0:06 This is The GPL Podcast from goforpucklive.com. 0:15 This podcast is sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage. 0:19 Our expertise, your piece of mind. 0:21 Visit us at firstclassmortgage.com. 0:29 Now, let's start the show with your hosts, Jupiter and Vigo. 0:38 Good evening, welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 207. 0:46 Well, Veegs, another weekend, another split. 0:52 And I know that... 0:56 I know Bob wasn't, he was still happy with Saturday, but I wasn't. 1:00 Because, well, it's because, you know, he says we made three mistakes, but they were just huge mistakes that shouldn't be happening this time of year. 1:12 And there are mistakes that have been happening over and over again. 1:16 And it's just, you're hoping to see some growth out of this team. 1:20 And when you see mistakes come up like that in key times, especially if this team is finding it difficult to score goals, it's gonna cost you. 1:27 So I think it was a frustrating weekend for the fans. 1:31 Well, let's bring in one of those fans who we've had on the podcast. 1:34 We had him on last season. 1:36 He was a popular guest. 1:38 John King. 1:38 Let's bring him on here. 1:40 John, there he is. 1:41 How are you doing, John? 1:43 Hey boys, how are you? 1:45 Good to see you. 1:46 Are you frustrated like us? 1:51 It would be nice to win two games in a row. 1:55 Though I think the Gophers could beat an NHL team one night and then lose to anybody the next night. 2:02 That's the really frustrating part. 2:04 I mean, you look at Friday night, Veegs, I think both teams were on. 2:10 Excellent game, back and forth, tight, very defensive. 2:16 Minnesota gets kind of the bounces in overtime, and whatever, Meyers puts it in an open net. 2:23 Then Friday is just a completely different thing. 2:25 Yeah, I thought the first game, that was probably the best we've seen Minnesota play for 60 minutes. 2:31 I thought there was really no letup to their game throughout. 2:34 And Michigan's been great as well. 2:36 Paycheck, they were doing all three. 2:39 Like that was very impressive. 2:41 I thought Michigan answered the bell as well. 2:44 They got the early goal, and I thought what the most impressive thing was, the Gophers never got away from their game. 2:49 We've seen so often where there are players, every time they get the puck, they're thinking, I gotta put this team on my back, go coast to coast, be the hero. 2:58 We saw a lot of smart plays at the blue line. 3:00 We saw players getting going in the cycle, and we saw players getting back on defense. 3:05 We saw shift discipline, like all the things that you wanted to see, you saw that Friday night. 3:10 And then on the flip side, John, as a fan, I'm watching that first period. 3:15 They get the one-nothing lead, put a ton of pressure on it, and I literally tweeted out, they better get some more goals here, because Michigan's gonna find their game. 3:23 And they might not have found their game like they usually did, but boom, it was two to one by the end of the period. 3:30 And then Minnesota did nothing the rest of the game. 3:32 That's just so frustrating. 3:34 Yeah, and you know, I watched the Friday game on the road on DVR, and that was like a Matsu, Matsuko Picasso. 3:43 I mean, that was like the game he wants his team to play for a full, you know, all three periods. 3:50 And then I had tickets Saturday, so I'm like, oh no, you know, I don't know which one's bad, Jekyll or Hyde. 4:00 I don't know, but I'm like, this is not gonna be the same game. 4:04 But then they scored right away. 4:05 And Michigan's weird because they got the, whatever the Fab Five and that Bresson, it's just like, you just blink. 4:17 Because really the Gophers played well. 4:21 They were kind of dominating the game. 4:23 And then you would just, there would just be a second and it was just bang bang. 4:28 I mean, they have some high end skill. 4:32 And that's where all that frustration comes, Veegs. 4:35 Well, I think the frustration comes from the fact that the Gophers possess the puck the majority of Saturday night. 4:42 I thought very rarely were they hemmed in their own zone. 4:45 You only saw maybe a handful of shifts where they got pinned and you felt like just getting out of the zone was gonna be a win for that line. 4:53 But you see these transition plays where Michigan has that third or fourth player that either the guy in the back check says, I don't need to worry about that guy. 5:04 I'm going somewhere else. 5:05 Or they think the rush is over and they go to play the point and they just left somebody in front of the net. 5:10 It's just like things like that in their game are so immature that it's surprising. 5:16 And you can't sweep high level teams when you make mistakes like that. 5:21 Because as you know, Kanger was saying there's a lot of talent on that Michigan roster. 5:25 I mean, there were so many draft picks in this weekend. 5:28 You can't make mistakes like that and get away with it. 5:32 And that's- 5:32 That's Goalie too. 5:35 He is a big guy. 5:36 Oh my God. 5:38 He's literally the thing people sit around and talk about like, what if you just had a humongous human play Goalie? 5:46 I mean, he is so damn big. 5:49 I'm like, how on the hell are you going to score? 5:52 He's athletic. 5:54 He's gigantic. 5:56 I mean, that's a problem. 5:58 I don't know what you do there. 5:59 Like he is so massive. 6:01 You get him moving though, Veegs. 6:02 You either get him moving or you make him have to drop down and have to scramble for rebounds. 6:08 Because one thing that I thought Minnesota did was I thought they were just shooting to put pucks on net. 6:14 They weren't shooting with a purpose to create rebounds. 6:17 And when there were shots with rebounds, players were not ready and in position to collect them and put them in the net. 6:23 And that's the really frustrating thing is against a goal like that, when he's making a lot of saves, he's challenging shooters, he's so big, you can't miss the net. 6:33 You can't shoot it up into his gloves because that's what that big 6'6 goal he wants. 6:38 Put in his feet, that's a long way from his eyes. 6:40 You know, when you're 6'6 and you go down and you're looking for the puck, there are a lot of times pucks were under his pads and you could just tell he wasn't totally comfortable with where that puck was. 6:51 And you could see McLaughlin, like hammering away, trying to find one of those. 6:55 You need more of that. 6:59 His feet were usually kicking the net off. 7:02 And that's what Corey's saying. 