0:07 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:16 This podcast is sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage. 0:19 Our expertise, your peace of mind. 0:21 Visit us at firstclassmortgage.com. 0:23 Thanks Now, let's start the show with your hosts, Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:38 Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 211. 0:46 Well, Veegs, it's been a good month so far. 0:51 It's been a really good month. 0:54 Right. 0:54 I mean, all the drama that's happened to go for hockey, and they escape with this winning streak, did not see it coming. 1:03 I feel like every weekend I was kind of hedging my bets against this team and predictions going, you know, split would be good for them. 1:12 If they get that, you should be happy. 1:14 And what do they do? 1:15 They just keep winning. 1:16 All they do is win. 1:18 All they do is win. 1:20 Well, you know, there was an interesting stat that came out the other day that our guests talked about, but before we kind of go into that, we need to introduce them. 1:29 It's Badger Week, Veegs, and then it's Badger Week. 1:32 What do we do? 1:33 We have Todd Milewski on, don't we? 1:35 One of the great writers in college hockey covers it, like few out there. 1:41 Welcome, Todd. 1:42 There he is. 1:43 Hey, Todd, how you doing? 1:45 How great. 1:46 How are you guys? 1:48 We might be a little bit better than you right now. 1:50 Obviously, the Badger Men are struggling, even the Badger Women. 1:56 The Badger Men are struggling. 2:00 It's the Badger Women, all of a sudden, just hit the wall too. 2:05 It's been a little odd. 2:06 They go forever without losing a game, and now all of a sudden, they're getting swept a couple of times. 2:14 What's happening over there? 2:17 Well, they started this season one player short of a full lineup, so that was a bad, not a great way to start, knowing that you're never going to have a full lineup. 2:29 And the first thing that Mark Johnson told me is that we have to stay healthy. 2:34 Yeah, it seems pretty obvious. 2:36 And in the last two weeks, they've lost three players, so that in addition to two players that went out for the season in the first half, the numbers are a struggle right now. 2:48 And you can, I think, get by on that for a while. 2:54 But when you get into month four and month five and into the season, and you're playing two lines a lot and maybe a third, the grind is real, I think. 3:07 And we're talking before the show here, it's kind of what happened to Team USA's women's squad. 3:15 That last game against Canada, they played like two lines, hardly played the rest of the team. 3:20 And it's like, you can't do that against the top quality teams. 3:26 The Brianna Decker injury hurt so much. 3:31 And I think you saw that in more than just the Canada games. 3:36 There was some real lack of depth. 3:40 Yeah. 3:41 Which is sad to say because that's the team they put together, right, for this same thing. 3:47 And they lose one of the players, obviously a key player, and then it kind of crumbles. 3:55 Well, and one thing with the Team USA makeup like that, you have the choice to develop talent over time. 4:03 And we talk to other hockey coaches about this all the time. 4:07 The team you're building in November is not the best team you have. 4:11 You're building for a team that's going to arrive in March, April with your best chance. 4:16 And so you take your lumps early in the development process, trying to get players ready for that, for that moment where you need them. 4:25 And I remember seeing something in the Athletic where it showed ice time distribution by lines. 4:30 And that top heaviness of Team USA looked like some of the small high school teams would use their team in the tournament. 4:38 And you just can't do that on a world stage against a program as dominant as Canada. 4:43 So a little women's hockey talk to kick off the show. 4:45 That's for us. 4:47 I don't mind it at all. 4:48 I just, you know, well, it's not like we can talk about the Badger Men right now. 4:54 Wait, why am I here? 4:57 We have you here because you're an all around expert on a lot of things. 5:01 So not just badger hockey. 5:04 You know, as I kind of talked about earlier, there's one interesting stat that you put out yesterday or maybe the day before. 5:13 You know, everyone talked about Minnesota and Michigan losing all these players. 5:21 What are they going to do? 5:22 These and I talked about, we'd be happy with three or four wins, you know, kind of 500 ish. 5:27 And you tweet out the other day, both teams went undefeated, combined 12 and 0, while their best players were out, Todd. 5:36 Not probably what most of us expected. 5:39 No, we were talking. 5:39 I remember talking probably about a month ago with some people after one of the games, just saying, OK, is this the opportunity for Ohio State and Notre Dame to jump in and become the favorites for the title? 