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This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com.
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This podcast is sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage.
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Our expertise, your piece of mind.
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Visit us at firstclassmortgage.com.
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Now, let's start the show with your hosts, Jupiter and Vegoe.
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Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 204.
0:47
Well, Veegs, how you doing?
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We're back from break.
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I'm surviving.
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My family went through a very difficult December as COVID hit our household, and made its way through all mild symptoms for everybody.
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One child in my family never tested positive, but the Boogeyman is out there.
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We missed hockey for a month.
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We missed school for a month, and I got a lot of distance learning experience that I hope I'm passed.
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That you didn't want to do again.
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Didn't want to do again, and it just seems like it's affecting the college hockey world right now, and it's frustrating.
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I got my Sling TV subscription already for the World Junior, my favorite tournament of the year.
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Oops.
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And no refunds, I guess, in that monthly pass.
1:39
So, you know, I'm surviving.
1:42
Well, we'll get to that.
1:43
But before this break had, we did a little preview of the big series at Michigan.
1:51
Here we go.
1:51
Split Michigan, a solid 5-1 win.
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Boy, do they look good Friday night.
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And then they took a big dump Saturday night, Vegas, 6-2 loss, complete opposite.
2:04
Jekyll and Hyde team keeps hitting this team.
2:09
They could play 40 minutes.
2:10
They play 50 minutes a weekend.
2:14
And it's just not going to be good enough.
2:16
And that kind of reared its head again against Michigan.
2:20
Yeah, I think it was a case of Minnesota played really well in the first game and Michigan didn't play very well.
2:27
I thought Minnesota had rush chance after rush chance.
2:31
You know, that's Sammy Walker's game.
2:33
You know, when the game gets up and down and there aren't players in layers, that's how Minnesota wants to play hockey.
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And they just totally took advantage of it.
2:42
I thought that was one of their best games of the year.
2:45
I was like, Oh, my gosh, maybe this team has flipped a switch.
2:48
Like going into the series, we were just like, you know, sometimes you just need your high end players to play another high end team to raise their game.
2:56
After that, I've seen them dip a little bit.
2:58
But then on Saturday, all of a sudden, whoa, Michigan's not giving up odd ran rush chances.
3:04
Oh, there's layers of the defense to go through.
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Oh, we're gonna have to kill some penalties.
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Oh, we're losing draws.
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The other teams got more intensity.
3:13
And we didn't get good goaltending either.
3:15
So it was just like one of those situations where it was just like, it was just not a good hockey game from Minnesota when you knew Michigan was gonna raise their level.
3:26
And you know, I see in the YouTube stream chat, I see Corey disappointing first half of the season.
3:34
No way to spin it.
3:34
And you know what?
3:35
He's not wrong.
3:36
This is basically a 500 team right now.
3:41
Yeah, I think we were all expecting, at least on this show, Minnesota to be in contention for number one seed, to be a leader in the Big Ten Conference standings and really separate themselves.
3:54
And they had chances to do that in the first half.
3:58
You know, I thought they played pretty well against St.
4:01
Cloud.
4:01
I thought they played pretty well against Minnesota Duluth.
4:04
I thought they took it to North Dakota in the first game, and then just like the Michigan game, gave it away the second night by two.
4:10
Very similar series.
4:11
Very similar.
4:12
That way.
4:13
Yeah.
4:13
And so when you do that, it's tough to get sweeps.
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It's tough to play consistent.
4:19
It's tough to get momentum.
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And now we've had this long break, and we'll see what happens.
4:25
But this team is almost like they're trying to skip to the end.
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And when they win like they have on those Friday games, they don't bring the same game plan to Saturday to match the rising intensity of their opponent.
4:39
You're going to lose games.
4:42
You can't skip to the end, Veegs.
4:44
You can't.
4:45
Now it's a pairwise, because now what?
4:47
Pairwise starts to mean something now.
4:49
We've all kind of got past that first half of the season, and they're sitting around number 11 right now, which is not where we thought they would be or where they should be considering who they brought back this season.
5:02
Well, it is where they should be, I guess, because that's what they've done.
5:07
Well, they shouldn't be, though.
5:09
They should be, well, it's kind of what Cori is saying, it was disappointing, they should be playing better, they should be playing more consistently.
5:15
It should be more than just a couple of games above 500, which is basically, you know, those first two games of the season against Mercyhurst when it all matches out.
5:24
So, you know, at the beginning of the season, remember what you were saying, if we're worried about pairwise at the end of the year, it's not the season they anticipated.
5:33
Right, and I think one of the surprising things from the first half are how well Nies and Hugland have played.
5:39
I think Nies has been a real bright spot for this team.
5:42
If you're looking at players who are consistent, Nies has been pretty darn consistent night to night the entire season.
5:50
It's hard to look at him and look at his nights and say, he wasn't there tonight, he wasn't engaged.
5:56
You can say that about a lot of players in the lineup, but not Matthew Nies.
6:01
Yeah, and that might be a reason why he might be busy in February.
6:06
Well, we'll get to that a little bit later.
6:09
You mentioned Hugh Glynn.
6:12
Was it today you were commenting on, maybe Moscow was saying that he's had a good first half, done a lot of good things, he just needs to show up on the score sheet a bit more.
6:22
Yeah, and he thinks that'll come.
6:24
I think Hugh Glynn is one of those player who's totally responsible.
6:28
He's kind of got that Miko Koivu kind of mindset.
6:31
He's like, I'm not going to cheat the defensive zone, I'm not going to cheat in the offensive zone, I'm just going to be difficult to play against.
6:38
I think that's where Hugh Glynn is at right now.
6:40
I think we'll see him be more productive point-wise in college at some point when he figures out when he can take chances in the offensive zone and when he can get involved in the rush a little bit more.
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But he's just a conservative player who grew up North playing honest hockey, and that's what he brings.
7:00
Well, teams went on the break.
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They're only a couple of points back from Michigan, and then there's a couple of teams breathing right down their neck right now.
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We'll get into a little bit more of that about what could happen if COVID starts to rear its ugly head, which it's going to.
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But it came into December, and it's one of our favorite times of the year, it's the World Juniors.
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And as we all know, after just a couple of games, they're like, yeah, we're not going to do this.
7:29
And it sounds like they didn't have the greatest protocols there.
7:36
I mean, was it talking about they had, there was a wedding at the US hotel with a wedding party.
7:40
I mean, it's just something wasn't quite right going on up there.
7:45
They would basically plan the tournament, I believe, that the vaccine for all the players would solve any issues of people getting COVID and transmit it to other players.
7:59
And what we are finding out, that the vaccine keeps you out of the hospital for the most part, and keeps you pretty healthy.