7:04 He'll just push the goal up. 7:05 And I will say one thing, you know, Friday night, Vig's, I was down there. 7:11 I clearly see one of the pegs was a good inch short of going all the way down. 7:16 And the Michigan goal, he's not stupid. 7:19 When he says something's wrong here and the referees even see something's not quite right, they're going to give them the benefit of the doubt Vig's, unfortunately. 7:28 Well, especially at Mary G. 7:29 I heard a little birdie say that after the game, you know, the rest say it's really hard to make those kinds of delay game calls at Mary G because they know that that net is pretty loose. 7:44 I think what I was a little more disappointed with, maybe Bob's just trying to keep the morale up. 7:48 He's like, oh, I think we played so great, we so great, but we just had those three mistakes. 7:53 And, you know, I understand that it played well, but as I would say, at this time of year, these kinds of mistakes can't happen. 8:02 They just can't, even against talented teams. 8:04 We've seen them in the past, Vig's, when they play good teams, they don't give up those kinds of opportunities. 8:10 That's what's so disappointing to me. 8:12 Yeah, as Ryan is saying here in the comments, you know, is the locker room that fragile? 8:18 You know, I hate to say that it is, but that's just kind of the impression you get coming out of a series like this, is that he's just trying to say, hey, let's stay together. 8:31 Let's focus on the positive. 8:32 Let's worry about the process more than the result. 8:36 But, you know, this dropped him down to 11 in the pair wise and really makes the stretch ahead super difficult for them because if they start falling behind in the weekends, they could be dropping to the bottom of the bubble really quickly. 8:52 Well, let's get into something a little more positive. 8:55 John, is there a podcast you don't host these days? 9:00 I can count at least, I can count at least three of them right now. 9:03 It was a faster plan to make everybody completely sick of me, but I do like what we got going. 9:15 Pulltab Sports is something we're building, kind of a Midwestern sports and entertainment hub. 9:24 And we've got a wild podcast, myself and Ryan Carter. 9:32 Ryan's a pretty special guy. 9:36 I didn't know him that well before we started doing it. 9:38 And every time I sit down with him, it's just, it's so fun. 9:43 And we don't do the normal stuff on that one. 9:45 So we're not talking about. 9:48 And are we shed or the guy's going to be able to sneak out of the hotel in New York after Friday night's ranger game, if they don't play the Islanders until Sunday. 9:58 So we just try to be a little looser and we got three podcasts. 10:05 Okay, one question I do have for you is, have you gotten your bidet yet? 10:13 It sounds like. 10:15 My brother has a bidet too. 10:17 Or is the hot water and the sphincter just not quite what you're looking for yet? 10:25 Well, you know, he did give me a hard time about him. 10:31 And I get pretty cutting out there, John. 10:39 Wi-Fi is a little spotty. 10:46 I don't think Kinger is in a civic right now, but... 10:50 He's totally gone now. 10:52 Look at him, he's frozen. 10:53 How about that, Biggs? 10:55 Oh, there he happens. 10:57 He's trying to fix things. 10:59 My comments were he was on his Sunday morning Coming Down podcast this week, he was talking about some bidets and how he's not sure he can have the hot water on himself like that. 11:12 Well, it looks like you're a little bit of a better connection now. 11:15 Care to comment on the hot water and the sphincter part? 11:20 Yeah, my brother got a bidet. 11:24 I gave him a hard time, but he says you really got to try it because it is pretty gross to wipe with just dry paper. 11:31 Seems like it could be cleaner. 11:33 Maybe the French are onto something. 11:38 I remember Declan Gough from Score North was talking about bidets and his interests. 11:44 And he became an influencer and some company sent him one to install in his unit. 11:49 So one week you get socks, maybe the next week you get a bidet. 11:58 And that's just this. 12:01 I have thought about it. 12:02 I don't know if I could do that, Biggs. 12:06 Well, you know, I've got young kids in my house. 12:08 If we introduce a bidet to a seven and a nine year old, we could have a Geico ad happening in my house or something. 12:16 We could have water dripping from the ceiling, and we don't know if it's a pool party up there, or if it's a bidet accident. 12:21 So maybe someday in my future, when I'm older, and have more flexibility for life changes like that, but I'm not ready for it right now. 12:30 So I still enjoy the Sunday Morning Coming Down Podcast. 12:33 That was just the most recent one. 12:34 I hadn't quite gotten through it yet. 12:37 You talk about your standing on the seventh with Ryan Carter. 12:40 Where are you guys doing that? 12:41 Looks like you're in a studio for that now. 12:42 Obviously you're doing video on it as well. 12:44 Well. 12:51 Green Studios, outstanding. 12:58 The Wi-Fi is not doing so good for you, Kanger. 13:00 We're gonna have to get a Wi-Fi sponsor, as well, for Saturday morning coming down. 13:06 Did not use the professional, you know, set up there. 13:10 Yeah, he keeps freezing, we keep losing you, Kanger. 13:14 Got a hard connection? 13:17 Maybe. 13:17 I don't know, this could be a phone situation. 13:20 Could be a rogue on a phone. 13:22 Could be, maybe. 13:24 Okay, well, then let's get into this, Veegs. 13:27 Obviously, we had, I don't know where he lost him, man. 13:30 Let me pop him off for a little bit. 13:33 We've got Moscow, maybe, playing things a little gently with the team and maybe trying to keep some egos in check. 13:46 I don't know, because I see those mistakes and it's just like, these shouldn't happen. 13:53 Yeah, I think it's really difficult to develop a team with the scheduled Minnesota plays. 13:58 They have those difficult non-conference games at the start of their year that's really challenging to get guys up to speed. 14:05 He has a lineup right now where he's trying to get those five freshmen all involved. 14:10 And it's been kind of spotty with him being able to do that. 14:14 And so you see him now turning to Hublin as a very counted on center for his lineup. 14:21 He's been putting bros back in there and some more high profile situations. 14:26 He's one of those players that lost his back check. 14:30 Mason Nevers, he's trying to count on him with a little more ice time. 14:33 He's one of the players that lost their back check. 