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. 0:28 Now, let's start the show with your hosts, Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:40 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 203. 0:47 And Veegs, fun weekend in North Dakota. 0:52 Yippee skippee, they went in Friday night. 0:54 We're like, everything's solved. 0:55 It wasn't quite that way. 0:59 It seems like that the Saturday night ended up being kind of a partial Friday night for a little bit there. 1:06 And maybe that's just Grand Forks, maybe that's just Ralph Engelstedt. 1:11 What do you think here? 1:12 I mean, I mean, that's a little bit college hockey. 1:15 When you beat a team on Friday, you have to expect the team on Saturday to come out stronger and you have to bring a tougher game perhaps. 1:25 And it was one of those situations where I thought Minnesota didn't play mentally the worst game of the year, but they just, they weren't in it. 1:36 And they still had chances to get back in the game, but it just didn't happen. 1:40 So split for the weekend. 1:42 Once again, I am right on my prediction. 1:44 I predicted a Friday night win, Saturday night loss. 1:47 Well, our guest tonight has kind of been in this situation quite a few times. 1:53 Wouldn't you think, Veegs? 1:54 Maybe, maybe a fair time. 1:56 A fair amount of times. 1:56 Well, our guest tonight is former Gopher, Jack Ramsey. 2:00 And there he is. 2:01 Jack, thank you for joining us on the show, man. 2:05 Thanks for having me, guys. 2:06 I don't even get in and you guys are taking somewhat shots of the few years ago, but I completely agree with you. 2:14 Hey, we know you're a hockey guy. 2:16 Hockey guys rip other hockey guys. 2:19 It's just sort of the whole community thing. 2:20 It's just, it's all about fun for us. 2:23 And you know, it's always been fun with you. 2:25 You know, we've been going back and forth on Twitter for quite a few years here, just having fun. 2:29 And I'm just glad you could join us for the show as a former gopher. 2:32 And you're our second kind of recent former gopher, one of your good friends, Mr. 2:37 Shearhorn was on not too long ago and he was saying a lot of bad things about you. 2:43 That doesn't surprise me at all. 2:46 One of the former teammates that I'm still close to. 2:48 I mean, I talked to him with him on the phone today about 25, 30 minutes. 2:52 Don't even talk about hockey, which is the cool thing too. 2:55 But yeah, Eric's one of a kind. 2:57 I'm sure he has some special things to say about me. 3:01 No, he was actually pretty kind. 3:03 So, you know, Vegas and I are talking, heading up the Grand Forks, not an easy thing. 3:09 That crowd is crazy. 3:11 Minnesota did actually pretty good job keeping them quiet this weekend. 3:16 But you've been in those situations. 3:18 You come out great Friday night, you win the game, win pretty nice. 3:22 Second game, there's just nothing there. 3:24 And you've been there. 3:28 I mean, how does that really happen? 3:29 Because sometimes people say, it's on the players. 3:31 No, it's on the coaches. 3:32 It's just a lot of things, isn't it? 3:35 Yeah, it's tough to pin it on anybody. 3:39 And I wouldn't pin it on anybody because you feel so prepped going. 3:42 Like you win a Friday game, you're going into Saturday. 3:44 You feel prepped, you have the same exact game plan. 3:46 And like Saturday night, you're 10 minutes in and you don't have a shot on that. 3:50 And you have no idea what's going on. 3:53 You start panicking and it's just, you think start to slip away from you. 3:57 Obviously on Saturday, they kind of came back in it and didn't let slip away from them. 4:00 But sometime you just don't know what's going on and it just gets away. 4:05 Well, I think one of the things that stood out to me, we talked to Matt Stoddaker this week. 4:09 You know, he talked about how a big key for them was keeping it simple as a defensive core, getting back on puck retrievals, getting the puck to the wall, letting the forwards battle for the puck at the wall, chip it out of the zone and then use your speed to get behind the other team's defense. 4:25 I think what the big difference was on Saturday is that those battles on the wall, a lot of times North Dakota is coming out on top. 4:34 And for whatever reason, you know, maybe it's the defensemen isn't getting back to the puck as quick as they were on Friday night. 4:42 Maybe North Dakota's player is getting there a little bit faster. 4:45 Maybe there's a little bit more effort by North Dakota saying, okay, we know it's going to the wall, let's get there on time and not let them get it out of the zone. 4:54 Same thing on the dump-ins. 4:56 You know, pucks are going to the corner. 4:57 You know, the Gopher would get there, he'd win the puck, but that second player to maintain possession was just never there on Saturday. 5:04 And I think, you know, you look at college hockey, two good teams, two pretty equal teams. 5:09 It's just that little, you know, one or 2% on all these plays flips. 5:16 And then all of a sudden you've got to say, okay, we've got to either match it or change it up somehow. 5:21 And it just didn't happen. 5:23 Or it took too long. 5:25 Or it took too long. 5:26 And then you chase the game a little bit. 5:28 I think Bob talked about that a little bit. 5:30 You know, guys get in situations, you know, they're at 45, 50 seconds of their shift and they're trying to say, okay, I want to change the game. 5:38 That's hard to do in college hockey at 50 seconds when your legs are already burning a little bit. 5:44 And Jackie, you know, I'm sure, you know, that mind, that clock in your head goes, I can do it. 5:49 It's the last 20 minutes of the game. 5:52 I can push through the weekend here. 5:54 Well, that's, you know, unless we were winning, I wasn't on the ice the last 20 minutes of the game. 5:59 But, you know, going back to me, I always wanted to be that guy that was able to go 60 seconds and just, you know, take it back up for one more rush. 6:11 And you have guys like Rem Pitlick that could do that and just unlimited stamina tank. 6:15 I would hit like 35 seconds, 40 seconds, no matter how many conditioning or how much conditioning I did, I was going straight to the bench. 6:25 But it's, yeah, it's such a coaching point and it's so easy for the coaches to see. 6:31 And the players, they're not in their mind doing a bad thing, right? 6:34 They want to be the hero. 6:35 They want to be the team guy. 6:36 And it's, they just don't realize that it gets out of hand. 6:38 As soon as you start building 60 second shifts back on top of each other, five, six times in a row, and the NODAC players are running 45 second shifts, it's gonna catch up with you pretty quick. 6:47 And you know, you can see that happen. 6:50 And Veegs, you know, Moscow has talked about it. 6:52 It is a process, but you know, it also is getting towards that time where that process needs to become a little more automatic, isn't it Veegs? 7:00 Yeah, I mean, he's definitely talking about how you can have this one perspective where a one goal game team is so close, but you can also think your team has this one goal game illness where they're always constantly doing this to themselves. 7:15 And it's a variety of different things that lead up to this, but it's there and it's not being fixed and they see it and they know for us to be where we want to be at the end of the year, we can't have that. 7:29 And he talked about that one goal thing, didn't he? 7:32 Yep. 7:32 And he's like, you captured some audio this week. 7:34 Let's play what Coach Mosco just said the other day about, hey, we're in one goal game, it's no big deal, right? 7:39 Well, let's take a listen. 7:42 Was asked yesterday on the radio show or stated that seven losses, six are by one goal. 7:48 Well, I learned a long time, you know what one goal losses are? 7:53 They're a disease, you have to cure them. 7:55 A lot of times you'll hear people around hockey or organizations or teams saying, God, we're close, one goal losses. 