8:06
But Omicron is different.
8:09
They are still going to spread.
8:11
Yeah, Omicron is less severe.
8:15
Maybe not as much for the unvaxxed, but overall it is less severe, but it's a lot more contagious.
8:22
And the vaccines don't work as well on preventing it as it would for some of those other ones.
8:30
But the vaccine does help give you a much less severe case.
8:37
Yep, I equate it to having car insurance when you're driving in a blizzard or wearing a bulletproof vest when you're in a shooting zone.
8:44
So it's better to have that than not.
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But when they change the testing protocol to just trying to test everybody before getting to the tournament, to starting to test players every day, they were going to find cases.
8:57
And the way that they decide to handle the tournament after trying to put it together and invest all the money and selling tickets, it's hard to know how smart that was.
9:08
And you talk to the players like Brock Faber, who got sent home and talked to the media today, he's disappointed.
9:17
He grew up playing in the development program and maturing his game there, and he knows a lot of people at USA Hockey, and he was really looking forward to this tournament where he was going to shine.
9:28
He's a player who's probably one of the best defenders at his age, and he was going to be leaned on pretty heavily for Team USA.
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I think Sanderson for North Dakota's maybe a little bit more of an offensive guy.
9:40
I think Faber was going to get the tough matchups from Nate Lehman out there, and you know, he doesn't get that chance.
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Man, we'll never know.
9:51
There's always a chance that they're talking about playing the championship the summer.
9:56
It's such a key event for draft analysis and history.
10:01
It would be interesting to see if they could pull it off.
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Who knows what's going to happen with this pandemic?
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Who knows if the federations could pull it off?
10:11
I'd still watch.
10:12
Well, yeah, we'd watch.
10:14
Ideally, you know, it would interfere.
10:17
It would not interfere with other leagues now.
10:18
You're not, I mean, you're not worried about, you know, losing players, you know, early, late December, early January.
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You could play those tournaments and whatnot for college hockey.
10:28
So it wouldn't, for college hockey, they would love it.
10:31
Unless a kid were to get, you know, like an ACL or something like that.
10:34
I think NHL teams would love it too.
10:37
Because NHL teams want their top players to get this kind of experience.
10:41
It's pretty cool for their top prospects to be counted on in a tournament, best on best.
10:46
It's a great experience for those players.
10:48
You know, some of the ones who are currently on NHL rosters to be able to play in the tournament, if they did during the summer.
10:53
Heck, even during the winter classic, I think one of the people on the panel suggested to Gary Bettman, he's like, can we do hockey in the summer olympics?
11:03
And Gary's like, no, the winter olympics needs the ticket revenue from hockey.
11:07
But it would be nice.
11:08
You do have the NHL, that's their break.
11:11
It really is.
11:11
You saw what happened when they changed the season because of COVID a couple of years ago and they hardly had a break.
11:19
But you know, the only fear you have is like, some of these young kids, they're ending up their season at the most, early April, so maybe a May tournament.
11:31
It's still close enough to their season, so they're not like not playing hockey for two or three months.
11:36
Yeah.
11:37
Something like that.
11:38
I don't know.
11:39
I would love to see it happen at the same time as the World Championships.
11:43
What that is?
11:44
That's a May tournament too.
11:46
Yeah, that's right.
11:46
Yeah, that's because every once in a while, you get the NHLers were going to jump on a team after they've been eliminated from the NHL playoffs.
11:53
I'm telling you, IHF, you can just give me some free streaming access to that tournament and you can use my idea.
12:00
Just have it be like a JV game ahead of the varsity.
12:04
And by JV, I mean the World Championship at JV and the Junior Championship at the varsity.
12:11
Well, it was a huge bummer.
12:13
I mean, I haven't had the NHL network last couple years, so I've missed it.
12:16
But you know, you picked up a couple of streams here and there.
12:19
And for me, those couple weeks are kind of similar to regional weekend for me.
12:26
Just solid hockey, great hockey, really exciting.
12:29
Fans are into it.
12:31
It's just a lot of fun.
12:34
And COVID is unpredictable right now, and they may need to change the policies because, you know, like I said, you got Kirk Cousins who just had COVID.
12:43
He didn't get vaccinated.
12:44
All of a sudden, he's back already.
12:47
I mean, it's looking like Omicron is much less severe, at least as we're seeing things come around.
12:54
You think they might need to change some of these protocols?
12:56
I mean, we've already got a ton of cancellations.
12:58
We almost had Ohio State and Wisconsin cancel this week, and I ended up shifting it just one day.
13:04
But it's going to start affecting a lot of things now.
13:08
Well, I think if they start testing more often, they're going to start to discover that there's a lot of smoke in the room, because right now the players aren't being tested very frequently because they're vaccinated and they're not showing symptoms when they do get it.
13:24
And then when they have to test, like they were doing at the World Juniors every day, all of a sudden you start seeing these cases that you didn't think were happening.
13:33
And so I think that's kind of the sticky wicket for people to evaluate ethically and figure out.
13:39
It's a big question.
13:40
I'm not a doctor by any means.
13:43
I'm not an epidemiologist.
13:44
I'm not a public health person.
13:46
But I just know that if they start testing daily, like they did last year, we're going to see a lot of cases.
13:54
And if they don't, maybe they're going to be able to get through the season.
14:00
But maybe we're going to just prolong what's going on out there.
14:04
Tim, Tim's saying, are the Gophers boosted?
14:06
I'm sure everybody's vaccinated.
14:07
We don't know about boosting.
14:08
I don't know if they'll release that kind of information.
14:11
Yeah, I know that the university changed their policy today, that they're going to start tracking who at the institution is boosted as well.
14:20
And it's going to be, I know, a requirement for staff to be boosted if you're going to be on campus.
14:25
So I got to think that they're going to start applying that to students.
14:28
I mean, if I was a really smart hockey coach, I might have had all my players get boosted over winter break.
14:35
You know, if you're just, if you're trying to take care of any possible thing that you can take care of, you know, rest is a weapon, you know, doing your best.
14:44
Getting boosted over break would probably be the best thing for you to get to the second half.
14:48
Because I know what Bob said is when this pandemic was first happening, you know, they got hit with it during the summer.
14:55
You know, a lot of players got COVID during the summer and were recovered long before the season.
15:01
Yep, long before the vaccine.
15:03
So they weren't too worried back then.
15:05
But now, you know, we just have this concern right now.
15:08
I mean, we've got UMD's got COVID in their program.
15:12
Wisconsin's got COVID in their program.
15:14
Good friend of the podcast, Todd Maleski.
15:16
He's got COVID right now.