14:35 He's really coddling that Walker line. 14:39 And I didn't think they had that bad of a weekend. 14:42 I actually thought they played one of their better two games in a row that they played this year. 14:48 But he knows that he needs that line to be successful. 14:52 Well, right away- 14:53 Especially with the Olympics coming up. 14:54 Right away, Veegs. 14:55 I thought Bob was listening to the podcast because he put Walker on Wing Friday evening and they win the game. 15:04 And I thought he looked good at Wing. 15:06 I thought Brodzinski looked good separated from Walker McLaughlin. 15:11 You saw Walker looking at the defense at the point and you could tell that defense was like, I don't want to overhandle this puck because I know if I make a mistake, Walker's going to beat me the other way. 15:21 And you just put that kind of pressure on the other team. 15:24 Maybe that's the most effective way to use Walker in college hockey. 15:28 He's already admitted that Walker will not be a center as a pro, so why force it? 15:33 Just enjoy the centers that you do have that can play there. 15:36 I mean, Meyers, while you have them, I think Pervix has been looking more reliable as a center and now Hugelin. 15:44 Just play those three centers then in most of these games and go from there rather than just trying to force this situation. 15:51 Okay, Ken, it looks like you got a little bit better connection now. 15:54 I was just gonna hear the last question I had for you is, it looks like you're doing some kind of studio work and obviously I'll put a bit of video work on your Stanley on the seventh podcast with Carter. 16:05 Tell us about that a little bit. 16:09 Yeah, we do that at Green Screen Studios down by the U and I have a great setup. 16:15 I got all the gear and yeah, that's just been a treat to, you know how it is when you sit down with your co-host and you know you're gonna have fun for an hour. 16:24 And this team on the wild side is, you can kind of tell those guys love each other and I think the fans love them because they love each other. 16:35 I've been being a little tempered on the wild this year, but you know, even Royce, he was doing a story today about how often they're scoring with an extra man, sometimes down two goals and still coming back a tiny bit, but believe they've done it three times this year. 16:54 There's a lot of excitement over with the wild and I'm trying to keep it tempered because you know, maybe it's just the Minnesota thing, don't get too excited, but and the wild are gonna be really busy, but you know, this is a fun time to have this kind of podcast and start kind of pushing up the team a bit. 17:18 And that's kind of the whole idea is to take soda out of Minnesota fans and try to break the mold. 17:26 That's why it's called Stanley on seventh. 17:29 Like allow yourself to imagine that state of hockey could win the Stanley Cup, which is really crazy. 17:37 It's never happened and we don't talk about it. 17:39 So that's kind of the whole thing. 17:41 You're Jupiter, that's exactly right. 17:43 And that, if I recall, that's kind of what you were saying right at the beginning. 17:46 Why aren't we thinking that way? 17:51 Why isn't that the always the goal? 17:54 I mean, like you said, it would be amazing here. 17:57 The only thing I think that could top that would be an actual Super Bowl win. 18:01 We've done the twins before. 18:03 That's the highest we've been. 18:05 I think the Wild would be right on par with that mate probably a little higher because of the state of hockey. 18:10 And really the only thing that could beat that would be the Vikings, which is... 18:14 I've been let down enough by them. 18:18 So, yeah, I mean... 18:21 Cars would be on fire. 18:28 Not my car, I would keep my car far away. 18:31 Don't need that happening. 18:34 You got anything else in the hopper? 18:37 What else is going on in your brain? 18:38 I know that according to the Sunday morning podcast, you're not doing as much drinking now. 18:46 You're kind of rethinking some of those things, but you've always got something going. 18:50 I mean, hockey tournament's coming up. 18:53 There's pressure. 18:54 Gotta keep the hockey everything going. 18:56 A lot of things going on with you right now. 19:04 Well, I will say, I'm really excited. 19:25 He's frozen again. 19:26 It's challenging, it's challenging. 19:28 It's challenging to work the- 19:30 It's like he's almost got to wear his Waldo hat too. 19:35 We can see him great, which is strange that we're getting video, but not audio. 19:40 It's a little spotty, it's a little spotty. 19:43 Maybe his Wi-Fi is going through a dry January too. 19:45 I hope it's not doctor-imposed. 19:49 It's tough, cause you know, with the GPL Podcast, Beer of the Week, I put a lot of planning and prep into that every week. 19:56 You do? 19:58 So it takes some prior preparation to prevent piss poor performance on that one. 20:02 I'll pull them off here until I see them unfrozen again. 20:05 Oh, look at some of the questions. 20:10 He says, like Cory Reinkart's got great stories. 20:14 And you know, he says, spitting checklists. 20:18 Oh, wait a second. 20:18 Wait a second, Sammy was back at center with 27. 20:22 Yep, we noticed that in the third. 20:25 And I thought Brudzinski in the first two periods actually looked better than he did when they got reunited in the third period. 20:33 So I think not only did it maybe affect that line a little bit, but I think it took Brudzinski off his game a little bit more. 20:39 You know, in that first two periods, you saw Brudzinski being that third guy in and getting the puck back to him. 20:46 Sometimes I feel like when he's with Walker and McLaughlin, the puck gets down to the goal line and it's not coming back out to that trailer. 20:53 Like that is not always the look unless it's McLaughlin who has the puck. 20:58 And usually that happens later in the opportunity. 21:01 So we'll see. 21:03 I think Bob is kind of resigned to the fact that he's gonna stick with Samuels Center. 21:07 You know, coaches kind of do what they know. 21:11 And I know that they don't have a lot of depth down the middle. 21:14 You know, next year, I think Moscow envisions Lucius playing down the middle. 21:19 But right now they just don't wanna put that kind of responsibility on him at center. 21:23 So they're just kind of protecting him a little bit. 21:27 Right now I'm just setting up to send King or the link via email so he can get on his laptop. 21:32 So just give me a second here to get some of that going, hopefully, Veegs. 