with you on that, Veegs, you know, they need to bump it up to ten next year if they can, if they can make the scholarship stuff work, you know. 16:48 I do kind of wonder, you know, John Middlestad hasn't signed yet. 16:52 You kind of wonder what's going on there, because I think he's going to age out of USHL eligibility next year. 16:59 I think he's going to be 21 next fall by the time the puck drops in the season. 17:04 So I don't think he's eligible to play USHL hockey for the full year. 17:09 So maybe they'll have to figure something out there. 17:15 This is probably Tom's or somebody. 17:17 Gopher Puck Live, have your expectations for this team changed? 17:24 They have for you first. 17:25 How about you? 17:26 They have not changed for me. 17:27 I expect this team to, this is a Frozen 14. 17:30 They have got that kind of skill. 17:32 I will be disappointed if they don't get there. 17:34 And if Moscow can't get the team to get to that point, even the beginning of the season, Moscow's, we have a good team, okay? 17:41 Prove it, show us. 17:47 And so far we've seen pieces of it, but they're just not very consistent. 17:53 They need to get it up. 17:54 They need to get it going. 17:57 I'm right with you. 17:58 I think the expectations for this team, with the talent they have coming back, you know, this is a team that should get a number one seed. 18:06 And I think if they can play well in this next six-game stretch, that's still something they can achieve. 18:14 But if they drop, you know, two games to Nodak here in those flashy new white jerseys that they unveiled today, we'll get into that later. 18:24 If they don't do well against Michigan this year, then, you know, they're fighting to get, you know, even a bid if they start dropping games like that. 18:34 But the expectation for me is a one seed and get out of the regional and get to the frozen four again. 18:39 You know, this is how you build your roster for a season like this. 18:42 Yep. 18:43 And there's gonna be a lot more uncertainties next year with the roster. 18:48 So they gotta take advantage of it this year. 18:51 They definitely do. 18:52 They definitely do. 18:53 Well, we're gonna get more into that in a second. 18:55 But first we need to hear from our sponsor. 18:59 Hey fellow GPLers, Jerry Peters here from First Class Mortgage. 19:02 Have you refinanced your home in the last 12 months? 19:05 If you haven't, chances are you should. 19:07 Record low interest rates and skyrocketing home values make this the perfect time to remove monthly PMI while improving your interest rate at the same time. 19:16 You can also use the equity in your home to finance those home improvement projects. 19:20 Or, you can consolidate high interest rate credit cards into one new low monthly payment. 19:25 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291. 19:31 You can email me at jerry at firstclasscorp.com, or you could go to firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 19:40 Mention The GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 19:44 Some restrictions do apply. 19:46 First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322842-480200. 19:52 This is not an agreement to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 19:55 First Class Mortgage is an Equal Housing Lender. 20:01 Well, Veegs, our next week guest, Mr. 20:05 Brad Schaustman, tweeting out some fine looking North Dakota jerseys today. 20:13 Well, they're fine for them. 20:15 I don't really care. 20:17 But here we go. 20:19 Already for sale at the Ralph's store, those brand new Nodak jerseys. 20:26 People are saying, oh, who cares? 20:28 It's not about what the jerseys look like. 20:30 It's about them having their shit together, Veegs. 20:35 They have a brand new jersey just released today, and it's already for sale. 20:43 I go to the official university website that is a store connected right to their fanatics. 20:50 There are zero jerseys for sale. 20:52 There are zero basketball jerseys. 20:54 There's no baseball. 20:55 I mean, only thing are a couple of football jerseys. 20:58 What the hell is going on with Minnesota? 21:01 How can they cannot keep up with North Dakota, and a lot of other local schools when it comes to jerseys? 21:09 I think you know the answer to this. 21:12 There isn't someone at the university who has enough authority, who cares. 21:19 If someone in Mark Coyle's department didn't care enough to make this stuff happen, you would see it out there. 21:30 You know, I tweet about this stuff to try to make people aware. 