15:18
Hopefully, he's getting his household.
15:20
Yeah, hopefully, he's doing okay.
15:21
So it's out there.
15:24
And I think the Big Ten is still trying to decide if they're going to go by point percentage, which would have helped Bob Mosco win a bonus last year in the Gophers and the Banner.
15:34
But they went with wins.
15:36
Well, I mean, Maleski actually said if they do have to cancel games and go by that, they are going to go by point percentage.
15:43
Not official yet.
15:45
Well, I trust Todd.
15:47
I trust.
15:48
That's just it.
15:49
He's Todd's the man.
15:50
There's a reason why we have him on all the time.
15:52
I think Todd is basically like when the Big Ten needs to announce something, they go through Todd.
15:56
When he ends sheets, he needs to release something, they go through Schlossman.
16:00
Yeah.
16:01
That's the way it should be.
16:02
I'm fine.
16:03
I'm just fine with that.
16:06
I wanted to get to the exhibitions here real quick there, but another controversy happened recently.
16:15
Michigan canceled the game with Western Michigan.
16:17
Bunch of scaredy cats.
16:20
But they played their game against Michigan Tech.
16:24
They still had a full squad.
16:31
What were they thinking?
16:33
No matter what, they're making themselves look really bad by not facing Michigan, Western Michigan, I should say.
16:39
They are making the Big Ten look bad.
16:41
True.
16:42
Like, it's just a bad look for everybody.
16:46
And when they put that roster out for the Michigan Tech game where it's a full line up, no one's really playing.
16:51
And Schlossman ripped them?
16:54
Schlossman wasn't the only one who ripped them.
16:56
I know, but Schlossman's usually pretty conservative, but you could tell Brad was pretty upset about this.
17:02
As you know, as a lot of us were, we're like, what are you doing?
17:05
Right.
17:06
It just sends a really strange message to the rest of the hockey community, which is pretty tight-knit.
17:15
It's not like some of these sports where there's just hundreds and hundreds of coaches and all this stuff.
17:21
Hockey is pretty tight-knit.
17:23
They're all going to go to their retreat here in Naples at the end of the year.
17:28
You wonder who's going to be sitting at the table with Mel Pearson.
17:31
It's going to be Bob just sitting there and looking the other way.
17:36
What's going to be going on there?
17:37
Because I don't think Brad Berry is going to-
17:39
You think that Don might get mad?
17:42
You know, it would be interesting to get Don's take on this.
17:46
A lot of people are saying maybe we need to change the pairwise to not be in straight math anymore.
17:53
Because if you can just cancel a game for whatever reason you want, because maybe you're scared to play someone, maybe the committee should have free rein to make an adjustment.
18:05
Well, there was a little bit of justice.
18:07
Michigan Tech did tie them.
18:10
A little justice, you know, we were everyone was everyone's everyone's root for tech.
18:15
You know, I'm not big on this.
18:16
Oh, I love tech and go traveling all this other stuff.
18:19
Houghton, where they're the everyone's favorite team.
18:22
I'm like, that's not me.
18:24
But it was that Wednesday night.
18:26
I'm like, go tech.
18:29
And I was listening to the game and it was it was.
18:34
They couldn't quite pull it off.
18:35
They got a penalty shot in overtime and couldn't pull off.
18:38
It would have been nice.
18:39
Yeah, only 55% of them will win.
18:41
But now it's 50 right down the middle.
18:45
It's bad for hockey.
18:46
It's bad for the Big Ten.
18:47
I hope, you know, you're not going to hear much from coaches.
18:51
I don't know.
18:51
Moscow is not going to throw mail under the bus.
18:54
But maybe that's what needs to happen.
18:57
But like you said, they'll wait until their little meetings on Florida.
19:00
And then they'll all throw them under the bus, not in public.
19:05
You'd hope so.
19:07
But, you know, I think college coaches are upset.
19:10
College Hockey News had an article where they talked to Cordell's coach Schaeffer.
19:14
And he was saying how it's just, it's not a good look and it's not fair.
19:19
And no one is really getting Mel to talk about it other than saying that he was told they couldn't play.
19:26
And I think for a lot of people, that's not a good enough answer.
19:30
And here's the thing, though.
19:33
They had enough players.
19:34
It's not like they were extremely short.
19:36
They had enough players.
19:37
The roster showed they had enough players to play.
19:42
To cancel that late should be a forfeit.
19:45
Well, it wasn't late.
19:48
They canceled it ahead of time.
19:50
Well, yeah, I mean, but I can understand, like, if they play the game against Michigan Tech and their goalie gets hurt, and maybe they only have one goalie who hasn't played all year, the guy for the next game.
20:00
Or, you know, they have four defensemen.
20:02
You know, I can totally understand a situation like that.
20:05
But when you have a full lineup headed into the Michigan Tech game and you make the decision you can't play the next night ahead of time, it's just baffling.
20:14
And it's kind of inexcusable to me.
20:18
Yeah, I don't believe the answer I'm being given.
20:21
Oh, no, I don't think anybody does.
20:24
I think Mel is just kind of saying, well, our medical staff says they shouldn't have played.
20:28
It's kind of his little out.
20:31
Has he ever been told that before?
20:33
Has he ever gone to them before?
20:36
You know, it's just a weird, weird situation.
20:38
It's a capital B and a capital S.
20:40
There's a lot of teams who play shorthanded around the World Junior time.
20:44
If you have a roster like Michigan has, you prepare for that.
20:47
That's why they were able to feel the full roster for that game against Michigan Tech.
20:51
They have enough players to account for players going to the World Juniors.
20:55
I hope he has enough players to accommodate if three of them get picked for the Olympics.
21:00
Or more.
21:01
Or more because your power is already going to Canada.
21:04
I'm pretty sure Johnson's going.
21:07
You'd have to think Matt Benyars is going.
21:11
It really actually makes the Big Ten really interesting.
21:14
We're actually going to get into that a bit.
21:15
I just wanted to quickly cover that the Gophers did have a couple exhibition wins earlier this week, Sunday and Monday, and played St.
21:24
Thomas at Doug Woog Arena in St.
21:27
Paul there.
21:28
Crowded house.
21:30
Got down 11 seconds into the game and the party was on right then, Bigs.
21:41
I didn't go.
21:42
I wasn't really, you know, I wasn't feeling great.
21:44
I'm like, I don't really want to go to a big crowded place where the mass and whatever.
21:50
And, you know, they did come out on top.
21:52
They kind of put things together in the end and beat them.
21:57
Followed by Monday night, they played the US national team, which I did show up for that.
22:04
Not many fans did.
22:06
They should have because that's an excellent team.