5:56 And we're kind of like, well, I mean, I don't feel bad about the depth on either Michigan or Minnesota. 6:04 But I mean, that's not like losing a third liner or a third D pair guy. 6:10 I mean, that's obviously significant losses for a couple of weeks. 6:18 But wow, 12 and 0 between them showed us where to stick that, I guess. 6:27 Well, Veegs, I mean, we didn't see it coming at all. 6:31 I was trying to be positive. 6:33 Hey, we'll get five points this weekend. 6:34 We'll get five points that weekend. 6:37 But three straight sweeps, Veegs. 6:43 It's been really good for Minnesota. 6:44 They killed a few demons in Hockey Valley this past weekend with some two solid victories. 6:54 Maybe Saturday night didn't start as well as we wanted it to. 6:57 But Penn State was definitely a huge success for this team. 7:02 Yeah, well, I think when you looked at the players that were leaving for the Olympics, I wasn't too worried about Brock Faber leaving because the defensive depth at Minnesota is pretty deep. 7:14 And if anything, it just gave Mike Kester a chance to shine even more than he has already this season. 7:20 We saw that when the players went to the World Juniors two years ago, when Kester was almost that extra defenseman that was going to get named to the team and USA Hockey went another direction. 7:31 And Kester really shined during that experience where he was leaned on pretty heavily. 7:36 And he really came through, you know, he was the player that kind of ignited things on Saturday for Minnesota when they really needed him. 7:43 Then the other thing is it created an opportunity for freshmen like Huglund and Pitlick to take more steps forward. 7:49 They got more ice time, more special teams time. 7:52 I think they were the power play unit that looked the most dangerous over the last three weeks. 7:58 And that's what you need for this team to be ready for March is having another line besides the Myers line and the Walker line. 8:07 And I think they have it now with the Huglund line. 8:09 I would say Friday night was kind of a workman like win, would you say? 8:12 A good, you know, solid three to one win. 8:16 They just played well all around. 8:18 Maybe Saturday is a didn't play anything in the first period and then show how they come back. 8:24 I mean, one thing we've seen this year, they have been able to come back several times. 8:29 Yeah, they're showing ways to win different kinds of hockey games, and that's going to be important for them. 8:34 And this is the first time we see them rally off a stretch of games consistently, where they don't let a bad period, you know, break a weekend. 8:44 I think we're still looking for some power play consistency out of this team, and I don't know if we're going to get it. 8:51 Like this would have been a stretch maybe to tinker with things and try new players. 8:56 But Bob just hasn't figured out the right potion to pull out for this squad, and I don't think it's coming. 9:03 So on this side, Todd, Minnesota is kind of still going upwards here. 9:09 It's not looking great for a Granado squad over there at the present time. 9:15 That's correct. 9:18 And you know, there's a question here. 9:22 How hot is Granado's seat? 9:25 Badger Red Hot, Badger Red Hot. 9:31 I've been looking for, you know, trying to read between the lines in some things. 9:40 Granado hasn't given up. 9:42 He's been down some days after some games, but he's talking a lot about the future and about, you know, we'll do this next year. 9:51 I need to learn from some mistakes. 9:58 So he's not planning on going anywhere from anything I can tell. 10:02 And he wants, you know, a chance to prove that last year was the kind of team that he can have. 10:14 But four losing seasons out of five doesn't play well with the diehards. 10:22 And that's where you get the more casual fan into it and saying, well, what the heck's going on? 10:28 Even though, you know, I only drop in every once in a while, but I've never seen a team like this, that kind of thing. 10:37 It's strange times here in a lot of ways in that there are a lot of concerns about just the, you know, just the overall health of this program as a top tier program. 10:55 You know, it really hasn't been that way for the last decade. 11:02 Some ups, some high points, sure. 11:04 Oh yeah. 11:05 But do you consider them an elite program anymore? 11:09 A very fair question. 11:13 You know, the answer for me is, you know, probably not. 11:15 I mean, who are in the, who's in that class right now? 11:20 And would you be able to put Wisconsin in there? 11:24 It's, it's hard given, you know, just looking at, if you take the last 15 to 20 years, there's been more downs than ups. 11:37 And I think that's part of the thing that that gets out a lot of the the longtime fans is that you can understand some down seasons. 11:44 You can't understand some down five year spans. 