21:34 Get people talking, you know, because if you get more people talking, you get more people talking to the you, there will be pressure eventually. 21:41 But if people don't talk about it, it just slowly gets not, you know, nobody cares. 21:48 The fact I couldn't find a basketball jersey on their own site. 21:53 How does that happen? 21:56 It certainly is a weird phenomenon. 21:59 Like you watch hockey games in Canada. 22:05 I bet about half the people in the building are wearing a jersey. 22:10 You watch a North Dakota game. 22:13 I bet probably three quarters of their fans can wear jerseys, especially like when they go do their road trip in Nashville. 22:20 Like those fans want to wear hockey jerseys. 22:25 You look at Mariucci, you see some of the diehards who've got the custom stuff from Vintage. 22:31 Yeah. 22:32 Farmers sponsor, but we will keep pushing their stuff forever because it's great stuff. 22:36 It is great stuff. 22:38 You'll see those around, but you don't see a ton of the standard bookstore type jersey that you can find. 22:47 I think part of it's because the quality that they do put out doesn't match what The Wild put out, what North Dakota puts out, what the other NHL teams are putting out there. 22:58 I think if they put in some small effort, you would see a response. 23:04 I mean, the thing is, we know, Vegs, it's not the hockey team, it's not the marketing team behind hockey, it's the people above that make these kinds of decisions. 23:13 And we know that the school is struggling with finances and things like this. 23:20 We know a lot of people have left. 23:21 I don't even know if they have a marketing person right now. 23:24 I don't think they do actually. 23:25 For hockey. 23:28 So that's bad enough. 23:29 That's just the sign of the times people moving on and people covering other people's jobs and whatnot. 23:36 But, you know, I just see the fact that, you know, North Dakota puts out a jersey today, shows it off, and it's for sale right now. 23:44 Minnesota is embarrassing when it comes to this. 23:47 I'm sorry, they're just embarrassing. 23:51 I will defend the U on a lot of things. 23:53 This is not one of them, because it's obvious they they don't care. 23:58 So and it's not that it's not the hockey people really care. 24:03 If the hockey people could do this on their own, they would take care of it. 24:07 But they're embarrassed themselves. 24:08 They hate it. 24:10 They're so handcuffed, they can't do a thing. 24:14 There's a little bit of red tape and bureaucracy at the U. 24:18 I'm very familiar with it. 24:19 I'm gonna keep pointing it out on Twitter or wherever I have to. 24:25 Until Pat Nicoletti comes up and threatens you at Marriott G. 24:35 I think we may get Pat involved. 24:36 Maybe Pat, they listen to Pat. 24:43 Well, here we go. 24:44 Moate, they should just hire you, Veegs. 24:47 Not your expertise though, is it? 24:49 Not really my expertise. 24:51 I feel like I know a lot about hockey, but I'm not sure about merchandising quite yet. 24:57 And it's just sad they don't have somebody there to listen, Veegs. 25:01 We know for a fact you could buy, they could just get a ton of extra Authentics each year, or when they do their jersey or get a ton of extra. 25:12 They could mark them up. 25:14 I want to say Authentics base, probably 160 to 200. 25:20 They could sell them for 300, gone. 25:23 People. 25:23 I don't know if they'd be gone, but. 25:26 They could sell them, and that's a nice profit. 25:29 Yes, I think they could sell them pretty handling. 25:33 I know they've done it once before, and they were gone the first weekend. 25:37 Yeah, somebody within the marketing team was able to, when they, the last year, the WCHA, the Gophers got New Jerseys. 25:47 So when they put in their order for the three versions of the jerseys that season, it was the white Gophers across, road and home, they ordered 30 extra jerseys. 25:59 10 home, 10 road, and 10 of the home alternates. 26:05 I was fortunate to get one of those. 26:08 You know, it's got the WCHA patch on it. 26:10 It actually has a fight strap on it. 26:13 It doesn't have any lettering or anything else, but you know what? 26:16 It's a beautiful jersey, Veegs. 26:18 I cherish it. 26:19 I put it up back here sometimes. 26:21 That's the old practice jersey we got back there right now, but I put it back here sometimes. 26:28 Just you know what? 26:28 Just getting a decent replica, Veegs. 