8:03 It's the opposite, you know, we have to, we're working forward, I think we're turning the corner a lot of areas to rectify one goal losses when we have a three nothing lead and a two nothing lead and two games or two to one, we're gonna score again. 8:21 So it's been, you know, I don't want to say little things, but it's been different things that have. 8:31 It's the little things, you know, I kind of see this, almost like the Vikings Vs, you know, they're close in every game, but they just don't have it to finish it off. 8:41 And that's kind of what he's getting to here. 8:43 It's a mentality. 8:44 It's a mentality. 8:45 You know, I asked him a little short, you know, 22nd question and Bob probably went on for about four more paragraphs of quote there, where he's talking about, you know, this is a tough schedule they've gone through. 8:58 There's not a lot of room to tinker when you play the schedule that Minnesota plays. 9:03 But for him to get where he wants to be in March, he's got to figure out, you know, these five freshman players, he's got to figure out how to integrate them in, you know, Kurt Schenk, he's trying to figure out a way to get him in the lineup. 9:16 You know, we're going to see changes, you know, when they come back from break here, trying to find some chemistry and get some creativity at the center position and maybe get a little more responsibility as well at the center position. 9:29 Jack, you obviously had multiple coaches at the U. 9:34 How was that transition from the Don to the Bob? 9:38 I mean, that's tricky in any situation. 9:46 It really was. 9:46 I mean, there's so many factors to it and like off the ice, on the ice, players having different personalities and how they interact with the coaches. 9:57 I think senior Bob might've given us more leniency as seniors and just kind of as people. 10:04 With them and the coaching staff, I'd walk by their office and I'd just jump in their office and just start shooting the shit with them and just start talking with them for 20 minutes about not hockey. 10:14 With Don and Gennar, I wasn't doing that, obviously because I was younger and didn't have the confidence to do that, but yeah, it's very different and two very different coaching styles. 10:29 The biggest thing and over my years of hockey is the biggest thing I want out of a coach is being able to make those tunes in game. 10:36 You have your TV time out, it's not time to just yell at your guys that we need to work harder, you need to get going. 10:42 Do something, look at your systems, what's not working? 10:45 Do we need to change our forecheck? 10:46 Do we need to change our neutral zone? 10:47 Tweak something, don't just yell at your players. 10:49 So I think there's a big emotional connection that coaches really need to work. 10:54 Now, you know, they say don't yell at your players. 10:56 Obviously, if there's, you know, I've seen the Don get really mad when, but that's when you're really screwing up. 11:03 I mean, that's a lot different than, hey, what we're doing is not working, let's try something different. 11:08 I mean, there's probably two different instances where yes, the players are being stupid and then, or the players aren't doing, or it's not working against the team we're playing. 11:19 What'd you say? 11:19 Yeah, 100%. 11:20 Yeah, 100%, a guy makes a dumb penalty, you get in his ear and let him know. 11:25 But when something's not working, yelling louder isn't gonna change it then. 11:30 You know, telling guys, the skate coach, I'm not going 70% out there, I'm trying to go my hardest, you know. 11:34 So just working on the systems and being able to change stuff in real time. 11:39 And I think Bob did a good job of that when I was there, and I think he continues to do a good job of that. 11:46 I'm always amazed at the patience of some of these coaches, you know. 11:51 I guess a lot of people, you have that pro mentality, they go, oh, this guy, you know, let's cut the kicker, let's bring in a new one. 11:58 You know, the college coaches don't really have that option. 12:01 You know, you have to stick with the players that you have and figure out how to coach them up and figure out how to make your team as good as you can make it. 12:09 Because, you know, someone's not walking in from the classroom and going to fill your first line center spot. 12:15 You're going to have to nurture somebody up from your lineup. 12:18 And I know, you know, I get a little impatient with Sammy Walker sometimes, but, you know, he's an artist and he sees the game differently than a lot of us do. 12:26 You know, he's looking to create offense. 12:29 He's looking to score. 12:30 He's looking to get in transition. 12:32 That's a very different mindset than like a fourth line checking player, you know, who's just sticking to the system, playing by the book, playing exact percentages. 12:43 So it's challenging because you have to figure it out. 12:46 I remember I was talking to Matzko this weekend, you know, a player who has that artistic talent, but also plays the game very intelligently. 12:53 You know, Rem Pitlik, a player who did that, you know, a lot of skill, but also made the right decisions with his mind. 13:04 Well, we got quite a few people asking in chat, you know, where'd you get the hat, Jack? 13:09 I mean, they don't seem to find that hat on sale anywhere. 13:13 Is that something from your playing days? 13:17 No, this is not. 13:18 This is brand new to this summer. 13:21 The Minnesota Gopher Alumni Golf Event. 13:25 Oh. 13:26 Managed to snag one of these bad boys. 13:28 So yeah, limited stock. 13:29 Feel free to hit me up in the DMs. 13:30 It might be up for auction. 13:31 Now that's brilliant right there. 13:38 Best logo ever, ever according to Brent Hoeven. 13:40 I do like that old retro skating goldie. 13:42 Oh, that's kind of nice. 13:45 But we have to be careful here because we get a little upset when we start talking about things that are for sale by the University of Minnesota. 13:55 Yes. 13:56 Yeah. 13:57 We had a little bit back and forth. 13:58 You didn't even realize there were some of these problems, but there are. 14:01 And the thing is, it's not the players' responsibility. 14:04 You're just like, I just want to hear, come to school and play. 14:07 A lot of times it's not people in the hockey programs. 14:10 It is not at all. 14:11 It goes up a little bit higher than that. 14:14 So. 14:14 There's a lot of frustrations. 14:15 I mean, they did do something unique last couple of years. 14:20 You know, like those Wuger jerseys, Veegs, they sold all those, like, you know, they auctioned all of them off. 14:27 And I thought that was brilliant. 14:28 Those were game worn jerseys. 14:32 I think they need to do more of that, but there's obviously a budget for that. 14:37 And Jack, you guys only get so many jerseys. 14:40 I mean, it's not like you get a new jersey every year, were you? 14:43 Nope, you're not wrong about that. 14:45 I think I left college with, I think I have two jerseys from college hanging up back at my parents' house, but it is limited stock, that's for sure. 14:56 But it's like Christmas morning every time you get in the beginning of the season and then Ingres hooks you up with the new goods. 15:02 Okay, what did you think of the 100 year look? 15:05 Did you like the yellow shells? 15:08 I thought you just hit it perfectly, yellow. 15:12 I thought it was too yellow. 15:14 I liked the look, but I thought it was just too yellow. 15:18 I shouldn't have said yellow, I know I used a bad word there. 15:20 But it was more like those gold breezers of maybe the Wuger era VEGs. 15:26 I mean, they did have those back in the day, maybe it wasn't the right color, but I do like the idea of the going with it and they've already used them once this year. 15:34 Yeah, I think that gold is kind of a tricky thing because you want to make it light enough and with the shells, it can just be tricky. 