11:49 And Veegs, you know, we've talked about it since the beginning of the Big Ten, you know, as fans, badgers stinking. 11:57 Who cares stinking badgers? 11:59 But for the overall health of the Big Ten Veegs, we've talked about this. 12:04 A good Badger team helps the league. 12:07 Very much so. 12:09 The Big Ten needs rivalries and needs Wisconsin to be good for the league to be healthy. 12:14 You know, there's been talk of how good is the Big Ten this year. 12:18 It would be a lot better if Wisconsin was in the conversation for the NCAA tournament. 12:23 It doesn't look like it. 12:25 And I kind of look at their recruiting pipeline. 12:27 And it's still that there are named talents that are committed to Wisconsin and believe that's a place they want to go play. 12:34 It's not like a Penn State or, you know, Bemidji, where they're just going to have to muck and grind and fight for players. 12:42 You know, Michigan State wins the last time they had a premier recruit land there. 12:47 But you look at Wisconsin, you see guys like Charlie Strammell committed there. 12:51 That's a huge get for them. 12:52 Any college hockey program in the country wants guys like that in their pipeline. 12:57 But what Grenado just doesn't seem to be able to do is build a roster that's going to be consistently good from year to year. 13:04 And we saw all the talent that came through the last couple years. 13:07 One year, they had a lot of hype and it didn't work. 13:10 And then last year, Cole Caulfield brought them to a different level. 13:13 I think Dylan Holloway was a big part of that. 13:16 But you can't rely on a program that's going to have guys like that coming every two years to keep you going. 13:22 You got to have more than that. 13:24 And what killed them even more last year is losing the first NCAA game, Todd. 13:28 I mean, this is your big chance. 13:30 And it just didn't come together for them at the end last year. 13:36 I mean, they all knew that that was all set up for them, right? 13:39 I mean, I still don't know whether they get past UMass in the second round, even if they beat the Midgee. 13:43 I certainly think that's a tough matchup form for anyone, really. 13:47 Yeah, but you know, Cole Caulfield, man, he was such a difference maker. 13:54 He was the kind of guy who on a given night, they could have beaten any team. 14:00 Yes, UMass is a great team. 14:01 I'm just saying. 14:03 That's just that was the thing about the Badgers last year. 14:06 You get him and you start getting some penalties, you know, against your own team. 14:11 And you've got Cole Caulfield on the power play. 14:13 Good night. 14:14 So, oh, boy, I thought they would go much further last year. 14:19 Yeah, I mean, getting Bemidji in the first round was a, you know, looking back on it, a bad matchup for them in that. 14:26 I mean, it's the same as they have trouble matching up with older, heavier teams in a lot of ways. 14:34 And that's, you know, probably not a new thing for Minnesota either. 14:39 Yeah, well, for sure. 14:41 And so, you know, we saw it again earlier this year when they, you know, just got run out of the building in St. 14:47 Cloud. 14:48 It's like that, you know, that was not going to happen. 14:53 That was never going to go well. 14:56 Michigan Tech, same thing. 14:58 Older team, been around the block, plays the body really well. 15:04 It was not pretty the first weekend of the season. 15:06 So we had some signs pretty early that they were going to, those same things were going to happen. 15:11 And that's essentially what happened with Bemidji last year, is that they were able to play that game the way they wanted to. 15:17 You know, the ice didn't help. 15:20 I mean, that was why I think when everyone was talking on TV, but I don't think that was the reason they won. 15:27 It was a factor in the game that things were so sloppy, as they always are in Bridgeport. 15:32 But yeah, that was all lined up for Wisconsin last year, and the fact that they didn't do more with it, even get to that second round, is really something that is going to sit with a lot of people around here for a long time. 15:51 Veegs, both you and I kind of think they should just start throwing money at Mr. 15:54 Roelich. 15:56 I mean, Steven is an outstanding coach. 16:00 If I was sitting in the chair as the AD of Wisconsin, I would think that would be a pretty quick solution and to turn things around because I think he understands the depth that a program needs to be successful with some continuity. 16:16 And I think he'd also have the recruiting chops at a place like Wisconsin where they actually have nice facilities to play in and a fan base to capitalize on and maybe take it to the next level. 16:27 And I think that's what you need as a college hockey coach these days is to build continuity and bring in the talent. 