21:40 Last weekend with our Olympic guys. 21:48 It kind of makes it a big weekend, Veegs. 21:52 Yeah, this is a huge weekend, I think, for Minnesota. 21:55 You know, Notre Dame has been scoring a little bit more this season than historically they have in the past. 22:00 So I think you can't come into these games thinking two is enough. 22:04 You're gonna have to find a way to get three. 22:06 And I think you're gonna have to find ways to get more scoring than just the Meyers line. 22:10 Because I think we saw Michigan do a lot of focus on that line and really try to prevent them from getting second opportunities, which is where they've gotten a lot of their chances. 22:21 They just get these dominating shifts. 22:23 I thought Michigan did a good job of closing them down a little bit and limiting them to one chance. 22:28 So they're gonna have to find ways to get other scoring. 22:31 And I'm not sure how Bob's gonna do it. 22:33 That second power play unit. 22:35 I was pretty amazed when I was doing that breakdown on Sammy last week, that I realized he has zero power play points on the season. 22:44 None. 22:45 When you told me that, I'm like, I know. 22:50 And I started mentioning it to people before you even arrived and they're like, what? 22:56 Are you serious? 23:02 And you can see it. 23:03 I think it's impacting his play on the power play. 23:05 Yeah. 23:06 It's a big problem. 23:08 It's a huge problem. 23:09 I'm sure he knows that he doesn't have a power play point on the year before I even said it, because you can just see when he gets the puck on the power play, he kind of stares it down a little bit. 23:18 And by then, you know, goalies have gotten squared up to him. 23:21 And then you just, it's a turnover. 23:23 It's not a real scoring chance. 23:25 So it's been curious. 23:28 I know Bob's tried a couple other parts to that unit where he keeps Walker and McLaughlin out there, you know, with I thought Kester has looked good on the point for power play units, but they just don't get into a rhythm with that unit. 23:43 And they're not very dangerous. 23:45 I feel like the part that makes the Meyers unit so dangerous is they get second and third chances when they have the puck. 23:51 And I think they do a really good job of maintaining consistent pressure for 60, 70, 80 seconds. 23:59 But the Walker unit is often a one and done unit. 24:03 Now he's had a quiet weekend by his standards, according to Corey, Corey Vee there. 24:07 Why not come back another year and dominate weekend week out? 24:11 Well, he did score Friday night. 24:15 It was actually quite the goal. 24:16 He pretty much knocked that puck out of the air at a sharp angle. 24:21 And Portillo just never, he never saw it coming. 24:26 And that's the kind of play you needed against a goalie like that. 24:29 Is a play tight down by his feet, transition, you know, getting him going side to side, holes open up. 24:37 As much as we were talking about being 6'6 and how that intimidating that can be, when a 6'6 goalie moves, there's going to be gaps, you know, below the top of the, you know, leg pads. 24:50 There's going to be gaps there and you just have to find opportunities to do that. 24:54 You know, you spoke about the power play and there is Zach must be in Sammy's head, at least a little bit at this point that he doesn't have. 25:00 I mean, you know, we were talking to Chris Foster as I was saying, hey, that's a good tip you might be able to use Saturday night during the broadcast. 25:09 I don't know if he did. 25:10 I haven't never got a chance to go back and watch. 25:14 I think the only way that one comes out is if he got his first point on the power play. 25:18 He could have then, you know, dropped the Vigo bomb and said, hey, I heard. 25:22 You didn't tweet though, did you? 25:24 Yeah, I did. 25:26 Oh, you did? 25:27 In the story leading up to it. 25:29 And then the plus minus difference for those three in the wins and losses is huge. 25:34 You know, they're plus 31 in games where the Gophers win, they're minus 21 in games they lose. 25:40 So as that line goes, kind of the Gophers go up or down. 25:45 I'm sure that's probably why Bob's playing them with kid gloves is because when this team is humming, they have more than just the Meyers line going. 25:54 Yeah, but also he's got to play kid gloves and hoping that they play even more effective once the nine line is broken up. 26:04 And they're going to have to figure out something to do here. 26:06 I mean, they got one more weekend where they can just lean on them heavy. 26:10 I wouldn't be surprised if Meyers and that group play 25 minutes a night. 26:15 But at some point, they're going to have to figure out something else. 26:18 And, you know, it's not an easy, easy stretch. 26:22 I mean, they're going to be at Ohio State, at Penn State. 26:25 Those have been buildings where this program has struggled lately. 26:29 Ohio State looks like they could be the favorite right now in the Big Ten. 26:35 I mean, with Michigan losing all the players they're losing, Minnesota losing the players they're losing, you know, already having the goaltender lost. 26:42 You know, I thought Closer played really well on Friday, but on Saturday, you know, he got kind of exposed on some of those scoring chances that Michigan got. 26:50 You know, Closer's not a big goalie. 26:52 And when you're up against talent who can pick top corners on you, when you have to move side to side, that's going to be a problem. 26:58 And also, that's where the, this is where the team defense comes in. 27:01 Hey, your goalie's just been swapped out. 27:03 Your, you know, Richter Award guy, even though he had a struggling season, this is where you come in and you don't allow these type of things to happen. 27:11 Yeah, you can't, I mean, we were glad he had that extra game when, you know, they got to play, you know, Alaska instead of being thrown in against Michigan. 27:25 But you can allow a lot of transition shots where shooters have clear, clean looks with time to pick spots. 27:34 Look, there's Kanger. 27:36 How's this going? 27:41 I mean, can you swear on here? 27:43 Of course you can. 27:44 I mean, fuck. 27:49 Well, I'm back. 27:50 I'm going to really come on strong now. 27:52 This is going to be like a bad Friday, good Saturday. 27:55 Hey, that's why we have you on, man. 27:59 Can you hold it a little bit though? 28:01 Because actually, let's get in this commercial. 28:03 The quicker we get to the commercial, the quicker we get to more stuff, and basically the quicker we get to overtime. 