22:08
Boy, they've got some great team speed and some puck handlers on it.
22:12
It was fun to watch.
22:12
They just kind of fell apart the second half of the game where, you know, Minnesota just kind of shut them down.
22:19
And obviously, the Ben Meyers show was on.
22:22
He was all over the place causing trouble for that USA team.
22:26
Obviously, Ben Meyers is not a big guy and a lot of those US guys are not big guys.
22:30
But he's mature.
22:32
He's got the strength on the skates.
22:34
And he really kind of took advantage of the youth of Team USA Monday night beings.
22:41
Ben's a big player.
22:42
Like he plays big.
22:43
Yeah, yeah, he plays big.
22:44
He's not tall, but he's thick and he's got that good base to himself.
22:49
Where when you put him in a game like that, it's going to be hard to take the puck back from him.
22:54
And he's going to have his way when he goes to the corner with these U18 guys getting the puck back for himself.
23:00
And that's just the kind of game where he's going to shine.
23:03
He's an all compete player for the Gophers.
23:06
And it's good to see him get going, enjoy him while you can.
23:11
There's going to be a lot of suitors for him at the end of the season.
23:14
He plays a kind of a pro game, a possession game.
23:17
And he's a player they're going to have to lean on big in the second half.
23:23
If he's there.
23:26
We'll get to more of that later.
23:27
Steve's asking, what do I think of the 2000 or so in attendance at versus Team USA?
23:32
I think it's a shame because anytime this team plays Team USA, it's a fun game, up and down game.
23:40
I don't know what the fans are thinking.
23:46
It's like, for me, it was always like, you know, the old college hockey showcase when Michigan would come into town and it was a holiday.
23:55
But you know what, the people were still there because they wanted to see those games.
23:59
I mean, a couple of times in the 90s, we had like a couple of Russian teams come in and we did some exhibition against some Europe teams.
24:06
That was fun hockey because it was just flying up and down the ice.
24:11
So it's a little baffling to me that it was so short for this U18 team, Vs, they've done very well against other NCAA competition.
24:23
And it was a fun game.
24:26
Yeah, I always like the U18 game because you're seeing a lot of first round picks.
24:32
You know, the development programs done a very good job getting players ready for the draft.
24:37
And this year again, there's going to be a couple of them that are going to be drafted pretty highly and they just seem to keep doing a better job.
24:44
There's a bigger pool for USA Hockey to choose from for this program right now.
24:48
And it's really a hummer.
24:50
You know, I didn't get there because my kids were going back to school for the first time since November 30th.
24:55
So we wanted to get that, you know, that good night's sleep before on a school night.
25:01
So it was a little tricky for us.
25:02
But, you know, I look forward to that.
25:04
And it looks like the Gophers are going to have some good players coming.
25:07
You know, Stuggerood looks really good for the...
25:10
Popped in a goal.
25:11
Yeah.
25:11
Yeah.
25:11
He's going to be a good player.
25:13
He's really just gone up and up and up for them.
25:16
You know, he looked good at the tournament with the team over in Europe this fall.
25:22
And he surprised me.
25:25
I didn't think he was going to be ready for college hockey next year, but it looks like he's getting there.
25:29
And Vonn are in the YouTube chat.
25:32
There were four scouts sitting next to him.
25:35
I'm sure there are a lot more than four in the building.
25:38
That's a big one on a scouting calendar to see, you know, because you're projecting how these kids are going to look against the next level.
25:44
And there's no better way to do that than against a high end team like Minnesota, because while Minnesota hasn't played, played a great season so far, they move and skate very well, especially their defensemen.
25:57
So, you're looking for how they match up against that.
25:59
And a lot of people kept saying, you know, why isn't Boynton getting in there?
26:02
Why isn't Boynton getting in there?
26:04
Well, my opinion here, Veegs, is that, you know, Moscow's like, you know what, Laffer's our guy.
26:10
Laffer's going to play every game, just in case we need somebody who's got some games in that can play for us in case he gets injured or something like that.
26:20
And that's why Close was played all six periods through the exhibitions.
26:25
I mean, does that make sense to you?
26:27
Yeah, I think so.
26:28
I know Boynton's battled through some issues this fall.
26:31
He hasn't been able to practice consistently.
26:34
He hasn't been able to do the strength and conditioning consistently.
26:38
And so I think Bob, you know, maybe is a little frustrated with that as well and saying, hey, if you want to be a part of this program, I need you to do everything.
26:48
And if you're not, you're not going to get these kind of carrot type opportunities because Closer is.
26:54
Closer is doing all the work behind the scenes.
26:56
And, you know, he had a nice weekend in goal.
26:59
So, you know, I think Jack's going to play any game he can play.
27:04
Yep.
27:04
But if for some reason something comes up, you know, Closer is their short term.
27:08
Yeah.
27:08
And that just makes sense.
27:09
You know, you just, you don't want to put in any, you know, hey, we just want, if it was a season where they're doing some rotation here and there and there wasn't the guy, I wouldn't have doubted we were seeing, you know, all three guys play a period.
27:23
Right.
27:24
But Laffer didn't even dress this weekend.
27:26
So that was pretty clear that, hey, Closer is our guy and if Closer happens to go down sometime during the game, then Boynton gets his chance.
27:32
But he wants to get somebody just in there.
27:36
And that was his chance.
27:37
So that's exactly what he did.
27:40
So for those of you in chat, you can send us more questions if you want.
27:43
We're trying to keep an eye on that.
27:47
Need to get into quite a few things here, Veegs.
27:49
We've got the Olympics coming up.
27:51
Oh, boy.
27:52
And of course, we're heading to Michigan State this weekend, we hope.
27:54
Knock on wood.
27:56
But first, we need to hear from our sponsor.
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29:07
While we were away on break, Veegs, NHL said, you know what, COVID's not looking good.
29:13
We're backing out of the Olympics.
29:17
Uh-oh, what's that gonna mean for college hockey?
29:19
Is it what's gonna mean for all hockey?
29:22
And from what we're hearing, it sounds like it's gonna be, at least for Team USA, it's gonna be kinda heavy on some of the college players.
29:31
Speculation right now, it's for Minnesota.
29:34
They may take Faber, Johnson, Myers, and even recently, I've heard, even though he's young, maybe even Mr.
29:41
Nyes.
29:44
I would say great opportunity for them.
29:47
They cannot say no if this comes up.
29:51
But the biggest fear we kinda had at the beginning of the season was the reason that they had eight defensemen.
29:57
You lose two of them, you're down to six, you have no room.
30:01
After that, you're pulling a forward back to play major minutes, not just kinda fill in here and there.