16:35 I do wonder, and that's a name that has come up a lot, is he at a point where he would see that as a, unless it's a really significant money boost, is that a step up? 16:50 And yeah, that's really the only thing is because if he comes into Wisconsin, how many years does it take him to install what he needs to install? 17:01 A couple, right? 17:02 I mean, and that's not something that's obviously going to sit well with people here, more losing or more losing seasons. 17:13 And he's got a pretty decent thing other than the facilities. 17:20 I mean, they need to get them right in Ohio State. 17:22 But here's the thing though, at Ohio State, when's the last time they got like a high profile A grade recruit from Central Scouting? 17:32 It would have been Cole Caufield. 17:35 It would have been Cole Caufield. 17:36 It just doesn't happen in Ohio State. 17:38 You know, players want to play for premier programs. 17:41 And I think that's what drew Bob to Minnesota was as much as these St. 17:45 Cloud Husky fans want to talk about their program having more success over the years. 17:50 I think Bob getting to work at the World Junior as head coach and having success there said, man, if I could do that at the World Juniors, what could I do with that kind of talent in college hockey? 18:00 And you're seeing him right now dip his toes into the blue chipper recruiting and fill up his pipeline with these kinds of players. 18:08 And he's going to have to figure out how to balance that with continuity. 18:12 And that's going to be his biggest challenge here the next couple of years because he's got the program in a nice spot right now. 18:18 But did he give in to the devil and start bringing in too many 18 year olds? 18:22 Or is he stick to what's made him successful in the past and balance it with older guys? 18:26 Like he just got a high school defenseman from Vanilla St. 18:30 Margris commit today. 18:32 That's not a typical Bob commit. 18:34 He usually waits for guys, especially defensemen, to play in the USC at jail for a while. 18:39 And this is a guy who's just played elite league in high school. 18:42 So it's going to be interesting to see what he does next. 18:45 But I don't think the Granado method is working. 18:49 And there's something to be said for development when they're here, right? 18:55 I mean, you can get players in and you know, they've gotten obviously a lot of high end talent here. 19:02 But it's that next level. 19:04 And do you get them, you know, at this level and have them get to this level by the time they're leaving? 19:09 We're not seeing that from a lot of guys. 19:11 We're seeing a lot of, you know, what you expect out of players like Caulfield and Holloway and Keandre Miller. 19:18 Turcotte, we didn't even really get enough of a look at for the year he was here because he was hurt for a lot of it. 19:24 I don't think the rest of the group is, you know, those guys that are going to be four year guys. 19:34 I don't know that we're seeing enough of an improvement out of them or they came in too early. 19:40 It took them too long to get to a point where they're comfortable in college and you don't then get enough out of them in whatever time you have left after that. 19:50 Todd, there's another program that's just beyond struggling and they need a change as well. 19:58 Michigan State has not won a Big Ten playoff game since they've been on the Big Ten. 20:04 They're pretty much at the bottom most of the time. 20:08 They need a change as well. 20:10 Which is crazy to me that we're saying that now given where they were at the break. 20:19 That is true because they lost one player in their old team. 20:22 Yeah, just created. 20:25 It has felt like a few times over the last three or four years, they are ready to turn the corner and then the bottom falls out. 20:37 And I don't know, I think this time, this one, you know, this season, yeah Lewandowski is gone and it all falls apart. 20:45 But if there's one guy that is gone and it all goes away, it's kind of a house of cards to begin with. 20:57 So they need to do something. 21:00 They have to do something. 21:01 It's these thoughts. 21:03 Well, it's kind of baffling that he hasn't worked out. 21:06 You know, he was a guy that had spent time in Ann Arbor with the development program and you thought by hiring him, they might get a couple more of those guys to have an interest in Michigan State and then play big roles right away. 21:18 And it just did not pan out that way. 21:20 So it looks like the perfect hire for them at the time. 21:23 But I don't know, we might be seeing some more turmoil in the Big Ten with coaching staff for the next year. 21:31 And they're a program that, I mean, historically, I think of them as a workman-like program, right? 21:38 They're not the blue chip guys, but they're going to get, kind of like we've seen out of Ohio State, they're going to get guys that come in maybe under ranked and have a lot to prove and go out there and do it. 21:54 I think that's what we've seen a lot of years at Ohio State. 