28:10 Which is kind of what we like anyway. 28:12 So let's hear from our sponsor first. 28:15 Hey, fellow GPLers. 28:16 Jerry Peters here from First Class Mortgage. 28:18 Have you refinanced your home in the last 12 months? 28:21 If you haven't, chances are you should. 28:23 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. 28:32 You can also use the equity in your home to finance those home improvement projects. 28:36 Or you can consolidate high interest rate credit cards into one new low monthly payment. 28:41 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291. 28:47 You can email me at jerry at firstclasscorp.com. 28:51 Or you could go to firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 28:56 Mention the GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 29:00 Some restrictions do apply. 29:02 First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322-842-480-200. 29:08 This is not an agreement to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 29:11 First Class Mortgage is an equal housing lender. 29:17 Okay, Kinger, let us have it. 29:19 How are you feeling? 29:20 You've got a really good connection now. 29:22 It seems good. 29:23 Hey, we've got to pack though. 29:25 If I have any more problems, you just cut my neck and we never look back and we don't ever speak about this. 29:35 I did eventually just kick you out there. 29:38 Like, boom! 29:41 What I was trying to say before is we got to talk about this nine line. 29:48 I mean, they are so... 29:51 I think when Bob sleeps at night, that's what he dreams the Gopher team is. 29:58 I mean, Matthew Nye's neck is as big as a thigh. 30:04 Meyers, the Lucius kid, it's the greatest. 30:10 I mean, now there's only three of them, but what a treat. 30:14 Veegs? 30:16 I don't know. 30:16 I'm not the professional, you know, X's and O's like you are, but it seems to me, but it's just puck control, puck control, puck control. 30:26 Protect the puck. 30:28 Protect the puck. 30:29 And I see those guys do such a good, they're so strong on their skates. 30:32 They protect the puck. 30:34 That's why they always have it. 30:37 I mean, Meyers is your prototypical Bob guy. 30:42 He wants a guy from a small town who's hungry, who's got very little ego, who works incredibly hard and kind of leads with his eyes. 30:54 I don't think Ben Meyers is in there giving a big speech, a big monologue at the start. 30:59 He's just looking guys in the eyes and they get it. 31:02 Like that's how he leads. 31:04 And then he goes out and does it with some flair and some aggression. 31:08 And he has really taken a leap to the next level. 31:12 Now that he's healthy, he couldn't really shoot the puck. 31:15 The first couple of weeks of the year, he had some upper body injury that was affecting that. 31:19 And now he can drive to the net and put pucks on net and it's really showing. 31:24 And Knies has just been a revelation this year. 31:26 I was not expecting that from him because I remember watching some of his Tri-City games last year. 31:31 So I'm like, who is this kid? 31:33 He's from Arizona. 31:34 He's got foreign parents. 31:35 You know, what's the deal? 31:37 And he wasn't that impressive in that first half of the junior. 31:41 In the second half of the year, he kind of took off. 31:43 This summer, I don't know what he did, but he just took a leap. 31:47 And now Lucius kind of fills in there, slowly gaining confidence, a lot of skill, a lot of fancy. 31:53 Good match with those two. 31:56 And even the name, the nines, like it's like the sixes on Yellowstone. 32:01 It's like if we could send the rest of the team to hang out with Miroslav and Michaela Knies, maybe send them to the house. 32:11 I just think we got to find a way to replicate that. 32:14 Blue collar, big bodies. 32:18 I don't know, man. 32:19 I think more of that, please. 32:22 Well, I want to say one thing I noticed, especially on that game winning goal, when they were on the power play there, four on three, when they brought it back into the zone, it got to Knies and when he started getting into traffic, he literally protected the puck and turned away. 32:40 Just with the thought, if I do it this way, it's a safer puck. 32:44 He goes back to Meyers, Meyers back over, and then obviously Lacombe with the touch pass over. 32:50 But it all started with that puck control and protecting the puck, Veegs, and not losing it. 32:55 And that's what makes their power play so dangerous, is they know when they have to protect the puck and when they can try something a little fancy. 33:02 They pick their spots very, very well. 33:05 I keep going to my poker analogies, but these guys know how to play the odds. 33:09 They don't put themselves in bad positions because they're good card players. 33:13 They know when to hold them and when to fold them. 33:17 And, you know, I captured that video. 33:19 I ended up putting the longer video out, Veegs. 33:23 You know, when Jess Meyers started saying, hey, they're still out there. 33:28 What he said, the Niners, whatever, still out there. 33:30 A couple seconds later, they deserve it, Jess. 33:35 Or they earned it. 33:36 No, they earned it, I believe is what you said, Veegs. 33:38 And then literally half second later, the puck's the back of the net. 33:41 Because they were out there quite a while. 33:44 They were. 33:44 But they put themselves in good positions. 33:47 They're not chasing all the time. 33:49 When you're in control and you're on a four on three power play like that, you're not getting that winded. 33:55 It's when you have to chase everything and you're in a bunch of chaos, which is something that happens with the other power play group. 34:03 You know, they're just chasing all the time. 34:07 So they did earn it. 34:09 And they got the goal, which is what we were expecting. 34:12 We've been a little down on Walker lately, Kinger. 34:16 It's just... 34:16 It's hard. 34:18 It's really hard. 34:20 I don't know if you might have heard some of that stuff. 34:21 You know, Vig's last week when he found out that Walker doesn't have a point on a power play this year. 34:29 That's bad. 34:31 Well, he's really got the opportunity during this Olympic break to keep us together. 34:38 If I were Don, I'd give him the Lucius kid, throw him up there maybe with McLaughlin and Sammy and just say, keep us afloat. 34:50 You know, get us to the tournament. 34:51 You know, we can't have a dip. 34:53 We're right on the bubble. 34:54 So, I mean, and I think he scored in the playoffs. 34:58 He's had some goals that mattered at different points. 