15:40 I think it's well-intentioned. 15:41 I always liked the diagonal Gophers in Minnesota and the Unis. 15:45 I think that's a great look. 15:46 So I just wish they could do a little bit more of that. 15:49 When you see Minnesota go to North Dakota and you see all the things that North Dakota does really well and makes it look easy. 15:57 They bring out Dave Christian for the last skate, last lap, you know, that's pretty cool. 16:03 You know, you look in that crowd and you just see hockey jerseys everywhere because anyone can go get one. 16:09 They can get whatever number and name they want in the shop at the rink. 16:13 You know, that's kind of an NHL style building. 16:16 You just kind of wish somewhat at Minnesota would say, okay, we're building this from the ground up again. 16:22 We're going to take over that shop and make it a business and do it upright. 16:30 We can only hope, Figs. 16:31 We could use more Vintage Goldie in the world. 16:35 That is a great logo. 16:37 It's been around for quite a while, but it's a great logo that they use. 16:41 Yeah, I think the girls team utilizes it more, you know, now than the men's does. 16:46 And the girls just have some, the girls have some jerseys that I wish the men's would incorporate too. 16:52 I wish, you know, it wouldn't be. 16:53 They've had a lot of jerseys too. 16:54 They've had a lot of nice combinations of mixing the gold, the maroon, the white. 17:01 They've had, I can't argue with you there. 17:04 I can't argue with you there. 17:05 They don't have to spend as much as on their stick budget. 17:07 You know, they don't have Vinny Littere's out there going through two dozen sticks a year. 17:12 Do you guys ever think that Gophers should go multi-colored helmets or is that too much like Duluth? 17:19 Okay. 17:21 Back almost 20 years ago now, for one series, they wore dark helmets at St. 17:28 Cloud. 17:29 So they were maroon helmets. 17:30 I remember it would have been the Leopold era and people just ripped them. 17:38 And that was back when they were, you know, selling out a lot of games and there was a little more passion and we can't get into that, that'll be just deadly. 17:49 But they did wear maroon helmets one time and that was the one time. 17:52 Do you remember that, Veegs, at all? 17:53 Is that a little before your day? 17:55 Might be right in my high school days right there, but I think, you know, you get tricky when you start messing with the uniforms of the tradition. 18:05 You have kind of your old timers who are very traditional with everything. 18:09 And then what's most important is like, what do the current players want? 18:12 What are they like? 18:13 I think, you know, if your current players are happy and they maybe play with a little pep in their step, it's probably worth it to explore whatever they're interested in. 18:21 I mean, we've seen that change just with you, Jack, once during your tenure there, the introductions completely changed at Mariucci. 18:31 It went from full lights up, skate on to lights and sounds and lights out and spotlights and everything. 18:39 So they've changed quite a bit. 18:42 They're obviously kind of limited by some of the things at Mariucci. 18:45 I mean, they've got some old lights up there that take three minutes just to come on. 18:50 But they did at least try to make some changes in your era when you were playing. 18:55 Yeah, no, I agree that the one thing I missed, I think we did it only freshman year, was skating out with no helmets on. 19:03 Like the closest you can feel to a badass, to like a professional hockey player, skating around Mariucci with no helmet on. 19:12 And that was the coolest. 19:14 But I think I might have made starting lineup, I don't know, two or three times. 19:19 But like those are some of my favorite memories. 19:24 Yeah, and I've got some great photos because you guys would leave your helmets right on the edge of the board, so they're all lined up there. 19:31 I got some great photos of that. 19:33 But obviously, when Butch died after falling, it's a shame, but it completely makes sense. 19:44 I mean, and as you know, it could be just a little thing. 19:47 You could be skating around, and you'd trip over a stick and hit your head. 19:51 Like you said, you've fallen a billion times on skates. 19:55 But you can imagine hitting your head on that ice without a helmet, and it's like, it's over. 20:02 It really could be. 20:04 So I understand it, but on the other hand, I'm sad that after every time you guys come in, I'm just lining up your helmets, lining up your helmets and coming out without them on. 20:14 I must agree, I kind of like that, so. 20:19 Things change too much. 20:20 Things change too much. 20:22 What can you do? 20:23 What can you do? 20:24 Well, if you guys have any questions for us, I see quite a few questions in the chat. 20:27 Make sure you speak up. 20:30 Oh, Vonder says, I remember the maroon helmet. 20:32 So I'm not the only one who remembers that. 20:35 But first, we need to hear from our sponsor before we start previewing this weekend at Michigan. 20:42 Hey, fellow GPLers, Jerry Peters here from First Class Mortgage. 20:45 Have you refinanced your home in the last 12 months? 20:48 If you haven't, chances are you should. 20:50 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. 20:59 You can also use the equity in your home to finance those home improvement projects. 21:03 Or you can consolidate high interest rate credit cards into one new low monthly payment. 21:08 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291. 21:14 You can email me at Jerry at firstclasscorp.com or you could go to firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 21:23 Mention The GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 21:27 Some restrictions do apply. 21:29 First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322-842-480-200. 21:35 This is not an agreement to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 21:38 First Class Mortgage is an Equal Housing Lender. 21:44 All right, we're going to hit the questions up here, Jack. 21:46 We've got Corey asking, can we ask Jack the best player he ever played against? 21:52 He's guessing Kyle Conner, but who'd you ever, okay, who'd you play against the best player? 21:58 Who's the best player you've ever played with? 22:01 Well, playing against, you know, Kyle Conner definitely up there because I played against him for an actual season, a long period of time. 22:09 When I was in Bannums though, I did play, my Minnetonka Bannum A team played Shattuck, and McKinnon was on that team. 22:17 And I'll never forget, we lost like seven to two, which at the end of the game, we thought that was pretty good for us. 22:25 I managed to score a goal, no luck, backhand five hole. 22:29 Nice. 22:30 But I do remember, and I'll never forget this, I had McKinnon lined up in the neutral zone, and I was a first year banter. 22:36 I was like, I'm going to run this guy over, put my best into him, tried to smoke him, and ran me over like a brick wall. 22:42 And I was six feet tall in first year banter. 22:46 I was way bigger than everybody else. 22:47 And that never happened. 22:49 And that guy's a different breed. 22:50 So I'll never forget that. 22:54 That's kind of hard to compete with there. 22:59 Got to imagine there were a few scouts at that game. 23:02 You know, and you're probably just thinking, you know, backhand five hole. 23:05 Yeah, I'm making a little name for myself in this one. 23:08 Is playing like the guys at Shattuck and the guys that come out of Shattuck though, you know, they're shooting the puck 20 miles an hour faster than I was. 23:16 They're taking slap shots. 