26:30 We've seen a lot of painful years in that one. 26:34 You've seen a replica and it's got an M. 26:38 That is just not the University M. 26:41 It's not quite right. 26:43 Yeah. 26:44 It's been bad. 26:48 But there's fans out there who would buy Authentics. 26:50 There are fans out there who would buy the close replicas. 26:52 I've got quite a few replicas that look great, that have been done over the years. 26:57 If they're done well. 27:00 It just seems like they're really missing. 27:02 You talk about making money. 27:04 This is a good opportunity. 27:06 Like I said, I couldn't go get a basketball jersey if I wanted to right now. 27:12 I would love to have a baseball jersey. 27:14 Those things are nice. 27:17 If it's the mechanics of trying to figure out how many to get, offer them to your season ticket holders somehow. 27:25 Like offer some sort of discounted, almost at cost type jersey for season ticket holder to buy, and that gets you started on however big an order you have to make to make this happen. 27:39 We need to find out who's in charge here. 27:41 Do we need to go right to Coyle? 27:43 Well, we got to go right to Tom McGuinness probably. 27:45 Tom McGuinness is the assistant AD in charge of hockey. 27:50 He's the one who is responsible for a lot of these kinds of things. 27:53 So if you see him around the rink, you can always bring up jerseys to him, and he's the right person. 28:01 Tom McGuinness' phone number is... 28:05 It will be posted on Gopher Puck Live later. 28:08 Visit the website. 28:09 I'm sure there will be a thread in something. 28:11 I will not be doing that, folks. 28:12 It is public out there. 28:15 But they did outsource a lot of their stuff to Fanatics this last year, and it was kind of a late deal that just happened before the football season started. 28:25 So I think maybe that could explain some of this stuff. 28:28 We had a discussion with Bob this week about supply chain issues and that you ordered all their sticks, all their skates, all their equipment stuff right away at the start of the season, just so they wouldn't get mid-year and try to order stuff and not be able to get it. 28:44 So they planned ahead on that, but Fanatics may not have planned ahead on Gopher Hockey jerseys. 28:53 It's just, it's kind of like the attendance thing. 28:56 We're going to keep coming back to it, Veegs. 29:00 At least, oh, the jersey thing has been a problem for longer than the attendance thing. 29:05 Yes. 29:05 At least in my eyes, because we have seen some really bad, really bad replicas over the years. 29:13 And Tim Hapke, I think it was Hapke. 29:16 The story of Mary G is horrible. 29:21 And they talk about the store at the Ralph is just amazing. 29:25 It's like the wild hockey log store at the Ralph. 29:28 Like they care. 29:30 Like North Dakota knows that their money is made at hockey games, and they invest all their marketing talents into that sport. 29:41 I used to go, when I'd go on North Dakota trips, or North Dakota trips, or to the Luth, or wherever it may be, I would go get an official game puck from every arena for my... 29:52 I'd give it to my daughter. 29:52 She's got like the Mankato, she's got North Dakota, she's got the Luth, St. 29:55 Cloud. 29:58 That's all because their store is all... 30:00 You could buy an official game puck, not at Minnesota. 30:03 Got all these nice little artsy fartsy ones that aren't game pucks. 30:08 But it's just... 30:09 It's the simple little things like that, Vegs, that I think that are frustrating. 30:17 The game pucks I had back here were all earned. 30:22 Took one on the face last week. 30:23 Should have kept that game puck, maybe. 30:26 Should have kept that one. 30:28 I thought about it, but I was actually stunned. 30:32 You know, I was kind of stunned when it hit me because it came... 30:35 Pitlick had lifted the puck into the zone. 30:37 He was on the red line. 30:39 It came up way at an angle. 30:40 I'm right on one side of the glass. 30:41 I'm sitting there, ready to look at something else and wham, right in my face. 30:47 Felt great. 30:48 I was kind of stunned for a second. 30:49 I'm like, look, I literally dropped into me. 30:51 The ref looks at me. 30:52 He's on the other side of the glass. 30:54 Kind of look at me. 30:54 You OK? 30:58 Here you go. 30:59 I just gave it to him through the hole. 31:00 I'm like, it's not a big deal. 31:04 We got to have a holiday giveaway this year. 31:05 Well, I'm going to acquire some sort of item. 31:08 And for our holiday show coming up here in December, I will have a giveaway item for a good live... 31:16 Our December 1st show? 31:19 Maybe our December 1st show. 31:21 We're going to have Jack Ramsey on that week. 31:23 That's going to be fun. 31:24 Now, we won't give away a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup pie, but we will have something Gopher themed to give away. 31:32 And I'll ship it to somebody who makes a nice little comment. 