35:01 It seems like he's good. 35:03 I mean, Walker scored the game winner against Michigan in overtime last. 35:06 Yeah. 35:07 So, I think he'll rise to the occasion. 35:10 McLaughlin's, you know, doing his thing. 35:13 So, I hope they kind of look in the mirror with these studs going to the Olympics and say, we got to keep the foot on the gas. 35:22 And Vee's, it's like maybe it is one of those things. 35:25 It's like, hey, if we listen to Bob, we do the smart things, he'll pay off. 35:34 We will see about that. 35:36 I'm more of the impression that, okay, we have eight weeks or six weeks of hockey left here ahead. 35:48 What they've done so far has not been working for that group. 35:52 I would probably be putting them in some uncomfortable situations rather than letting them continue to be comfortable. 35:59 I would split up Walker and McLaughlin after this weekend and say, you guys are impactful players. 36:06 Quit catering to each other and work for a different group of guys. 36:11 Maybe I'd put Crute Schenk and Sorensen with Walker and say, Walker, you're going to go on the wing. 36:15 You're going to have two responsible big athletes who can help you get pucks. 36:20 Go be you. 36:21 Be the free spirit of that little town on the west side and streak down the ice and score goals. 36:28 McLaughlin, you are an Iron Range kid. 36:31 Go dig out pucks for Lucius. 36:33 Lucius is going to score goals. 36:35 Go get him the puck, you know, and try to separate guys that way. 36:38 Maybe put him with Purbix, who's another kind of nasty guy. 36:41 And now you've got Lucius, Purbix and McLaughlin working together coming back. 36:46 And you've got Pitlick coming back and he's really fast. 36:49 And so you find a way to put him in the lineup in a position to be successful. 36:53 You know, there are options for this team. 36:55 You just can't keep putting out the same lineup and just expect it to eventually click. 37:00 Because that would be insanity, wouldn't it? 37:02 Yeah, some people. 37:07 Well, let's get into this weekend. 37:10 Notre Dame's always some close series, Veegs. 37:15 We've had a little bit better luck against them lately. 37:19 But still, they've been improved. 37:21 They're different, like Moscow said at Weekly Media. 37:24 They're a different team than they were when we played them and swept them here. 37:27 They're a little bit different team. 37:28 But one thing that's exciting, I think, for this weekend is Notre Dame usually gives a little bit of space to another team. 37:35 And so I think that little bit of space that they tend to give is good for Minnesota. 37:39 It gives them a little more opportunity to show off their skill. 37:43 McLaughlin's always done well in this matchup. 37:46 I don't expect that to change. 37:48 They tried him out to the media today and he's like, I don't know, it's just Notre Dame. 37:52 I play well there. 37:53 And it's a good chance for them to go on the road and figure things out there, too. 37:58 What are your thoughts on the weekend, Kanger? 38:00 I mean, what do you want to see before the Olympic guys leave? 38:04 I mean, we know that nine line is great, but is it something like, hey, break up Walker, McLaughlin and see what happens? 38:12 I like what Viggo was saying, get him uncomfortable. 38:15 You know, kind of, I guess, burn the forest so you can get some new growth. 38:20 But I did look at Notre Dame's kind of their schedule, what they've been doing. 38:26 They seem kind of scary. 38:29 You know, they swept Michigan. 38:30 They just smoked Boston College about eight to two. 38:34 So I mean, on paper, they look like they're a pretty nice squad unless I'm missing something. 38:40 I know we had some success earlier in the year, but this would be a weekend if we could put two wins together. 38:46 That would be, I guess, hide and hide or jekyll and jekyll, whatever the good one is. 38:52 Let's do that. 38:54 You know, they've actually done well to get to overtime quite a few times, you know, in the last month, Veegs, you know, winning. 39:00 I think both their wins in Ann Arbor weren't they, like overtime wins, weren't they? 39:04 Yeah, I mean, I don't think Notre Dame's a bad team by any means. 39:08 You know, they're scary and I think they're playing more aggressive and more offense than we've seen from them in the past and they've got good talent. 39:15 I just think it's an opportunity for Minnesota to maybe capitalize on some space. 39:20 It's just something we've seen in this matchup. 39:22 There is space for Minnesota to do things with the puck and they've been able to do good things when that's happened. 39:28 I think that Gophers have struggled when teams get in their face. 39:31 When there's hard four checks, lots of physicality, Minnesota sometimes shies away from that and gets a little panicky on the puck. 39:39 And so you see that when they play Duluth, Michigan, North Dakota, St. 39:44 Cloud. 39:44 You see this kind of fear creep into the game a little bit. 39:47 You don't see that same kind of reaction when they play Notre Dame. 39:53 How about special teams, Veegs? 39:55 We know Meyers got the goal, four on three over time, probably a little different situation. 40:01 We need some consistency there. 40:03 They need to change things up. 40:05 I think teams have scouted them pretty well and knows they like to work from the flanks, get rebounds and create chaos from there. 40:11 Other teams are taking that away. 40:13 Minnesota has tried to do some things down low along the goal line with some jam plays, but they just haven't been able to get to the loose pucks there. 40:23 It's frustrating that they still don't have a weapon from up top who can pound pucks on net from the point. 40:29 They just do not have that in their lineup right now. 40:32 I know at the start of the year, Bob said, Faber is looking like he's got a shot this year. 40:38 He could be on that point and hammer pucks down from up there, and that could change our power play a little bit. 40:43 We're just not seeing that from Lacombe and Kester right now. 40:46 They're not a threat to shoot, and other teams know that, and they don't honor it. 40:51 They take away the flanks really well, and then Minnesota doesn't get a lot of movement on their power play. 40:56 Bob hinted at that availability today. 40:58 They have to figure out something different with their power play. 41:00 They've been scouted, and teams know what to take away. 41:04 And Minnesota has the puck on the power play. 41:06 They have the opportunity to get possession and get scoring chances, they're just not executing. 