30:09
Let's hear your thoughts.
30:11
I personally would hope USA Hockey would recognize that the damage it would do to a team to take two of their top three or four defensemen from the roster.
30:24
I think it's easier if Minnesota is losing forwards to a team like that, because forwards, I think, are a little bit easier to plug and play.
30:32
But when you're taking top defensemen, like if they took Faber and Johnson, you're having to replace 50 to 60 minutes of ice time somehow, which is very challenging for any program.
30:47
So we'll see what they do.
30:50
I don't know if Johnson's played a great first half anyway.
30:55
He is a first round pick for Buffalo, and he's thought of very well, and he skates very well.
31:00
I don't think his first half is as good as Faber's.
31:04
So if I was weighing the two, I would tell USA Hockey, just take one, take Faber.
31:10
But you never know.
31:11
That would help.
31:12
And I would think in a tournament like this, you're going to want a couple skilled younger defensemen, but there might be better options out there for them too, to fill a roster.
31:23
And quite honestly, Veegs, we may have seen a preview of this, this past exhibition game against the U18 team.
31:35
Meyers and Nies were extra skaters in the game.
31:42
What?
31:44
Nies went out.
31:45
He ended up being sick.
31:46
They said everything's fine with him.
31:49
Was it Faber?
31:51
I can't remember if Faber or Kester also took a big check.
31:53
I think it was Kester.
31:57
Yes, I'm sorry.
31:57
They're just being cautious with him.
31:58
Yes.
31:59
Obviously, they took him out of that game.
32:03
But when I saw Meyers and Nies both as extra skaters, I'm like, wait a second.
32:08
You're thinking maybe they're trying to get a couple centers, figure it out, and you're like, you were telling me, you text me, let me know who's playing center, and let me know how it was doing this, and now they're switching Hugh Glynn and Meyers a bit.
32:23
Meyers was a monster.
32:24
I think it was kind of his audition for Team USA against the U18 team because he was just everywhere.
32:33
Moscow sees something coming.
32:34
He's trying to get some guys out there.
32:37
Like Colin Schmidt was out playing a lot more than he would have before.
32:42
He's trying to get guys in there because he knows something's going to happen.
32:46
He just doesn't know what.
32:47
I mean, he's been trying to get fish in the lineup more and more.
32:51
I like that.
32:51
I like that actually.
32:52
Yeah.
32:53
He adds a little something to that blue line.
32:56
We'll see what happens.
32:57
Denman got in the lineup.
32:59
He got a goal this weekend.
33:01
Who knows what's going to happen there?
33:02
But Bob obviously knows what's happening because I asked him after the official availability wrapped up, what's going on here?
33:11
Canada's kind of given out a long list of players and he's like, USA Hockey is not releasing a long list.
33:18
It's a short list.
33:20
The players who go are going to go about the January 31st to camp in Los Angeles, and then they're going to go over, I think the tournament starts on February 10th or 11th or something like that.
33:31
February 9th for a couple of, but for the US team, their first game would be the 10th.
33:35
Yeah.
33:36
They'd start on the 10th and hopefully be back at the end of the month.
33:40
So, if they don't get COVID over there, if they get COVID over there, it sounds like the quarantine periods could be lengthy in China.
33:49
Three to five weeks.
33:50
Yeah.
33:51
Could be three weeks.
33:54
Let me see here.
33:55
Puckhound, Dryden McKay, get the nod, Philly Lempix.
33:59
He's an older goalie.
34:01
He's not drafted.
34:03
He's a hell of a goalie.
34:06
Born in Illinois.
34:10
That could really devastate Minnesota State's end of their season.
34:14
They might get him back for the playoffs, but he would be a good choice.
34:19
But would it?
34:20
I mean, some nights he faces like ten shots.
34:23
True.
34:24
He gets some of the easiest shutouts.
34:25
True.
34:26
But I believe when they went up to Northern Michigan a couple weeks ago and some COVID, some other stuff like that, they gave up five goals.
34:35
Because some of that two leagues, we've seen it.
34:38
It's in kids' heads.
34:40
I know I'm going to play hard for this guy, but this other guy is back there.
34:43
I'm a little more nervous.
34:45
We've seen it a thousand times.
34:47
And shooters too.
34:48
Shooters know when they're going to try McKay that, okay, I've got to make the best cross-ice pass here to get McKay moving or we got to do something to get him out of position.
34:58
Overthink it.
34:59
Rather just throw pucks on pads and try to get rebounds.
35:02
You know, goalies can have that kind of mind trick on people.
35:05
I think it would be a great selection.
35:07
I don't know what the order is.
35:11
I mean, we kind of figured a couple.
35:13
We kind of know that the skaters that are going up, the goalies, we just don't have a clue.
35:17
But yeah, it's really hard, I think, to evaluate goalies as you up levels.
35:22
But I think he would be a clear choice because a lot of people in Minnesota State think he should win the Rector and maybe the Hobie.
35:28
So why wouldn't he play for the Olympic team?
35:31
Right.
35:33
And don't at us people.
35:36
The Rector was voted on after the tournament slasher, the league tournaments.
35:42
Right.
35:43
When he gave up five in a game, didn't make it to the championship game, whereas Laffer won the tournament.
35:51
It surprised me as well, because I thought the overall season was better.
35:56
If they would have waited a week and did it after the regional, yeah, McKay probably would have won it, Veegs.
36:00
But don't at us, huh?
36:02
Don't complain to us.
36:04
It wasn't us.
36:04
It was just the timing of the vote.
36:06
That's all.
36:09
I know a couple people who would not be happy if McKay left.
36:12
Really?
36:13
But couldn't they?
36:14
They wouldn't do it for their country?
36:17
You know how some people are.
36:19
I do.
36:20
I think there will be some Gopher fans who will be upset at players leaving from Minnesota.
36:24
But Minnesota has been very proud to have Olympians represent them in the past.
36:29
Oh, yes.
36:30
Heck, even in the 80s, when Team USA would take a team for the entire year, it was like losing them to the NHL because he'd be gone so soon.
36:39
So I don't think Bob, especially being a good soldier for USA Hockey, is going to stand in the way of them picking any players.
36:48
Well, he said he'll be cheering them on.
36:50
It could make for an interesting league playoff and NCAA tournament.
36:56
All of a sudden, you start getting these, basically college superstars back on their teams.
37:03
I mean, because obviously, if Minnesota loses a couple of defensemen or whatever it may turn out to be, Michigan loses, it changes the balance of power in the Big Ten big time.
37:16
Yes, so that's what I was getting at earlier with Michigan.
37:18
Yes.
37:19
Michigan loses all those players.
37:21
Minnesota loses some players.