23:17 I couldn't even take a slap shot at age of 13, 14 still, but it's there. 23:22 I still can. 23:23 There you go. 23:26 No, I even took my team when I was coaching a little bit. 23:29 We went and played like the Shattuck, like, C-Team, you know, just so our players could get the experience of coming down to that building and seeing everything. 23:38 And you see the banners of all the pros there and just, you know, the hockey factory, the Shattuck. 23:42 It was a cool experience. 23:46 There you go. 23:47 Well, Puckhound's got a question, but I'm actually going to throw it, you know. 23:51 He goes, how was it growing up being Mike's son? 23:54 But I kind of want to throw a twist. 23:56 How was it growing up being Rachel's brother? 23:59 I knew that was going to... 24:02 Because the sisters got quite a few NCAA titles. 24:08 A hundred percent. 24:08 And I get that all the time. 24:12 Every single year, you know, we do Secret Santa for the team. 24:17 And every year without fail, whoever got me, one of the presents would be a flashlight to step out of my sister's shadow. 24:22 I think I got it four years in a row. 24:27 And I expected, I mean, they went to four national championships, won three. 24:34 Was it they went 41 and 0 or 42 and 0? 24:36 I was like, whatever. 24:38 I mean, that era of women's hockey at Minnesota, it'll be, I mean, come on, 41 and 0? 24:47 I remember being, I was at the Frozen Four for that. 24:52 And actually, they were playing North Dakota to get to the Frozen Four right before one of your games. 25:00 And it went to like three overtimes. 25:02 And it was just an amazing, it was an amazing event, amazing arena. 25:05 And I would say, obviously, your sister is a great hockey player, but she was also there at a time where, wow, there's a lot of great players there. 25:14 Oh, my gosh. 25:16 There's so many Olympians, like so many All-Americans. 25:22 Like those girls are unbelievable, unbelievable players. 25:26 Definitely should get a little more light shined on them, you know, the value that they bring over there. 25:32 So, I mean, you're talking about Ritter, too. 25:34 That was one of my dreams. 25:36 I always wanted to play a men's game at Ritter. 25:39 You know, you get 3,000 fans in Mariucci. 25:42 It's a pretty sad sight to see when you're playing, you know, somebody at home. 25:45 So if we could have packed 5,000 in Ritter, that would have been a dream come true. 25:53 I've covered quite a few games there. 25:54 I'd love sitting up. 25:55 The suite level might be the best seat in any arena I've ever been to. 26:00 You're hanging over the benches almost. 26:02 You're on top of everything. 26:04 It's just a great place to watch a game. 26:08 And I've always said Mariucci is a great place to watch a game. 26:11 If Mariucci is full, wow. 26:13 And I've always loved Mariucci just flat out for the sight lines. 26:17 It's a very high bowl. 26:19 You're up and over the glass very quickly, unlike a lot of arenas. 26:23 So just purely watching a game. 26:25 I've always loved the sight lines at Mariucci. 26:27 And we're pretty fortunate with some of the facilities we do have. 26:33 Obviously, things are going to be changing hopefully soon, right, Veegs? 26:37 Yeah, hopefully as soon as we can figure out what the budget's going to look like coming out of the pandemic. 26:42 You know, they've got the paper approval to move ahead whenever, you know, Mark Coyle signs off on it because they are not going to have to fundraise to do the Shrink the Rink. 26:52 They're just going to be able to use university funds. 26:54 So I don't think the timeline is going to be very far on that. 26:57 You know, Bob really likes the smaller rink. 27:00 I almost think it would be interesting to see them play their Big Ten game, you know, assuming they get home ice at Ritter because it's been kind of tricky for them to sell a lot of tickets for that series. 27:12 You know, Wisconsin moved a couple of their games last year across the street into the women's rink. 27:17 So, you know, if they can go to La Bonne, I don't think there's any reason why the Gophers couldn't go over to Ritter if they really want to, other than TV. 27:25 Would that have been your last year when Michigan came to town for that Big Ten playoff, Jack? 27:31 When there was nobody. 27:33 When it was just my mom and dad and sisters in the rink? 27:37 I could hear my, you know, I'd hit somebody, I'd hear my mom screaming. 27:41 Super cool, but not what you want to hear. 27:43 It was such a disaster. 27:47 I was in the press box and I took a full picture of the rink at drop. 27:53 And it has over 200,000 views on Twitter. 27:56 And I had Pat McAuletty coming over me saying, why are you posting this? 28:00 I'm like, there's frustration. 28:04 Yeah, shine light on it. 28:07 And we're trying to, and we've talked about this since then. 28:09 He understands that. 28:10 He's just like, it just makes the school look so bad. 28:13 Well, and the other complicating thing was it kind of shined a light on it for the Big Ten. 28:19 Because at the time, the Big Ten set the ticket prices. 28:24 So even though Minnesota wanted to lower the price for that game, the Big Ten's like, no, no, no. 28:30 You've charged this much for the regular season. 28:32 You can just charge that for the Puff. 28:34 Because all that money, all that revenue gets split up among the league. 28:37 They weren't going to let them kind of dodge that somehow. 28:40 And the Big Ten goes, oh, maybe we do have something here that's going on. 28:47 I just don't think the Big Ten is as engaged with hockey as they need to be. 28:52 And when you look at what the NCHC does and Josh Fenton, and what your old coach, Don LaChia is doing now with the CCHA, it takes that much effort, I think, to keep the league going and healthy. 29:05 That's 100% true. 29:08 All those leagues, hockey is forefront. 29:10 Big Ten, definitely not forefront. 29:12 Hockey is probably the third sport. 29:14 Not probably. 29:15 It is the third sport. 29:16 It might be fourth or fifth. 29:20 I mean, you look at some of the ratings that volleyball and wrestling is getting right now with some of the people they have competing on those, and the Big Ten, I think, is almost paying more attention to those sports than they are men's hockey. 29:32 Oh boy, we get Big Mistake watching, and he's already like, did I hear Big Mistake? 29:36 I was going to say, yeah, I've seen that name a few times. 29:46 And you were there. 29:47 I mean, there is nothing that you could have done. 29:50 It was when Penn State started playing, just before you came on, it was going to happen. 29:58 Yeah, it sucks. 30:00 We have beaten it like a dead horse here. 30:03 And we can't do it anymore. 30:06 Yeah, I was going to say, I don't need to pile on to it. 30:11 I just, there you go, Veegs. 30:13 He's got his pH. 30:20 Oh, boy, Veegs, Veegs, Veegs. 30:24 Veegs taking control of the broadcast right there, folks. 30:27 I don't know how to make it go away, though. 30:28 He just hit it again. 30:29 I'm not going to have my PhD in stream yarding just yet. 30:33 I'm still at the undergraduate level. 30:35 Well, one of the questions here for you, Jack, is from Jared Klein. 30:39 He's been around here forever. 30:41 What's your favorite visiting rink to play at and why? 30:44 I mean, the Gophers heading to Yost this weekend. 30:46 I bet you Yost was a fun rink to go to. 30:49 Very, very fun. 30:50 Well, they call them the Children of Yost, the other student section. 30:54 Going around in warmups, they had whiteboards. 30:57 And every time, I probably shot five pucks and more, so I was more focused on the student section. 31:02 So, you know, they're doing their job, I guess. 31:04 But they would just have ever-changing whiteboards, and you'd go by and they'd have something, saying something about Tyler Sheehy's girlfriend or something about, you know, Tommy Novak's Halloween costume. 