41:12 Now, before we get into predictions, a couple of other things that I wanted to get into with the Michigan series with Hugh Kinger, and it's not really Michigan related. 41:20 It's that little reunion they had Saturday evening with the 2002 and 2003 teams with about 10 guys, 12 guys showed up. 41:33 Played a couple of videos on the screen, didn't introduce anybody. 41:37 A lot of guys never showed up. 41:39 A lot of the names, I would say Ahaza was there, but Kowalska was there. 41:43 But I was very disappointed with what the U kind of did. 41:47 It's like they just trotted them out there real quick, and, okay, then we're done. 41:52 How was your viewpoint on that whole thing? 41:55 Well, God, it was a great couple of years, wasn't it? 41:58 What do they say? 41:58 You win a championship together, you walk together forever. 42:02 So I know I sure would be... 42:06 I'd be, until I'm in the wheelchair, I'd be there and with the little tiny 2002 and three flags they were handing out. 42:16 But yeah, I don't know what was going on there. 42:17 It was hockey day, so you had a lot going on. 42:22 A lot of these guys coach, you know, Vannick's a coach. 42:25 And so I, you might've just got tangled up. 42:28 And I mean, they arguably did it on the busiest hockey day of the whole season, you know. 42:36 So maybe that was part of it. 42:38 But yeah, I'd love to see, I would have hoped there was a lot more pageantry and kind of remind people what that felt like. 42:49 I do know one thing that I heard from one of those players that was at the reunion. 42:55 Boy, they're really disappointed that they, it was a half empty arena. 42:59 Because that's just not something they had back then. 43:04 It wasn't in the vocabulary. 43:06 Back then, they still had 7,500 sold season tickets. 43:12 And now they come back, big reunion, and Saturday night was definitely not as full as Friday night. 43:17 Friday night was a pretty good night. 43:21 That was disappointing, Veegs. 43:24 And they were disappointed, I bet. 43:26 Yeah, it's unfortunately the way things are. 43:29 I've talked to Jordan Leopold about this in the past. 43:31 He wants to bring his family to the rink and show them the banners and see a packed house. 43:37 He's like, when I was here, this was the thing. 43:40 And it is not 2002, 2003 again. 43:45 What would you think if a Leo or a Pole or a Wheeler spoke out about it? 43:51 I don't think it would help. 43:53 I mean, does it look good for those guys to publicly berate the program? 43:59 Are they helping with the solution? 44:01 Well, not the program, the administration. 44:05 It's super complicated. 44:07 Mark Coyle has a very complicated job with Minnesota. 44:11 They're a hundred and forty some million in debt. 44:13 They're coming out of a pandemic where they had to take a forty million dollar loan to make things right on their books. 44:20 And they're going to have to pay that off, too. 44:22 That's like another capital project thrown at them. 44:25 It's challenging the wild right now or barnstorming the state and the NHL with their high flying young Russian and entertaining hockey. 44:35 And, you know, that just is a different atmosphere than Mary G can provide. 44:39 You know, Excel is a beautiful, beautiful building, you know, it's all that glass and all that light and the big shiny scoreboards. 44:47 It's a different thing. 44:49 And I think people will put that up against Gopher Hockey and try to compare them. 44:54 It's a tough comparison to win right now. 44:57 It is. 44:58 It is. 44:58 I just kind of wanted to get both your thoughts on it, just because I know those guys are kind of disappointed. 45:03 And like you said, twelve of them or whatever showed up. 45:09 They just look bad all around, Kinger. 45:11 Yeah, I don't know what. 45:13 It's funny, I was at the games Saturday and the guy I was with, he said, you know, I thought there would be more people here. 45:23 But there was the moment when we had one of the goals. 45:26 And you know that feeling in your chest when the rouser is going like that. 45:31 It just and it was not even close to full, but it was still it was that you felt it. 45:38 And now it's not the same as a full house. 45:41 But it I don't know what you do about it because there's like I really like coil. 45:48 And the there's this group of fans and I put I say fans because they can't move past the Big Ten. 45:58 They they hate watch the team. 46:01 You know, they're they're just waiting for the photograph with the empty building. 46:08 And and I, you know, at one point I said to one of my buddies, I said, man, you haven't liked this team in 20 years. 46:15 You know, you've been like around it, but you only sort of get your dander up when something bad happens. 46:24 So I just think, man, move on. 46:26 Like, let's let's get a let's, you know, and to me, it's all about NCAA titles. 46:31 But, you know, if we could somehow, you know, chip in a chair, get into the tournament and and we really are building for March, I'll tell you that go a long way to change. 46:45 I'm with you 100 percent. 46:47 You know, Veegs and I and you probably heard, we've talked about attendance, all this BS for years. 46:55 We're sick of the Big Ten excuse. 46:57 That's just it just doesn't work for me anymore. 46:59 You know, people said all the rivalries shut up. 47:03 I want to say those games against Michigan, those games against Notre Dame, even Penn State, even over there, upstart new team. 47:11 These are damn good games. 47:12 These are damn good hockey. 47:15 And you want to see them against, you know, like Anchorage, a terrible CC team? 47:25 Yeah, I used to think that if Minnesota won a national title, that the people would come back. 47:30 And the last couple years have kind of changed my mindset on that. 47:34 I don't think it would happen. 47:36 A lot of people would be like, well, yeah, they got lucky. 47:39 They won one. 47:40 Like if they snuck in as like the last at large team, like UMD did and went on to win it, I think there's a lot of people out there who would still just hold to it as like, oh, that's fluke. 47:50 You know, it wasn't a really good team anyway. 47:52 They got a good draw or something. 47:53 I just, there is that feeling out there from some people who are fans. 48:00 And it's, I don't know how to change that, but it's frustrating because I love college hockey. 48:05 College hockey as a whole, I don't think has ever been better. 48:08 We've got so many teams in Minnesota. 