37:23
The Big Ten gets really tight.
37:25
Correct.
37:25
Because I just, I don't...
37:26
It already is tight.
37:28
It's going to get even tighter.
37:29
Yeah.
37:29
Because I don't see Michigan State losing players.
37:31
I don't see Ohio State losing players.
37:34
Maybe Penn State, I'm not sure.
37:35
I haven't looked at their roster super carefully, but they probably won't lose any players.
37:41
And then at the bottom league, you have Wisconsin.
37:44
So they're going to be down there anyway.
37:47
But you look at a team like Michigan State, who the Gophers are going to be playing, they got swept by Michigan.
37:53
They swept Wisconsin.
37:55
They split with everybody else.
37:58
All of a sudden, if teams like Michigan, Minnesota lose some of their top end players, it's a lot easier for them to target splits against those teams.
38:06
It brings them right back in the conference race.
38:10
And hack parity in the pairwines is going to be crazy this year.
38:15
Right?
38:15
I mean, North Dakota, I mean, I mean, especially you think you think about somebody like like Minnesota State, they got McKay up there, their team is doing just awesome.
38:25
Obviously, recently, the loose had some COVID problem.
38:28
They've lost like five or six in a row that's hurt them.
38:30
Duluth, I mean, excuse me, Minnesota State's been winning.
38:35
All it takes is McKay to be gone for the month of February.
38:39
And if they lose a couple of bad games, it could hurt their seedings easily.
38:46
Well, the thing with Minnesota State, too, is because they play in the league that they do, losses in that league hurt them a lot more than losses to teams like the Minnesota Michigan play.
38:58
It's just that's kind of the fact.
39:00
So, we've often said...
39:02
It really gives Western a chance to take over.
39:08
It really does.
39:09
We've often said a bad loss hurts you more than a good win.
39:12
Yes.
39:13
And which is unfortunate.
39:14
We've all kind of thought that the pairwise needs to be tweaked a bit because, like you said, it doesn't reward you enough for a great win and it penalizes you too much for a bad loss, correct?
39:28
Right.
39:30
The client says, when the roster is going to be announced?
39:34
Bob seems to think that they'll be announced this weekend.
39:39
Will they have a roster that's a little larger and will cut some guys?
39:43
Or do we know what that's?
39:44
That's typically what they'll do.
39:46
They'll bring in like three or four extra to the camp because especially with COVID, if a player tests positive.
39:51
But they'll keep those guys though.
39:53
Will there be special roster rules for the Olympics?
39:57
I don't think so.
39:57
They'd probably cut guys before they travel to China.
40:00
That's kind of how they've done it for the World Juniors, is they'll bring a team for a camp and make like three cuts.
40:07
Because I think going to the World Junior Camp this year, we thought Lucius was kind of a bubble player.
40:12
And after USA made their three cuts, he was still on the roster.
40:19
Stay tuned, folks.
40:22
Well, Moscow's second like the end of the weekend.
40:24
Like Friday, Saturday.
40:25
Oh, OK.
40:26
Yeah, so.
40:30
All we know, folks, is it's going to be crazy.
40:35
It's going to be fun.
40:35
It's going to be crazy.
40:36
It gives some of those lesser players a chance to to step up, maybe Veegs.
40:43
I'll be honest here, I would still like to see Mr.
40:47
Walker step up a little more in his game.
40:50
Yes, he is.
40:54
I'm not trying to bring him down, but I still see a lot of selfish play with him.
40:58
Trying to control the puck coming into the zone, running into a guy, losing the puck, or sometimes getting around that guy, getting in too deep and losing the puck deep, not using his outlets.
41:11
I'm sure the coach tells him about this, we saw it against the USA team.
41:16
Highly skilled, picked him apart when he was trying to do that type of stuff because he couldn't get, yes, he's fast, but those kids are some of the fastest kids in the world too.
41:27
So we really need for him to play smarter.
41:32
Well, I think he just needs to be better with when he exposes the puck.
41:36
Because when he's coming through, every once in a while you can flip a puck through someone's legs or over the stick, but that is a risky play.
41:46
Usually when you see Lucius and Myers and Nyes making their puck skill plays around players.
41:52
They're strong on the puck.
41:54
They're strong and they're not exposient.
41:56
They're pulling it away.
41:57
They're using their body to shield the puck.
42:00
They're not putting it into the defender's triangle very often.
42:04
They're making smarter plays with the puck.
42:06
Sometimes they'll chip it and beat the guy on a race to the corner, things like that.
42:11
Walker needs to stop doing his doggy and pony show.
42:16
That's what we used to call it when Grant Petone would work with the players with all these crazy stick drills.
42:22
That's fun to do.
42:23
It sometimes can look good, but you can't do that in risky situations.
42:27
And he is yet to learn that game.
42:31
And I know that Bob needs artists to get where he wants to go.
42:36
But I think for the second half, that is a big key in figuring out, will he understand that?
42:41
I thought last year during the second half, Walker started to show signs of progress with his decision making.
42:49
I think he started to get it a little bit more.
42:51
And then when they got in the Minnesota State game, that all went away.
42:56
A question that I saw pop up, I don't know if it was on the board today.
43:03
The portal had a Lake State defenseman, a fairly good one pop up.
43:09
If we lose a defenseman, is that something they could pick up?
43:13
Can they pick them up right in the middle of the season like this?
43:16
I don't know the rules.
43:17
That is a great question.
43:19
All I know is that players transferring to the U for whatever reason would have to get there by the start of the classes, which is the 18th.
43:29
Well, we should know.
43:31
And the thing is, if they want to be at the U, you can get things done really quick when you're a hockey player or athlete.
43:37
I mean, you'd hope so.
43:38
It's not like you and I just try to get our applications and everything together.
43:42
They've got people who can make it happen.
43:46
I can't remember the guy's name from Lake State.
43:48
You know, a top two defenseman for them.
43:52
If they were to lose two defensemen for me, that would seem like a no brainer.
43:58
Obviously, I don't know how that affects things when players come back at the end of the season, but he'll have six defensemen.
44:06
And like we said, last year we had ten defensemen.
44:09
We had some flexibility.
44:11
If a player went down, we will not have flexibility if a Faber and a Johnson leave.
44:17
Right.
44:19
So, that will be the big mystery.
44:21
I would think...
44:21
It's going to be a fun couple of weeks.
44:22
It's going to be crazy.
44:24
It's going to be crazy.
44:25
But, I mean, they still get the players through the end of the month.
44:28
So, I think, you know, the Michigan-Minnesota matchup, is that just before...
44:34
I think it's 22nd.
44:36
So, I think we'll still see that game, which will be...