31:36 Comment of the night. 31:39 Oh yeah, let's bring back the old Casey Hankinson. 31:42 Please don't. 31:45 My eyes can't take that. 31:48 Dazzle fabric was such a 90s phenomenon. 31:52 It's like just because you can make it doesn't mean you should. 31:58 Hey, that great 2007 Final Five final. 32:04 Gophers in dazzle gold, North Dakota in dazzle green. 32:11 My photos look great. 32:12 I loved that contrast, but yeah. 32:17 I thought we were gonna get a color game this year in Wisconsin. 32:20 When Wisconsin did their red out, I thought the Gophers, because they wore their gold breezers for that game. 32:25 I thought they were gonna wear their gold Gopher jerseys, so we got gold on red. 32:31 If someone was in charge of marketing, they might have figured that out, and they might have sold the gold jerseys or something, you know? 32:39 You know, I was shocked a couple years ago when somebody actually came up with the idea of auctioning off the Wuger jerseys. 32:47 You see that at every school all the time, and it's like it took the Gophers 15 years to figure that out. 32:53 Well, they had to have an extra set of jerseys, too. 32:55 I know the U is a little tight on ordering new jerseys for the hockey program. 33:00 The men's. 33:02 The men's. 33:03 You know, it's difficult. 33:05 It's challenging. 33:05 I know. 33:06 It shouldn't be. 33:08 Let's get back to hockey. 33:09 Oh, yes. 33:10 I can talk about attendance and merchandise and marketing and ticket prices and TV and radio. 33:19 And Star Tribune only covering Friday games, not Saturday games. 33:23 But maybe that's the key. 33:24 That's the key this year is that the players are upset about the Star Tribune covering Friday night games so they don't play well. 33:32 And then the Star Tribune isn't there on Saturday and they can focus. 33:36 Maybe that's it. 33:37 Nobody was there except for Jess Myers and myself and the Daily on Friday. 33:42 And the Daily kids, the Daily kids are so raw, they didn't ask any questions when Moscow was there. 33:49 It would just ask every question. 33:51 He's like, thanks, guys. 33:54 Well, I was in a little bit of a quarantine situation. 33:56 I had my my son had a close contact that ended up not being a close contact. 34:01 But I thought I should just stay away for the weekend, get a COVID test to make sure that I wasn't going to get the team with an outbreak from me. 34:10 That would that would not go over well. 34:13 Any updates on injuries, Veegs, from Gopher Puck Live again? 34:17 Gopher Puck Live, you are a fanatic fan. 34:19 Cruz Lucius should be back. 34:22 Or Chaz Lucius, I mean. 34:24 I was just thinking about recruiting as well. 34:25 We'll talk about that a little bit. 34:27 But Chaz is going to be back. 34:29 His upper body injury has had enough time to heal. 34:32 So he's practicing. 34:34 Grant Krutschank not ready yet. 34:36 He's still dealing with that lower body stuff. 34:39 I don't even really think he's skating right now. 34:42 They're just trying to rest that up. 34:43 It's probably going to be a little bit longer. 34:46 Ben Myers, as we said, is back to 100%. 34:49 Yeah, because he was playing injured, not nothing severe. 34:52 But it did look like he kind of had his groove back this past weekend. 34:56 Yes, he was shooting the puck much better, handling the puck much better. 35:01 I think things are feeling much better in that aspect. 35:04 Did you get to watch practice this week? 35:07 I did not get to watch practice this week. 35:10 I'm just kind of curious if he's keeping those lines and defensive pairings he put together on Saturday or not. 35:18 Yeah, I think it's going to be a mystery this weekend. 35:20 He was kind of coy about how he was going to handle the lineup because he's like, Lucius is a pretty solid player, so he's probably going to find his way back in the lineup somehow. 35:30 And they don't have a ton of options at defense, so we'll see what happens there. 35:37 Got a question from Facebook here, Veegs, if I can get the show. 35:40 Oops, wrong one. 35:41 Oh, wrong one. 35:43 Sorry. 35:43 Here we go. 35:44 John Daugherty. 35:45 Big day with the NLI signings. 