31:15 I'm like, how the hell do they know this stuff? 31:17 Like, it was pretty good. 31:20 But my favorite to play in was probably Amsoil. 31:26 Not a lot of success there, but I think that was my second college game was up there. 31:32 And I went, I was in the penalty box, like an hour before, go out there to tape my stick, and their student section was full. 31:39 And I almost crapped my pants right there. 31:42 You go out, music's blaring, they're banging on the glass again. 31:45 Probably hit the net two times because I was shooting pucks like at people on the glass that aren't looking or cute girls, you know, and then they're flipping you off and stuff. 31:53 It warms you so much fun. 31:56 I do recall you scoring a good goal in Amsoil, so maybe that's why it's a good place for you. 31:59 There you go. 32:01 So nothing wrong with that. 32:03 Oh, geez. 32:04 Okay, people, we're not going to answer questions about Big Ten anymore. 32:07 People are dropping on it. 32:08 Well, Minnesota voted against Big Ten. 32:10 Sucks. 32:11 Dead horse. 32:11 But we'll continue on. 32:14 Otherwise, we'll all have to crack some beers here and just relive the old days. 32:20 The thing is, you never played in the WCHA. 32:23 It was like Sheerhorn. 32:24 You had fans. 32:26 You know, you skate with the Gophers, probably coming up to you. 32:30 And you're like, sorry, it wasn't part of it. 32:33 Do you have a favorite skate with the Gophers moment though, Jack? 32:37 Oh, are you saying is this pressure vegs maybe with one of your kids? 32:42 No, I mean, the events with the communities were something I definitely didn't shy away from and enjoyed a lot. 32:52 Playing tags with kids, that's just the best. 32:54 I can't remember who it is. 32:56 I think I have a picture on my Instagram. 32:58 I can't remember who took it. 32:59 You might have taken it, but just like play fighting with the kids and just tucking jerseys over kids' heads and imagining what they're seeing through their eyes, me growing up and just seeing how I viewed Gophers players and professional athletes. 33:14 That's how they viewed us, so it's pretty cool. 33:19 Vig, are you still go to that with your kids? 33:22 Yeah, I have a little bit. 33:24 Brandon McManus really took my son under his arm and one skate and skated around with him for a good 15 minutes. 33:29 So sad to see Brandon in Omaha now, but glad to see that he's having some success there. 33:34 I think that's great for rebuilding the community around Gopher Hockey, because I think when you do that to kids in the communities, I think you're building relationships there that kids have that tie to be a fan and grow up to want to be Gophers. 33:50 We saw Charlie Strobel who just signed, he was one of those kids who was at the Skate with the Gophers events and things like that and wearing jerseys to games. 33:58 He's got a lot of Wisconsin ties in his family, but he wanted to be a Gopher. 34:04 Nothing wrong with that. 34:05 I mean, have some fun. 34:10 It is about the kid things and like you said, Veegs, they need to have a little more special programs for the kids, like student teams, get those little peewee kids in the arena watching games. 34:22 $10 tickets, you've done that with your team, haven't you? 34:26 Yeah, we've done group seats. 34:28 I've always thought it would just be great for them to have like a Bannum tournament going on at Ritter the same weekend as a Gopher Men's Hockey weekend and somehow get those Bannums to get group seats over at Mary G for the night. 34:42 And I think that'd just be a great experience. 34:44 It might be nice for coaches to recruit, you know, have some of the top Bannum teams around the area playing a tournament there that week. 34:51 I think it'd be a lot of fun. 34:54 But it takes people who are interested in know the game and have those ideas. 34:59 And you know, Minnesota is just trying to sell as many tickets to Huntington Bank and the Badger game to see all those fans witness the acts staying in the Twin Cities. 35:09 So that's kind of where their focus is right now. 35:11 Now, Jack, you know, you were very fortunate. 35:15 Your senior year didn't end great, obviously, but it ended on the ice. 35:24 The following year, we have a season cut off. 35:29 Just terrible. 35:30 And the next season is kind of a cluster as well as it's starting so late. 35:34 And it's caused a lot of changes. 35:35 You know, Veegs talked about McManus. 35:39 He used the transfer portal to go in there. 35:42 All these kids are getting an extra year because of COVID. 35:46 So it's really kind of changed the dynamics and the landscape of college hockey. 35:50 I mean, almost every team is a full year older this year because a lot of kids could come back. 35:56 What do you think about all this craziness? 36:00 There's so many pros and cons to it. 36:02 Just cons immediately, yeah, guys not moving on that should be moving on. 36:08 It's cool to see guys get opportunities elsewhere. 36:13 But now you have a complete traffic jam in the recruiting pipeline and those kids that were expecting to come in, not just Minnesota, but other schools are kind of getting screwed over and they're having to go back for another year. 36:24 Juniors like this is going to have impacts for many, many years that we're going to see. 36:29 But on the other side, so cool that McManus can go somewhere and excel at Omaha. 36:36 One of my best buddies, John Scholl, he was playing at Omaha, not getting a lot of ice time, transferred, came back home. 36:42 He's at St. 36:42 Thomas now in a leadership role and now he gets that opportunity. 36:47 So there's so many sides to it. 36:49 It would have been interesting if I was around when that happened. 36:55 Can't probably see myself going anywhere else. 36:59 Probably would have taken the opportunity to get a master's degree or something like that education-wise. 37:04 But it would have been really, really cool to have another year of college hockey because it's the best years of your life, really. 37:10 Have you thought about coaching at all? 37:12 Is that something that interests you? 37:15 Yes and no. 37:19 My favorite time of the year is the fall and the winter just to be outdoors and do the activities I love. 37:25 And I know coaching is definitely, I mean, it could be a part-time job, you know, coaching some sort of youth, but it's tough. 37:33 I mean, hats off to the people that coach youth hockey, you usually have a full-time job and you have to go straight to the rink and you got to go home with your kids and stuff like that. 37:41 So I think the next few years, I'll probably take advantage of that. 37:46 I'm in Minnetonka, so I'm pretty close to the high school. 37:48 The past few summers helped coach the boys' captains practices and I ended up, you know, turning into a real practice, which I'm not sure guys enjoy. 37:58 But I can see myself getting into it for sure. 38:03 And like you said, maybe if it's just doing something like a Paul Martin does, just continue my education and then helping out with the team here. 38:10 And not saying the you, but you know, just like you said, the youth teams and things like that, just kind of dabbling. 38:16 And that's actually exactly what Paul Martin was doing. 38:18 He's just dabbling in it right now. 38:20 Wouldn't you say, Veegs? 38:21 Well, I think he's just learning. 38:23 There's a lot, I think, that goes into coaching that you don't realize until you start doing it and trying it and watching it done. 38:30 Like all the prep work that goes into what five film clips are we going to pick? 38:35 And what message are we sending by picking those five clips? 38:39 You know, who gets managed one way, who gets manages another? 38:44 I mean, I'm sure, Jack, you want to be coached differently than Tyler did, you know, in terms of messaging. 38:50 And you need some experience as a coach to find out what resonates with your players. 