48:11 We've got so many Minnesota players playing. 48:13 There are so many drafted future pro players now in the college game. 48:17 It's in a great spot. 48:19 It's a good product, I think. 48:23 You know, I just, I don't care about those fans who say, you know, complain about, oh, it's not the WCJ. 48:30 That is just the worst excuse. 48:31 I can't do it anymore. 48:32 I just can't. 48:35 And we know the US made mistakes. 48:37 We know Norwood T does make mistakes. 48:39 We just have to move on, Ganger. 48:41 Well, I'm curious, what do you think is going to happen down the stretch? 48:45 It's a year unlike any other, right? 48:47 With obviously the, Bob, unbelievable situation with his family, LaFontaine leaving. 48:57 This Olympic thing is totally unexpected. 48:59 So there's this different, it's like they're putting a puzzle together and they don't even know if they have all the pieces. 49:06 So I wonder if maybe this is the year where we're not just squeezing it so tight and somehow pull a rabbit out of a hat. 49:16 I just don't know. 49:17 But it happened at all this year. 49:20 I saw it on GPL. 49:21 A couple of people are going to buy us all dinner. 49:26 They're going to take us out to dinner, buy us all dinner. 49:28 I'm like, well, hey. 49:30 I think that only comes true if Walker stays at wing. 49:34 I think if he goes back to center and they win, we lose our dinner. 49:37 I think that's a fine type on that one. 49:40 All right. 49:41 Well, to the tournament, they should. 49:46 They should get in. 49:47 They have enough talent. 49:49 They're in a spot. 49:50 Listen, the way the schedule works out, I think they can still get in and they should get in. 49:56 They're only losing Faber on their defensive core. 49:59 That defensive core is still one of the best in the country, even without Brock Faber. 50:03 That should be enough for them to get through the end of the season, get Meyers and Knies back and make run. 50:11 I don't know what we're going to see at goalie. 50:14 I know that the coach is talking up Closer as the guy, I think because he has to a little bit. 50:20 Yeah, but the guy loves him. 50:22 We'll get somebody else in there. 50:24 Yeah, but he is saying they're going to get somebody in there. 50:27 And do you notice that every time the goalie conversation comes up, it's not Brennan Boynton. 50:33 He doesn't say who it is, and he's often said Bartosz Kiewicz is a goalie of the future for them. 50:40 Maybe Bartosz Kiewicz is going to be our savior. 50:43 Hey, I hope he's seven feet tall. 50:48 And Boynton just got those brand new pads too, Veegs. 50:51 Yeah, Boynton got the shiny butter pads, so we'll see. 50:56 What are your predictions for this weekend, Veegs? 50:59 Let's hear it. 51:01 I think we're going to see some OT games this weekend. 51:05 And I think you're going to see Minnesota. 51:09 They're going to get two overtime wins on the three on three. 51:13 So four points. 51:14 Four points. 51:16 It's going to be exciting hockey on the Peacock. 51:19 That's right, people. 51:21 Peacock premium. 51:22 Peacock premium, $4.99 a month. 51:25 Get it for a month. 51:27 I can't even get on Wi-Fi. 51:30 We're not talking about you. 51:31 We're talking about the rest of the people. 51:33 Get it on Peacock, pay your $4.99. 51:35 You're going to get complete Olympic coverage during that entire month. 51:40 You'll have a better time to sign up for Comcast Air Net and get the Peacock premium for free. 51:44 Yeah, if you're on Comcast Xfinity, you get it for free. 51:47 Some other systems have it for free. 51:49 But if you're going to get it for a month, now is the month. 51:52 Because you'll be able to see any event just about. 51:57 Yeah, and the way the Olympics is going to work, it's going to be weird because it's Beijing. 52:01 So the time is all weird. 52:02 So if you want to watch anything live, I think you're probably going to have to watch it on the Peacock premium. 52:08 So it's going to be a weird Olympics. 52:10 $4.99 plus tax or whatever. 52:12 So you're getting two games for $2.50 plus the Olympics, plus whatever they offer there for a month. 52:19 I think it's a bargain. 52:20 So listen to Veegs. 52:22 Get it for a weekend. 52:24 What do you think? 52:26 Well, VIGO's got me convinced that this is a good matchup. 52:28 He almost said it like 30 times, but I think that's what he's telling us, is that we match up good against this Notre Dame team. 52:39 So hey, let's send the boys over to China with a sweep. 52:43 Let's go. 52:45 Let's not be negative. 52:46 Let's go. 52:47 It's not about being negative. 52:49 Being negative is just... 52:53 The thing is, I'm kind of thinking along your lines, Kinger. 52:58 I'm thinking six points, Veegs. 53:00 Let's go. 53:01 Like you said, I think those Olympic boys are going to be jacked. 53:09 And McLaughlin is just unstoppable when he plays Notre Dame. 53:14 Let's go. 53:17 We're back, baby. 53:21 Hop on the train, folks. 53:25 Of course, next week, if that doesn't happen, we'll be all bitter and whatnot. 53:29 But that's okay. 53:30 That's okay. 53:31 Well, you know, we got to get to overtime here, Kinger, because that's the big part. 53:36 So thank you for being on the podcast. 53:39 So even though you cut out for a little bit. 53:40 I'm sorry about the tech difficulties. 53:43 It's all good. 53:44 We make do. 53:45 That's what we do. 53:45 Hey, this is a live program. 53:47 We're not going to go back and do any editing. 53:49 That's what we love about this is that it's live. 53:52 And that's what makes it the most fun. 53:54 So I remember back when you used to have technical problems and now you're so pro and I come in here and just muck it up. 54:02 A year ago, he was giving us, Hey, if you guys just do this, there's a little tip here, a little tip there. 54:08 And he's the one. 54:11 I'm sorry. 54:12 Hey, you're a hockey guy. 54:14 We can give you a hard time. 54:15 You can take it. 54:16 I'll make it up to you in overtime. 54:22 Well, that's going to do it for this week's GPL podcast. 54:26 We'll be back next Thursday, a day later, because I'm going to do some moving around schedule with the USA. 54:37 Veegs is going to go see USA Qualifier. 54:40 We're moving to Thursday, and our guest is going to be Eric Shearhorn. 54:43 I thought it would be great to have him come back and kind of see. 54:45 I think it is a view on Mr. 54:48 Close now that he's taken over. 54:50 I'm looking forward to that episode. 54:52 For the rest of you, we'll see you next week. 54:56 For those listening live, stay tuned for some overtime.