35:47 Who's ready next year? 35:48 And do we have room for all these kids? 35:50 Well, we talked about the room. 35:50 We think the defensive kids are probably okay, but big day. 35:55 We had a lot of kids sign over the past week. 35:58 Yeah, I think especially as we look at the forwards, I think this is kind of a sign that we won't be seeing guys play a fifth year. 36:06 I think that was kind of a question whether or not some seniors are coming back. 36:10 You know, I think they've got six forwards signed now to the group here. 36:17 There are five forwards, maybe six. 36:19 I think that means there's going to be some churn. 36:22 It's hard to know exactly who's going to be ready. 36:25 You know, Snuggerud had just had a great weekend with the US. 36:29 18 team over in Switzerland. 36:32 You know, he had two hat tricks, played really well, but his game has kind of been up and down. 36:37 So he was kind of a late bloomer who people were thinking, you know, maybe like a mid-round pick at the NHL draft. 36:42 You know, maybe now he's, you know, coming up a little bit, maybe a second round pick or, you know, if he keeps going like this, who knows? 36:52 Cruz Lucius has done really well, but he's injured right now for the US. 36:57 Development Program. 36:58 So, you know, his development could be staggered a little bit. 37:01 One player who's really doing really well is Connor Kurth. 37:05 He's lightening it up for Dubuque in the USHL. 37:07 He's an older guy who was undrafted last year. 37:11 I think probably because of the COVID season, he didn't get a lot of looks, you know, the same thing with Luke Middlestadt. 37:17 I think people were a little unsure, you know, what path those guys were on. 37:22 But Connor Kurth has looked really good so far in the USHL. 37:26 OK, the big question for me, Veegs, is, you know, you mentioned a little older player. 37:31 Are they getting older with this recruiting class? 37:34 Well, they're going to have a balance. 37:36 OK, Charlie Strobel, Garrett Piedomini, you know, those guys are going to be 21 years old when they step on campus as freshmen. 37:43 You know, Kurth is a guy who's going to be a little bit older. 37:46 You know, he's already passed through one year of his draft eligibility, so he's a little bit older. 37:53 You know, guys like Snuggerud, obviously a young guy, Lucius, young guy on defense, you know, Chesley, he's kind of a younger guy. 38:03 He's a draft eligible, but really talented, big shot, physical player, probably maturity wise, he's older than his birth age, if that makes sense. 38:13 OK. 38:15 Middlestadt's having a real good season in the USHL. 38:18 He's an older guy now because he went through his draft eligibility last year. 38:21 So, you know, they still have a couple of young players, but the majority of the class is experienced type guys. 38:30 Kurtz will be the Nies of 2022. 38:32 We could always hope players will be the Nies of any year, because I like the Nies. 38:37 Yeah, we'll see if his foot speed is there. 38:40 I think that was the big surprise with Nies, how well he moves on his feet. 38:44 And he Nies is really impressed with his skating right from the start. 38:47 The first practice I saw this year, I saw him doing his stop and start transitions in the zone, battling for Pucks. 38:54 I was like, OK, this guy is going to be a special player. 38:57 He knows what he's doing. 38:58 He's not looping around. 38:59 You know, Curth, we'll see if the foot speed is there. 39:02 You know, that is always kind of a risk with some of these players. 39:05 Can they create at the higher level? 39:08 I've always liked the way that Meyers protects the puck. 39:12 If Nies with his size could do something similar, and he's kind of doing a pretty good job. 39:17 He's doing a lot of stick handling, maybe not protecting a puck as much. 39:20 But if Nies is a kid that can protect the puck similar to Meyers, boy, the sky is unlimited for him. 39:30 Yeah, I think so. 39:31 I think that's also a skill that you have to develop a little bit. 39:35 For a player like him, who's always been one of the biggest players on the ice, his reach is really what allows him to protect the puck a lot of times. 39:43 He doesn't have to use his body to put it in the way. 39:46 Once he learns that skill though, his ground game in the offensive zone is just going to go up and up. 39:52 Because he looks really good in transition, he looks pretty comfortable in space, but just that creating goals out of the run of play is something that will be important for him as he develops. 