38:56 Did you ever notice, like, who took the toughest coaching and who maybe got, you know, some kid gloves at times because they knew? 39:09 Yeah. 39:09 That starts from from squirts and on. 39:11 But yeah, 100 percent. 39:15 And that's I think it's an issue, but it's also not an issue because that's the way it has to be. 39:23 You can't take a first line guy that's super skilled and you have to have them on your first line power play and stuff. 39:28 And if he turns the puck over trying to create a scoring opportunity, because that's what he does and you get scored on, are you going to bench the guy and kill his confidence? 39:37 It's you can't do that. 39:38 Now, if you have a fourth line guy trying to do that, you know, exactly turns it over trying to do something, then then you're going to get screamed at. 39:46 But it stinks, too, because I like in my college career, I think I could have generated more offense and stuff like that. 39:56 But being kind of a defensive minded player and not always having a guaranteed spot every night, you don't want to make the mistake. 40:04 So when you have an opportunity, you might not take it. 40:06 You might just dump it in or you might just, you know, get it on net where you could develop more often. 40:12 So I think it hurts a lot of guys' development for sure, and it benefits the guys that are the top end players. 40:18 But it also allows you to be kind of a niche player in college hockey. 40:22 When it came to the end of the game, we need some defensive forwards out there. 40:27 It came to a penalty kill. 40:30 You were out there and you kind of embraced that role, didn't you? 40:33 100 percent, yeah. 40:35 Freshman year right away, you get an opportunity to jump at something. 40:39 And going in, I knew that was going to be my role, too, so that helped. 40:42 I wasn't a first-line guy getting transitioned to that. 40:45 Like, I knew what I was going to do. 40:47 And I wanted to be in that role. 40:48 That last two minutes of the game, you know, that was my power play to score the game-winning goal. 40:53 I want to block the shot to save the game. 40:56 So, yeah, I mean, some of my favorite moments in college hockey aren't me scoring a goal, it's me eating a puck off the inside of the knee and being in pain, but the fans love it and your teammates love it. 41:08 So, yeah, you and Romanco blocked quite a few at the end of games and during power or penalty kills, I should say. 41:15 I think we had a joke that we should figure out who's the career leader and block shots and go for history because you and Derry might have been in the running there. 41:25 That's possible. 41:27 You say that and I think of Jake Bischoff immediately. 41:30 Like, what a two-way player. 41:32 Guy always had an ice bag on his knees, on his ankles, but offensive threat, but he's always blocking shots. 41:40 And honestly, teams do a lot of that against Minnesota. 41:45 I mean, Minnesota is typically always out blocked. 41:49 Wouldn't you say, Vades? 41:50 I mean, it's a team. 41:52 What teams are trying to do anything to stop Minnesota? 41:54 Well, you kind of look at some things that show effort and how bad you want to be another team. 42:00 And the number of block shots is definitely up there. 42:03 You know, face-offs and block shots. 42:05 That's effort. 42:06 That's grinding. 42:07 That's really getting dirty with it, you know. 42:10 And with Minnesota. 42:11 They just want to bring their best against Minnesota. 42:12 Yeah, exactly. 42:13 Just say it was Minnesota, Jack. 42:15 Target's always on you. 42:16 Doesn't matter who you're playing. 42:19 Target's on you. 42:20 And you're going to get that extra effort. 42:22 You know, block the shot. 42:23 Look what I did. 42:24 I blocked the shot. 42:26 It's a big deal. 42:28 Yeah, 100%. 42:30 It swings momentum pretty quick, too, because those guys are doing that. 42:32 And then the other team's teammates are getting fired up. 42:35 It's frustrating you. 42:37 You know, as a gopher, everything you're shooting is getting blocked. 42:40 It deflates you so fast. 42:43 So yeah, there is always a target on your back, too. 42:46 It doesn't matter if you're 0 and 10 or 10 and 0. 42:49 It's the name. 42:51 Let me see. 42:53 Corey again. 42:55 Jack's top three rivals to play against. 43:00 Top three. 43:01 That's a good one. 43:03 Immediately wish I would have played more in college. 43:06 North Dakota, Duluth right away, too. 43:11 And then it's kind of a toss up because it's not necessarily... 43:16 Going into college, you know who your rivals are going to be, but over college, you build this chemistry of guys you hate to play against and guys you really hate. 43:25 So you'd think it'd be like an automatic Wisconsin or something like that or Michigan, but you know, I just hated the little guys. 43:34 The little red guys. 43:38 That'd be my third biggest rival. 43:41 The little guys who's out there chirping the entire game. 43:46 Oh, I kind of like that answer, actually. 43:51 Because I've seen a lot of, you know, I've done a lot of photo shooting in between benches, and I've heard a lot of those little guys just going and going. 43:59 I mean, I'll never forget Clark from Alaska Anchorage many years ago. 44:06 Just yelling, you know, Wheeler, your sister's a whore. 44:10 I mean, like doing all this kind of stuff, and Wheeler just kind of smiles, but then, you know, or going after Oposso, your girlfriend, you know, things like that. 44:18 I'm like, he was just going all night long. 44:22 And I'm like, it's working until Minnesota, you know, went up by two goals late. 44:28 And then I'm sitting there right next to Kevin Gorg and Kyle Oposso takes his stick. 44:34 There was no glass between those two benches. 44:36 Takes his stick and just starts tapping Clark on the head. 44:40 And Gorg's looking at me like, did that just happen? 44:44 Next year, tall glass on both sides of that photo box. 44:48 But Clark was a little guy. 44:50 And I'm guessing, you know, Kyle Rao was one of those little guys that a lot of other teams hated because he loved to talk out there, loved to chirp. 45:01 There have been quite a few Gophers, quite a few. 45:03 Like you said, a lot of guys on the other teams, those guys. 45:07 Oh, boy, I see Corey says, A'Shaun. 45:12 Is that little Wisconsin A'Shaun I take any stuff about? 45:15 Yeah, there's a couple of them now. 45:16 There is. 45:18 And it runs in the bloodline, maybe like the little new thing that's going on right now in the NHL. 45:24 Jax, I asked Eric this. 45:26 Do you have a favorite Bob moment and a favorite Don moment? 45:32 You're one of those rare players that played for both. 45:36 And by the way, Eric's favorite moment was when Tyler Nanny came out with a mullet imitating. 45:44 Who was he imitating? 45:45 The hammer hammer. 45:48 Yes. 45:48 Imitating hammer. 45:49 He says one of the funniest things he's ever seen. 45:52 He's like, do you really just do that strides and hammer? 45:57 Hammer, get going, morning skate, rip off. 45:59 Wide grip on the stick. 46:02 Old school. 46:03 So what do you got? 46:07 Bob's hard to get one. 46:09 Like Bob is a low, I mean, I don't know if it's low key, but I think it's low key super, super funny guy and just very personable, like one on one or just talking to him. 46:17 But he loves the outdoors so I can shoot the shit with him, you know, all day long. 46:21 So just good conversations. 46:24 Don, it isn't not a funny moment for him, but it's a funny moment for me. 46:29 I think it was sophomore year, freshman year, BigTens are coming around. 