21:58 I thought that's where they were going to start with at Michigan State, but that hasn't, I mean, we haven't seen that. 22:05 That hasn't been the way it's gone at all. 22:08 A few good players, obviously. 22:10 I mean, Lewandowski, Hirose, I mean, these guys that, Khodorenko, I mean, that line they had that one year or a couple years was just ridiculous. 22:21 Killed the Gophers many times. 22:23 But I mean, when you think of Michigan State the last six years, you think of the KHL line and that's really about it. 22:28 That's it. 22:29 Right. 22:30 That's the mark for the Danton Cole era. 22:37 Something's got to change. 22:38 It could be interesting. 22:39 We could see two, well, it's potential we could see three big changes because, you know, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and maybe Wisconsin goes after Rolex. 22:48 So it can be crazy. 22:50 And there's the shakeout at Michigan because Bell Pearson might not survive. 22:54 What's happening there? 22:55 His infidelities to the school in terms of being truthful. 23:02 Well, I saw somebody commenting on Twitter that he's looking to try to cancel those games this weekend. 23:08 OK, can't play them because because then they would win based off win percentage or something like that. 23:15 Todd, did they ever officially do point percentage? 23:18 Is that official if games aren't completed? 23:21 This season, yes. 23:22 OK, so I wasn't sure if that was ever officially done. 23:25 So yes, they changed the standings if all games can't be played. 23:34 But if you go back and look at the tiebreakers, they still talk about winning percentage. 23:39 So they can't even get things straight in their own protocols from one thing to another. 23:45 Nothing shocking there. 23:47 I honestly think it's just that they don't realize it until well after the point where they can change it. 23:58 Somebody brings it up in February and it's like, oh, yeah, I guess it says winning percentage. 24:04 That's what they decided on. 24:08 Could make for an interesting weekend at least, wouldn't it, Veegs? 24:12 It would make for an interesting weekend. 24:14 I think the hockey that we have on tap at Marriott is still going to be interesting. 24:17 A lot of good storylines with Jared Moe coming back to the rink to play the team that he was on the roster for last year. 24:26 He's been pretty good for Wisconsin this year. 24:28 I don't think he's gotten a lot of help out in front of him. 24:31 But I do think for him, the move has actually been pretty good for his game. 24:37 You know, it's too bad for him personally that he probably didn't get the chance to fill Jack LaFontaine's net. 24:42 But maybe he wouldn't. 24:43 Closer has looked really good for Minnesota. 24:45 So maybe Bob was forced into the right choice. 24:49 Well, hold off there, Vaze, before we start thinking about this weekend's series. 24:52 We do need to take care of some business and hear from our sponsor. 24:57 Hey, fellow GPLers, Jerry Peters here from First Class Mortgage. 25:00 Have you refinanced your home in the last 12 months? 25:03 If you haven't, chances are you should. 25:05 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. 25:14 You can also use the equity in your home to finance those home improvement projects. 25:18 Or you can consolidate high interest rate credit cards into one new low monthly payment. 25:23 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291. 25:29 You can email me at jerry at firstclasscorp.com or you could go to firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 25:38 Mention the GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 25:42 Some restrictions do apply. 25:44 First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322842-480200. 25:50 This is not an agreement to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 25:53 First Class Mortgage is an equal housing lender. 25:58 Well, thanks to Jerry for sponsoring the GPL Podcast. 26:03 I've got a couple of questions I've keyed up here. 26:06 We'll go this one first. 26:07 Any word on NICE? 26:10 Did you hear anything during media day this week, Veegs? 26:13 I think they're just taking it easy with NICE this week to get them back up to speed. 26:18 I think there's a very, very good chance he's back in the lineup. 26:22 All right, let's throw this one to Todd. 26:25 Is Roman Asshaun coming back for one more season to try to break the all-time penalty minutes record? 26:33 And better yet, is his dad still stalking you a little bit? 26:37 Well, his dad doesn't follow me anymore. 26:39 Oh, that's good. 26:41 You're terrible. 26:42 He's in the chat. 26:43 Please let us know. 26:45 Yeah, I got a burner account from someone that, I don't know, maybe a parent, I don't know. 26:54 Made a comment on something earlier this week. 26:59 I don't know is the answer. 27:01 We do know he's not playing Friday night. 