40:03 All right, Veegs, let's head to this weekend. 40:06 Penn State comes to town. 40:08 Penn State started off okay. 40:11 They beat North Dakota and Nashville. 40:14 We're looking good. 40:15 Hit the Big Ten and hit the breaks. 40:19 It's been a rough go for the Nittany Lions starting off the season. 40:24 And we're hoping it's a rough go for them this weekend and basically put them in the rear view mirror because you go 0 and 6 to start the season, Veegs. 40:32 You're probably done, quite honestly. 40:37 I mean, it's going to be difficult, I think, for a team like that to compete for the title, but I still think you'd have a chance at home ice, perhaps, if you can recover from it. 40:51 But it would be very helpful for Minnesota to put two W's on the board this weekend and maybe not have to have a trip to Happy Valley. 41:02 You know, you don't want to have a trip to Happy Valley that means something right now. 41:07 There's a lot of demons there. 41:09 Let's get rid of those demons. 41:12 Kill the demons. 41:14 You'd like to exercise those, wouldn't you? 41:16 Yes. 41:17 And we're hoping to get it a couple of years ago and it's just COVID. 41:26 I think Penn State plays a style that really hurt the Gophers in that end of the Luchia era and the start of the Moscow era. 41:36 They're so aggressive. 41:37 They're so in your face. 41:38 It does kind of remind me of like North Dakota light. 41:42 So this is a good weekend, I think, for Minnesota to play a team like this. 41:46 You know, the schedule worked out well because Penn State plays aggressive all over the ice. 41:51 They're going to be in your face. 41:52 They're going to try to hit you. 41:54 They're going to throw pucks at net and they're going to try to create traffic. 41:57 So I think it's good prep for that Black Friday game coming up to play a team like this. 42:03 And I think a team like this could also be good for Jack LaFontaine, too. 42:07 Because he's going to see a lot of shots. 42:10 Yep. 42:10 You know, and they should be shots from the outside that he should get a good feel out of. 42:17 And, you know, I did see some of practice where they're working with the goalies about handling traffic and rebounds and finding pucks and covering the bottom of the net and staying, you know, big with their chest. 42:30 You know, those are important things when you play teams like Penn State, North Dakota. 42:35 So it could be a wake up weekend for them, too. 42:38 I would be glad if it was just a wake up weekend period. 42:43 Winning both games, you know, good 4-1, you know, 5-2 scores. 42:48 Let's get some Culver's going again, Veegs. 42:50 Come on. 42:52 Culver's is definitely in play this weekend. 42:54 I hope so. 42:55 You know, there's going to be enough offense available out there. 42:58 I think the problem or the pitfall for the Gophers is getting into a run-and-gun game with Penn State when Minnesota doesn't really have to do that. 43:08 You know, if they can get some ground game going, they can kind of control the game a little bit easier. 43:15 They just have to be wary about Penn State because they like to fly forwards out of the zone all the time. 43:20 It's like beer league hockey sometimes with them. 43:22 As soon as they think there's like a 50-50 transition opportunity, that high forward is going to start leaving the zone just a little bit. 43:30 So Minnesota has to really be aware of that. 43:33 It caught them a couple of times two or three years ago. 43:36 Like our boy Bacardio taking off. 43:41 Yeah, the difference is that Bacardio get caught if the puck did actually get to him. 43:46 Some of these forwards Penn State has are not going to be caught from behind once they get going. 43:53 And they can finish. 43:55 Give me a prediction, Veegs. 43:59 You know, I did go with the split last weekend and I was correct. 44:03 I even got the Knights right. 44:06 I predicted a loss on Friday and a win on Saturday. 44:09 I think this weekend, I think the over-under, the overs are in play. 44:14 I think the over-under is going to be around five and a half or six. 44:17 I think we see lots of goals this weekend. 44:19 I think we see a Gopher split. 44:22 Sorry. 44:24 I'm kind of with you, Veegs, until they can prove to me that they can play the way they should be playing with all this talent and coming together, I would have to say, you know, four points max. 44:39 Yeah, I just... 44:40 And you know what? 44:42 Gophers make us eat our words. 44:45 I would love to see a couple 4-0 games. 44:48 Bingo. 