46:35 And I've told friends this, but I've never shared this story because it's just too good. 46:40 And this goes back to the fourth liners, like you might be limited on offense, what you want to do. 46:44 But BigTen came around playoffs and he got a blue line, get in here. 46:49 So I think it was me, Norman and Manx. 46:52 And he's like, this weekend, every single time you guys get to the red line, I want to see that puck hit the end wall. 46:58 And I was like, what? 47:00 He's like, even if you have a breakaway, I want to see that thing hit the end wall. 47:04 And like two young softwares, like going into the BigTen, like, all right, there goes the inspiration for our offense, you know, going into it just completely deflated. 47:16 But looking back on it, it's just so funny for him to say that to us. 47:21 You're on a breakaway, throw it to the wall. 47:23 Yeah, end wall. 47:26 Oh, jeez. 47:28 All right, well, they head into Yos this weekend, Veegs, and this is kind of the series we've been waiting for in the BigTen. 47:35 Michigan, yes, picked their finished second in the league to Minnesota, but seven number one draft picks on their team. 47:44 They're playing really well right now. 47:47 But even for them, the speed's going up this weekend. 47:50 Well, we've seen Michigan drop some games here and there. 47:54 I think with talented teams, you're going to have that inconsistency. 47:58 So if you're an opponent who goes up against a team like that and you play a smart game like Minnesota did Friday against North Dakota, I think you're going to put yourself in really good shape. 48:10 You know, it's not a big, heavy team that's going to be difficult to play against. 48:14 It's going to be a fast team that's going to be fun to play against. 48:17 And I think this is going to be just a great matchup for college hockey fans to see all the skill and talent on display. 48:26 Minnesota is probably juggling their lines still a little bit. 48:29 I don't think we've seen this team play at their top capability yet. 48:34 I don't know if it's going to happen this weekend. 48:36 I just don't see enough consistency in their game where I'm expecting Minnesota to come out and sweep. 48:42 If you get back and you watch the availability today, the coach Bob had a fun moment with The Daily Rider who asked how big of a moment would it be if you could sweep Michigan to end the season. 48:54 Bob goes, you haven't been around here very long, have you? 49:01 He's like, I don't even think of the word sweep until we win one on Friday. 49:06 He went through it a little bit with them and had some fun. 49:09 But it's going to be fun for us to watch. 49:13 I think a big key for Minnesota is not to take bad penalties. 49:16 We've seen this team have their penalty killers taking penalties and that really hurts them in their flow right now. 49:24 Well, you've been to Yost, Jack. 49:27 I mean, they've had some good teams when you played them. 49:31 What does Minnesota need to do? 49:32 That's maybe something we're not thinking of here when they head into Yost this weekend. 49:37 Yeah, one thing I think Bob will be preaching is don't turn it into a track meet right away. 49:44 I remember one year there, I think the score was 2-1, like two minutes into the game, and that's not what they want to do going in. 49:51 Obviously, you can't shut down your offense. 49:53 Sammy Walker's got to keep flying up and down the ice and maintaining his speed. 49:57 But as soon as you start trying to race with those guys, obviously the Gophers are a quick, really fast offensive team, but not the way they want to play. 50:05 And like you said, they're probably changing up lines and trying to figure out the right matchups. 50:10 But don't turn it into a track meet. 50:12 Face-offs are going to be so huge. 50:13 Time and possession. 50:14 Getting that puck off the draws and keeping it on your stick and out of their hands is, I think, possession is probably going to be the biggest key of the weekend. 50:21 And Veegs, we've been talking about that for a long time. 50:25 Key face-off wins is just so critical. 50:31 Yeah, I was looking back at the stats a little bit. 50:33 We went pretty quick through our North Dakota recap. 50:36 Well, you could talk about more. 50:37 Well, Conor Ford, he went 19-4 on Saturday. 50:41 I mean, you watched him get up there with Ben Myers in elite key face-offs. 50:47 And on Friday, I thought it was pretty 50-50 between them. 50:50 But by the time they got to Saturday, he was just locked in. 50:53 I don't know if he picked up something, watching a film from draws the night before, but he was just winning a bunch of them. 51:00 Minnesota is hardly ever winning one clean. 51:03 And then the wingers are coming in, cleaning up the mess. 51:05 There are a couple times where I thought they baited them a little bit. 51:08 Sometimes as a center, you kind of lift the stick and you push the puck a little forward. 51:13 And when your wingers comes and takes it to the net and off its own, they were doing stuff like that. 51:18 You know, I thought that was really, you know, a moment for that series that really kind of changed the momentum. 51:25 And Minnesota struggled a little bit in face-off circles. 51:27 So I think that will be a big key. 51:29 You know, Maddie Bennears for Michigan, you know, number two overall pick. 51:34 Pretty good center. 51:36 So Michigan might have the advantage on the dot and down the middle this weekend. 51:39 As Minnesota tries to find, you know, what's the recipe for them. 51:43 I'm not sure we're going to see Jackson Nelson play center this weekend. 51:46 You know, we'll see what Bob throws together. 51:49 You know, Sammy moving back. 51:51 You know, Ben's obviously been the most solid center for Minnesota lately. 51:56 Perbix has done a fine job there. 51:57 You know, Hughlin's doing a nice job. 52:00 But that's going to be a big key this weekend. 52:04 And the key is when you're winning faceoffs, two bigs. 52:09 Offensive zone faceoffs when you've got the power play. 52:12 Defensive zone faceoffs when you're killing penalties. 52:16 Critical times of the game. 52:18 You know, things could change. 52:20 You know, you even saw, you know, a couple was about a month ago. 52:24 You got really good stats. 52:27 They just showed you, OK, you know, they might have been a little 50 50 on faceoffs. 52:31 But when it came to these critical faceoffs, they were they got their butts kicked. 52:35 Yeah, all the key ones. 52:37 Yeah, that weekend, they were getting killed. 52:39 And that's going to be so key for this weekend. 52:41 That's why I think you see the Meyers Power Play unit start off almost every power play. 52:46 That's why you see Nelson Meyers start off almost every penalty kill, because he's kind of the one guy right now they can count on. 52:53 You know, you kind of hope that Hugh Lynn fills that number two role. 52:57 And then once he does, he's going to see more specialty in time. 53:01 You know, I think he's getting ready to get a lot of ice time the second half of the year, because Bob really likes him. 53:07 There you go. 53:09 There you go. 53:11 What do you think, Jack? 53:12 I mean, how close are you still following this team now that you've been away for a few years? 53:19 Off and on, it's tough because Saturdays and Friday evenings are usually when I'm in a deer stand. 53:25 Obviously, it's changed now with Sunset being earlier, but a decent amount. 53:32 And Big's is spot on with the face-offs. 53:35 Watching last weekend, lost a lot of key face-offs, like you said, but even if you lose the face-off, the positioning on the draw and the wingers or the D on the wall, getting beat off the wall to the puck, it doesn't matter if you lose the face-off, but be in the right position to tie up your guy off the draw. 53:53 You can't have guys walking off the wall every time and getting a grade A. 53:57 So I think they need to do a much better job of responsibilities off face-off, and that completely goes on the center. 54:03 You know, a huge part is being able to win draws, but when you line up, you got to turn to your defenseman, turn to your wing, hey, you got this guy, you got that guy, hey, maybe this is the play they're running. 