27:02 He is not playing Friday night. 27:03 That's correct. 27:04 For the second time this season, his game misconduct accumulation has gotten to him. 27:10 So he has to sit out. 27:14 None of the seniors have committed to coming back or not coming back next season, is what I was told when I asked. 27:23 I think it's pretty much going to be the same for Minnesota, don't you think, Veegs? 27:27 I think it's highly unlikely, based on the recruits coming in, that any seniors would come back for an extra year. 27:34 Just kind of think it's thank you for what you've done. 27:37 Appreciate it. 27:39 Please come back and buy season tickets someday. 27:42 Especially not with no scholarship relief. 27:45 Right. 27:46 And that's disappearing, yeah. 27:47 Right. 27:48 I mean, Bob had to make that choice last year with the recruits he had coming in. 27:52 Looks like maybe it's the right decision so far, because all the freshmen have played pretty key roles for Minnesota this year. 27:59 So I would expect that to be the case moving forward for them as well. 28:05 All right, Veegs, obviously a huge weekend. 28:07 I've got the Big Ten standing, scrolling across the bottom of the screen now. 28:12 Minnesota in second place, Michigan just a couple points back, Wisconsin coming into town. 28:20 They're playing at Notre Dame. 28:22 It's just going to be a fun weekend all around for all these teams, because I love it when the Badgers are in town no matter what. 28:29 And we're going to have Peacock streaming on our computers while watching our game. 28:35 We're going to love that app. 28:38 Peacock was great for streaming. 28:40 If you got it for the month when Minnesota is playing Notre Dame, you'll still have it, I believe. 28:45 Yes, I do. 28:46 Yeah, I got mine. 28:47 Mine expires on Sunday. 28:49 So it's perfect timing yet again. 28:52 But I think it shapes up for an exciting weekend for the Big Ten. 28:55 I do expect Notre Dame to give Michigan some trouble. 29:00 It's just the style that Notre Dame plays. 29:04 And they were successful already against them this year. 29:06 Yep, they've shown that they can be difficult to play against. 29:09 So I don't think Michigan getting even three points is necessarily a sure thing with that weekend coming up. 29:17 And then you look at this, Todd, and the two last teams are playing each other for fighting for last place. 29:27 Yeah, what are the... 29:28 Maybe Michigan State can get a win. 29:30 They haven't won since... 29:32 They haven't won a league game since early December. 29:35 Yeah, it's hard to imagine how BTN didn't choose Michigan State, Penn State for the Saturday slot. 29:46 No, that's a... 29:51 I have to keep an eye on that series because that actually does impact me. 29:54 It does impact where I go next weekend. 29:56 Because in theory, Penn State could pass. 30:00 Right. 30:01 Well, either one can at least catch up to Wisconsin. 30:07 Both have the tiebreakers, I believe, if it got to that point. 30:11 But Wisconsin can't finish seventh because they both can't pass Wisconsin. 30:15 Correct. 30:16 There will be no worst to first to worst. 30:27 You know, we've seen a lot of crazy weekends. 30:30 Obviously a lot more crazier than this, where teams have been much closer. 30:34 Many teams could finish first. 30:35 This year, we know Minnesota, Michigan is going to finish first or second. 30:39 Ohio State, Notre Dame is going to finish third and fourth. 30:42 We kind of know where things are going to go. 30:45 We just don't know exactly where things are going to go yet. 30:48 But it's going to be fun no matter what. 30:51 Yeah, and I think Notre Dame is the team that's playing for their pairwise life right now as well. 30:56 So I think they've got maybe a little extra exasperation coming in the weekend. 31:00 You know, they still have a chance to sneak in with getting some important wins over Michigan, who's at the top of the pairwise. 31:08 So I think they're looking at that really hungry. 31:11 But it is interesting to see the Big Ten standings. 31:13 I don't think we expected this necessarily coming in the year. 31:16 I mean, a lot of the coaches picked Ohio State to finish at the bottom of the league. 31:23 I don't think anyone expected the bottom to drop out on Penn State and Wisconsin and Michigan State like it has this year and where we've really seen the stratification. 31:33 But I think we expected to see Minnesota and Michigan fighting at the top, but not quite as wide a spread in the Big Ten as we're seeing this year. 31:40 I would love to know. 31:41 Voted for who? 31:42 Because Matzko is like, I didn't pick them there. 31:44 I wanted to ask him, so where did you pick them? 31:49 Just because you picked them six doesn't mean you're all high and mighty over there. 31:55 But I don't think he would have responded well to that follow up. 31:59 He wouldn't give you that crazy look like he gives to Jess Myers. 