44:49 I'd love to see a couple 4-0 games. 44:51 A couple of Gophers games. 44:52 A couple of 5-0 Gophers games. 44:53 But I just think there's going to be enough goals out there where I don't know how it's going to work out for Minnesota. 44:59 And I think a split is probably the expectation right now for me, even though at the start of the season, this was a clear sweep for me. 45:08 OK, here's Jared Klein. 45:10 Did he... 45:10 Oops, sorry, lost it there. 45:12 Did I miss it? 45:13 Or did John Middlestead not sign an NLI yet? 45:18 He has not signed. 45:20 So that is a situation to watch. 45:24 You know, he turns 21 on October 1st. 45:29 So I don't know if there's some sort of weird timing with USHL where he can play some junior, but I think he's going to age out. 45:40 So I'll have to dig into my USHL overage rules, because I know it's changed a couple of times over the years, but they didn't have any special COVID rules. 45:52 I don't know if they had any special COVID rules. 45:56 So something to watch. 45:59 And I do think the Gophers will probably need a goalie too. 46:02 I don't think they can get Jack back for a six year. 46:05 No, Boynton is supposed to be the guy, I thought. 46:08 He is, but he hasn't practiced. 46:11 He hasn't practiced enough to even really warrant getting playing time right now. 46:15 So that's kind of a scary thing. 46:18 Is he going to go a whole year without really playing? 46:23 Yeah, and right now, if let's say Jack had a bad game, somebody gets pulled middle of the game, it's going to be close. 46:30 It's going to be close for now. 46:31 I don't see Boynton. 46:32 Yeah, but we'll see Boynton, USA under 18. 46:39 No doubt we'll see him there. 46:40 He'll get a period, probably the third. 46:45 But like you said, he's been out, you know, he had surgery, he has illness, some bad luck for the poor kid. 46:53 Yeah, bad luck for him. 46:55 You know, they do have a comment, Owen Bardo Skiewicz. 47:00 I haven't got the pronunciation yet. 47:02 You know, he's an option, but there's always the portal. 47:07 You know, Bob has often said that he's not a fan of the portal, until he's a fan of the portal. 47:12 Except he'll see, he could see it be working for goalies, you know, because a goaltender, there's only one net and it's worked for them getting Jack, you know, and you know, Jared's finding a net here in Wisconsin. 47:26 Maybe the Gophers might need a portal goalie next year if they don't think one of their commits is ready, because Pashora, who's the other commit, you know, he's struggling to find a place to even play right now. 47:36 So I think his, you know, college hockey future is even in jeopardy. 47:41 So we'll see what happens there, but you know, it's not real clear who that third goalie would be even yet. 47:48 You got anything else for us, Veegs? 47:52 Looking forward to this weekend? 47:53 Yeah, looking forward to this weekend. 47:55 You know, I'm a little surprised that Bob hasn't brought out the stick a little bit more with some of his players and the discipline stuff. 48:04 You know, Walker takes those penalties on Friday night against Ohio State, and the Gophers get a power play chance, and he's right out there at the first unit. 48:12 So, you know, I've often heard that you don't ask like a guy who paints walls to do the frescoes at the, you know, cathedrals, you know, you got to stick with your artists and coddle them a little bit, even though it's hard, I think, for the fans to deal with that. 48:31 But, you know, you need your talented players to find their game at some point, and Bob has been at this a long time, and he has a little bit more patience than I do, and I think a lot of our listeners. 48:44 Exactly, and, you know, they're building this team for March. 48:48 So I think if we see these same mistakes happen, you know, the next three weeks here, this is a kind of a critical phase, I think, for this program to put themselves on a trajectory where they want to go. 49:00 They need to play well these next three weekends, and it all will happen on Friday night with the start. 49:06 Let's get her done. 49:08 Let's get her done. 49:10 All right, Veegs, you know, that's going to do it for this week for the GPL Podcast. 49:15 We'll be back next week with Mr. 49:18 Schlossman talking some North Dakota hockey. 49:22 And then, you know, it's almost break time. 49:26 We're getting there. 49:27 For those of you watching, currently watching live, stay tuned for a little bit over time. 49:32 For the rest, you will see you next week.