54:12 Everybody on your team needs to know the plays that you're running, so everybody's on the same page. 54:16 So huge emphasis on, you know, winning the battle after the draw and just communication. 54:22 And funny, you know, he mentions that, Veegs, is that that's one of the things Moscow's been talking about is the basics. 54:28 You're not going to win every face-off, but if you know the basics, Veegs, like what are my responsibilities, if you're ignoring those basics, it hurts you. 54:37 Yeah, and they've had to teach those lessons over and over again a little bit the first half of the year. 54:42 Body position around the net is so key. 54:45 And, you know, the guy who's impressed me the most on this team so far has been Hublin. 54:49 You know, he does a great job of lifting sticks, showing his numbers to the goalie, finding players attacking the net, not so much being caught puck watching. 54:58 You know, I think a lot of the defensemen, that's been a struggle for them the first half of the year because they want to get going. 55:06 They want to have more points. 55:07 They want to show off their skill. 55:09 They want to be successful. 55:10 They want to grow from last year. 55:12 It starts with the basics though. 55:14 You know, Matt Stoddicker said last year, you know, part of my job is being a dick around the net. 55:20 Sometimes you just got to embrace that and be like, that's where it all starts, is build out from there. 55:25 And I think that's going to be key for them this weekend. 55:28 And that actually kind of comes back to roles. 55:30 You say, Stoddicker, being the dick around the net. 55:32 Jack, you knew exactly what's your role. 55:34 So it's like guys kind of have to figure out their role and embrace it and just run with it, don't they? 55:41 100% watching the six on five at the end of the game on Saturday. 55:46 I don't know who was he had possession at the point. 55:50 And whoever's in front of the net for one sequence, there's nobody in front of the net. 55:54 Like going out there, you know it's your job. 55:57 If you're that guy, you know it's your job in front of the net. 56:00 So if I'm Bob on that guy and 30 seconds later, that guy's in front of the net and he's just screening the goalie with his stick. 56:09 And I hate to preach that because every single coach I've ever had has preached that. 56:14 And as a player, I hated it because I tried my best to take eyes away. 56:18 I wasn't shying away and waving at it, but it's so basic. 56:21 Maybe I'll go coach squirts and that's the only thing I'll focus on. 56:26 Get your ass in front of the goalie. 56:28 Stop using your stick. 56:29 You're not the guy who's scoring the goal. 56:30 You might get the rebound, but do your job and take the eyes away. 56:33 And maybe you will score the goal. 56:34 Like you said, maybe you'll get the rebound, mate. 56:37 The goalie is not going to see it, but he makes a save, but can't see enough to control it. 56:41 Somebody else comes in and gets some garbage. 56:43 I mean, a lot of things can happen. 56:45 A lot of times you have guys, sometimes I think when they're struggling to find offense, they're trying to find soft ice, you know, somewhere where they're open. 56:54 You know, sometimes the better way to do it is go like, you know what, I'm going to go initiate body contact with someone so I know, at least know, I'm on the right side of this player and have somewhere to go when the puck comes, rather than just hoping, just hoping it comes to me. 57:11 I hope it falls to me and I'm wide open and I can hammer it home. 57:14 Sometimes you got to go, you know what, I'm going to initiate contact and I'm going to create space for myself somehow. 57:20 And it's just a little bit of a transition because everything gets tighter in college hockey. 57:24 You know, the systems are better, the players are bigger, they're stronger. 57:28 You've got to find ways to create offense and that could be a recipe for them going forward here. 57:34 Prediction for me, split. 57:37 I think the Gophers are going to get beat on Friday. 57:38 They're going to have to take their medicine and they're going to come out Saturday and win going into break. 57:46 You've been pretty split heavy this last month here, Veegs. 57:51 Well, it's just kind of the team that we're seeing. 57:52 You know, I expected a little bit something more at the start of the year. 57:56 You know, we haven't seen it. 57:57 It's been slow. 57:58 I think there's just a lot of question marks right now with the Gophers trying to figure out their lines. 58:03 You know, they haven't been super healthy this year. 58:06 So I think that's impacted their ability to practice hard and gain some consistency. 58:12 So that's just what we're going to get. 58:14 This is a team that's building for March, though. 58:16 You know, they're getting there. 58:18 We hope so. 58:19 It's a tough schedule. 58:20 I think they're number two in strength of schedule right now in college hockey. 58:24 Yeah, but they're close to around 500. 58:25 So let's get it going. 58:26 So what do you think, Jack? 58:28 How do you think the boys will do this weekend at Yost? 58:30 I'm going to be very detailed on this. 58:33 I think you're going into another very tough environment to play in. 58:38 You got a lot of young guys. 58:39 I think Michigan comes out firing and gets the jump right away. 58:43 Gophers are going to go down one nothing to start the game, but they're going to win Friday. 58:46 And then Bob's going to have them prepped for Saturday. 58:49 They're going to get the sweep going into break. 58:51 Okay, there it is. 58:53 One of the games is going to go to overtime though. 58:57 You see, I was thinking sweep two weeks. 58:59 I'm going to be misdepositive this week because I think the environment last weekend might be prepping them pretty well for this weekend. 59:09 100%. 59:10 And you never know, that Saturday night might be actually empty with all those people wanting to go watch Michigan play in the Big Ten Football Championship. 59:19 Oh, you're looking at those betting lines. 59:23 You've got everything. 59:24 Wait, no, that Veegs is the big bettor. 59:26 He's always checking the offshore. 59:30 There could be some money to be made this weekend because I feel like Minnesota will be pretty significant underdogs with the line. 59:36 They will be. 59:37 I think they'll be like plus 160 or something like that. 59:40 So, you know, if you're believing in them this weekend, I think we'll see some overs too. 59:45 I think we'll see some goal totals over six this weekend. 59:48 So it's a good old fashioned hockey. 59:51 Let's go. 59:53 Let's go. 59:54 Well, Jack, thanks for coming on with us. 59:55 We appreciate it. 59:56 I appreciate it. 59:57 Had a lot of fun. 59:58 It was good catching up and just good talking detailed hockey. 1:00:02 I haven't done that in a while. 1:00:03 Well, if you could stay for a little bit over time, we'll get away from the hockey and talk some other stuff. 1:00:08 Oh, he's already pushing the beer of the week. 1:00:11 Geez. 1:00:12 Well, I've been getting some sponsorship of this. 1:00:15 Last week, we had Lupelin contributing a four pack. 1:00:18 This week, we've got 1010 Washington Wine Spirits and Falling Knife contributing something. 1:00:23 So look forward to that. 1:00:24 No tea. 1:00:27 Well, like I said, thank you, Jack, for coming on. 1:00:29 We really appreciate it. 1:00:30 And that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 1:00:35 This is kind of our half season break for now. 1:00:39 You know, we'll not be back until around January. 1:00:43 January 5th, I do believe it is. 1:00:44 So it'll be a while, but we'll be back in January 5th. 1:00:48 You know, for those of you watching live, stay tuned for a little bit of overtime. 1:00:52 But for the rest of you, we'll catch you in January.