44:40
21st and 22nd are the Michigan Series, and then it's noted at Notre Dame 28th and 29th.
44:47
All right.
44:48
So, circle that weekend, because that will be key.
44:54
Corey's asking, what...
44:55
Corey's saying, asking, what do you players do you think will be gone?
44:59
What's your prediction?
45:01
My prediction would be Faber, Myers and Knives.
45:06
I'm prepared to be wrong.
45:08
I could easily see them take, you know, Faber, Johnson and Knives or Myers.
45:14
You know, I could easily see that, but I think Minnesota is going to lose three players somehow.
45:20
It's just how they figure out how to do it.
45:21
It'd be much easier for Bob to replace Fords than D.
45:24
Correct.
45:25
If they could keep Johnson, like you said, he hasn't had a great year, but that would really help a lot.
45:30
Yeah.
45:31
And I also think maybe as we were talking about driving McKay being picked, I kind of think USA Hockey realizes taking someone's number one goalie away is such a huge hit to a program that they might not do it.
45:43
Strauss-Mann is an option for that team, and he's playing in the Swedish Pro League.
45:51
Not a bad idea.
45:52
Yeah.
45:52
I think there's another player, Brandon Maxwell, who plays in the German League who's American.
45:59
They do have some options there.
46:02
You look at Canada, they're looking at Devin Dubnik who isn't playing right now.
46:06
I don't think he's just practicing.
46:09
I think that's how teams might look at goalies.
46:12
And the Russians are going to bring a lot of good players.
46:16
Heck the Russians might still get some NHL guys.
46:18
We've seen that before where Russia really has a soft spot.
46:24
Well number eight said he wants to, he's always been saying, I'll just leave and go play.
46:30
I don't know if he'll do it now, but he has said that in the past.
46:35
But hopefully these guys are back for the tournament.
46:37
We'll see what happens.
46:39
But the Gophers have a lot of work on their plate to get there.
46:43
They have not done themselves favors in the first half, putting them kind of on this bubble here at 10-11 in the pairwise.
46:52
You know, usually that's pretty safe at this time of year.
46:55
I don't like it.
46:57
But you don't like it.
46:59
And you can't like right now with what the future is coming.
47:02
Some of these top teams are going to drop, which could push Minnesota down as well.
47:06
Some other teams are probably going to maybe bump up a bit with players gone.
47:12
It kind of gets us into this weekend, Vig.
47:16
Heading to Michigan State, we hope, knock on wood.
47:24
Honestly, if they want to be serious, they need to get five or six points this weekend.
47:30
I think five or six points would go-
47:31
We can't do this split stuff anymore.
47:33
Well, Michigan swept Michigan State.
47:36
So you're looking at that series as your bar, and Bob has always said that you don't start talking about sweeps until you win the first game.
47:44
But a sweep is the expectation, I think, for everybody this weekend.
47:49
And for them to get there, they're gonna need to play some consistent hockey.
47:54
And maybe that's a reason Bob isn't tinkering with the lineup, like he maybe thought about doing headed into break.
48:05
I kind of would like to see some tinkering, because I think you need to put your team in position to win at the end of the year.
48:13
And if you're not gonna experiment now, you're losing the opportunity to see what works.
48:20
And I know you liked it when he, for like a game or two, put Walker on the wing.
48:26
I loved it.
48:27
And you wanted him playing other guys at center to take that responsibility, so Walker had more of that freedom.
48:34
It was against North Dakota, and Walker looked the freest he's looked all season.
48:40
He was able to use his speed up and down the ice.
48:43
I think he's a more dangerous matchup for opposing teams to play players against.
48:49
I think other teams, when they see Walker on the wing, it's harder for them to forecheck his line because he can stretch the zone so quickly.
48:58
It just changes the game when you put speed like that on the wings.
49:02
Walker is not disciplined enough to play against good teams, I think, below the dots and still be effective on the score sheet.
49:10
He just hasn't shown that.
49:11
And after four years of seeing it against good teams, what's that definition there?
49:20
You know, it's misuse, but I don't know if I go as far as saying it's insanity, but he is what he is.
49:29
It's time to let him shine.
49:30
Put him on the wing.
49:31
Yes.
49:31
Let him shine.
49:32
That's where he belongs.
49:34
I don't think he's going to.
49:37
He might not even be in pro hockey.
49:39
We'll see.
49:40
An AHL or maybe.
49:42
I just he's a college hockey player.
49:46
Use them where it will take advantage.
49:48
Put him up, you know, put Hugh Glenn on on his line.
49:51
But are Hugh Glenn, him and whoever.
49:56
Maybe Cruikshank, because that's a lot of speed, that's that's.
50:00
I think that would be a good match up for, you know, Hugh Glenn, Cruikshank.
50:04
But although you mentioned you'd like to see Cruikshank more in center, though, too, didn't you?
50:08
Yeah, I'd like to see Cruikshank in center, because he's a fast player who's disciplined.
50:12
And he isn't putting points on the score sheet right now.
50:14
So when you have a player like that, maybe just play to their strengths.
50:19
You know, give him a role where he can be successful in other ways.
50:22
You know, Brodsinski talked about that today.
50:25
He's like, you know, when you're not putting points on the score sheet, you need to find a way to make an impact to help other players.
50:33
And you need to show up in another way every game.
50:37
So if you're not going to be scoring points, what's your best role?
50:42
And if you can score points, what's your, you know, maybe what's your best role?
50:46
So, I mean, I would be putting Walker at wing.
50:49
I'm not, I'm obviously not the coach, you know, and coaches probably don't want to be told how to do their lineups.
50:55
But, you know, if you need Walker to be successful, put him in a position to succeed.
51:02
You know, I know you want to put him at center.
51:04
He probably says he's comfortable playing center.
51:07
It looks great in practice, but after three years of game film, he looks really good at wing too, you know?
51:16
And it presents a lot of problems for other teams, how they play you.
51:21
Mr.
51:22
Lewandowski.
51:24
How is he still here?
51:28
It's like the Jess Settles of College Hockey.
51:32
I mean, five straight years, fifth year senior.
51:39
He has been the thorn in Minnesota side off and on.
51:43
He has been.
51:47
And let's just put him in the glass, show him that we're going to be physical with them.
51:53
That's all you got to do.
51:54
Well, I remember saying like when they had the KHL line, I remember talking to someone about two different perspectives.
52:01
And one player said, oh yeah, when they're on the ice, you got to be aware.
52:06
You got to play maybe a little differently.
52:09
You got to stay above the puck.
52:10
You got to pay attention.
52:11
Can't turn the puck over.
52:13
I asked the other player, what's it like playing against the KHL line?
52:17
Are you aware of them?
52:17
I just play my game.
52:21
Based on what I've said the last 10 minutes, you could probably guess one of the players that I'm talking about.
52:27
Hmm.
52:30
You have to pay attention when they're out there.
52:32
When a guy like Lewandowski is out there, you just have to be aware of it.
52:35
You have to play a little bit differently and maybe wait for him to get off before you start doing stuff.
52:41
Maybe you catch him on a long shift and you can take advantage because good players sometimes extend their shift trying to chase offense.
52:49
That's when you take advantage.
52:51
You don't take advantage when he just hops on the ice.
52:53
You have to have the shift discipline and shift experience to play against guys like that.
52:59
You know, because a lot of this comes back to what Matzko has been saying.
53:03
Play the basics.
53:07
It's not hard.
53:10
Stick to the basics.
53:11
Play the game.
53:12
Play smart.
53:14
You don't need to be the hero.
53:18
You don't need to hit home runs.
53:22
If you play the basics, you play the team game, the hero comes to you.
53:30
I don't know.
53:32
It's time to put up or shut up with this team, Veegs.
53:34
Because we're going to have a full roster this month.
53:36
This is a big month.
53:38
Michigan State, this is a big series.
53:39
I think they need to go in there and get five or six points.
53:42
That's what they need to do.
53:47
They need to, you know, when they step on somebody's neck one night, you know what, you got to come back and step on their neck again the next night.
53:54
Or vice versa, you know, whatever we've had, you know, these, we, at first, it was a bad Friday night.
53:58
It's a great Saturday.
53:59
It's now been the opposite.
54:03
Don't you remember that series where Minnesota was playing Michigan State a few years ago?
54:08
And I think it was at Mariucci.
54:10
And I think it was around Halloween or something like that.
54:13
And the Gophers had just dominated Michigan State for four periods.
54:18
And I believe you were down in the team area between periods.
54:22
And you could hear the leaders from Michigan State saying, hey, we're not leaving here without giving an effort.
54:29
And I kind of think-
54:30
It was loud.
54:30
It was loud.
54:31
I kind of think the Minnesota players are like, man, what are we doing after the game?
54:35
Like we are taking it to these guys.
54:38
And what happened?
54:40
Michigan flipped the-
54:41
Michigan State flipped the switch, stole the Saturday game, got the split, and it's just a missed opportunity.
54:48
If Minnesota wants to put themselves in a good position, these next three Big Ten series for them against Michigan State, Notre Dame and Michigan are crucial.
55:00
If they can, you know, get five points out of a couple of these weekends, they're going to be in good shape once everybody goes where they're going in February.
55:09
If they keep splitting or, God forbid, you know, take like one or zero points or something, they're going to be in big, big trouble.
55:16
They're done.
55:18
Big weekend.
55:20
What do you got?
55:25
I'm saying five points.
55:26
They went in overtime Saturday night.
55:28
I know, you know, I want to say sweet Veegs.
55:36
But unfortunately, it keeps coming back to prove it to me.
55:40
And they still haven't proven it to us yet.
55:43
Except for the Notre Dame series.
55:46
They fooled us there, I thought.
55:47
Yeah, we thought, here we go.
55:50
Buckle up.
55:55
Buckle up.
55:56
Are you picking a sweep?
55:57
Are you picking a sweep?
56:01
Picking a sweep, Joop.
56:04
I think the break, especially for Laffer.
56:06
We hope so.
56:08
Has gotta be cleansing.
56:10
He is kind of a mental guy.
56:12
He's very intense.
56:15
You know, a thinker, you know, a guy who does a lot of stuff.
56:19
I think getting him away from the exhibitions, probably healthy for him.
56:24
Cause I think goaltending oftentimes is more mental than physical.
56:29
And I think these players are anxious to play.
56:32
I think a lot of them are realizing the chaos that could be coming.
56:37
And Brock Faber looked at this weekend, he said, Hey, you can't worry about what's next on the calendar.
56:45
You got to worry about tonight.
56:46
And I think he is going to be more vocal than he's been in the past.
56:51
After wearing that letter for the World Junior Team, I think he's coming back going, All right, if we want to get to where we want to go, I got to step up and be more of a leader.
57:01
And they need voices like that in the room to get them through a weekend like this.
57:05
Six points.
57:07
Wow, there you go, Veegs.
57:09
I like it.
57:10
I just, I can't get there yet.
57:13
I know.
57:14
I know.
57:17
They've pulled the rug out from under me way too many times this year, and they need to prove it to me.
57:23
Five points isn't bad, though.
57:24
It's not bad, obviously.
57:26
Prove it to me.
57:27
Get six points.
57:29
Shut me up, please.
57:33
That's all we want.
57:34
That's all we want.
57:36
I could see Sparty being a little rusty this weekend, too.
57:39
I'll hope so.
57:41
They could be rusty all they want.
57:43
I don't think they look very good in the GLI, but we'll see.
57:47
I don't remember, did they...
57:50
Well, they lost?
57:51
I think they split, didn't they?
57:52
They split.
57:53
They got no T-win, but I didn't think they looked that great.
57:57
All right, Veegs, you got anything else for us?
58:00
Or are you just hopping for overtime?
58:02
It's my birthday.
58:03
I'm looking for an overtime beverage here.
58:06
So I had a glass of wine with dinner, but I'm looking forward to something.
58:09
I was going to mention it, but I was going to wait until overtime for that.
58:13
But yes, Veegs is 67 years old tonight.
58:20
Wait, that's me.
58:20
That's how old I look.
58:21
Oh my God, look at this gray hair.
58:23
I look terrible on video.
58:24
I got my eye thing going on, just great.
58:29
Hopefully, I haven't scared the people.
58:31
Oh, what do you got?
58:32
There it is, Bourbon Country?
58:34
County.
58:35
County, sorry.
58:37
Okay, one contact is not in, so it's like all blurry with one and clear with the other.
58:43
Well, if you don't have anything else, Veegs, we picked, you picked the sweep, I picked five points.
58:48
That's all we can hope for right now.
58:51
We picked our Olympic players.
58:53
Yeah, I, it sucks.
59:00
Boy, wouldn't it be great to keep all those guys?
59:05
Maybe it'll be good.
59:06
Maybe it'll force Masha to tinker.
59:09
It will, it will force it.
59:11
Could be good at the end.
59:12
Well, that's gonna do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast.
59:16
We'll be back next week to recap the MSU series and preview the rescheduled series with Fairbanks as Vegs opens up his beverage.
59:26
For those of you currently watching live, stay tuned for overtime.
59:29
For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.
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