32:02 He would have given Jess Myers crazy look. 32:03 That's right. 32:05 Larry David. 32:06 So I assume you're coming up for this weekend, aren't you Todd? 32:11 Exciting. 32:12 I haven't been able to do many road trips this season because of, well, you know, people don't seem to be all that interested. 32:20 But hey, this is a border battle. 32:22 So let's have at it. 32:26 That's good. 32:26 Veegs, what about you? 32:27 Are you going to be coming down this weekend? 32:29 I know you got a lot of kid hockey still. 32:31 I know. 32:31 I'm for sure going to be there on Friday night. 32:33 I got to take in this eight o'clock start. 32:36 I'm looking forward to that. 32:38 You know, I get to have a little time with the family before I head to the rink, which I always like. 32:42 I know some people don't like the late starts. 32:45 I like an early start or a late start. 32:46 They're great for me. 32:47 I don't mind it because we're going to go out to dinner before the game. 32:52 Maybe after the game on Saturday night. 32:54 So yeah, it's going to be a fun weekend all the way around. 32:59 So Veegs, what does Minnesota need to do? 33:05 Obviously, we know just win, baby. 33:08 Just win, baby. 33:09 But it's not always that simple. 33:11 It's not always that simple. 33:12 What does Minnesota need to do against the Badgers to be successful this weekend? 33:16 Well, I think they need to avoid doing what they did Saturday at Penn State. 33:20 I think if they fall behind 3-0 this weekend, you know, it's not going to go well. 33:27 And I think they need to stay disciplined. 33:29 You know, Wisconsin is a team that's been a little undisciplined lately this year. 33:34 I don't think their penalty kill has been especially good. 33:37 So if Minnesota can stay out of the box, maybe get their power play going and just take control of the game and maybe, you know, make Wisconsin be a little disinterested about the weekend. 33:49 I think that's going to be really key for them. 33:51 And I think Minnesota should continue to rely on its depth. 33:55 I don't think Nyes and Myers and Faber are going to be back 100 percent. 34:00 When we talk to them this week, they're still waking up in the middle of the night and confused what time it is. 34:05 And it's, you know, Jess wrote about their travel story the other day. 34:09 And, you know, Ben Myers said it almost took them two whole days to get home. 34:13 And when they were in Texas, Bob said, you know, if you guys want to go back to Minnesota, that's fine. 34:19 And they, as a group said, don't we're coming to Penn State. 34:23 We want to be there for our teammates and play if we can. 34:27 And so I think those guys need to be eased back into it. 34:31 And it's important, I think, for Minnesota to try to play for that by. 34:34 You know, there's a lot of extra rest in there that they could benefit from. 34:39 Todd, how is Wisconsin's psyche right now? 34:42 Is this something that if they get down, they could be even in more trouble this weekend? 34:46 I mean, you get down three zip or two zip after first period. 34:50 What could it be ugly for this team? 34:52 Yeah, fragile, I think is probably a good way of describing it. 34:56 I mean, they are putting a good face on it, but I think there's an understanding of what's, I mean, what the reality is of this team. 35:06 They're not a team that can score goals like they could last year. 35:09 So any deficit is significant. 35:16 It's a team that's overly reliant on good goaltending that has been inconsistent. 35:27 Yeah, but Mo's coming home. 35:30 And yes, he's excited. 35:31 I talked to him today. 35:32 He's excited for that. 35:34 I asked him if he's expecting any, you know, with the students behind him for two periods, if he knows what he's in for. 35:40 And he said, oh, yeah, I'm sure it'll have some pretty good signs of chance or something. 35:44 And, you know, he says he gets fired up off of that. 35:49 So we'll see how creative it can get, hopefully within reason and within, you know, safer work things. 36:01 But I think, you know, Veegs, you mentioned it, the power play for Minnesota. 36:12 Wisconsin has given up a lot of power play goals this season, and that's something that has been a tendency to get them in a hole. 36:20 And so they know they need to be smart about not taking penalties. 36:26 Somebody in particular wasn't named when Tony Granato said that. 36:31 But they don't have to worry about that on Friday night. 36:34 Friday, right. 36:37 They need to really the whole, all weekend, they need to be smart. 36:42 I mean, they're not a team that can afford a lot of, you know, taking minutes off and just, you know, get by with it. 36:51 They need to be, probably have one of those weekends where they block 25 shots to have a chance in each game. 36:58 And we've seen that before at Mariucci, where they can hang around if they're in the bend, but don't break kind of defense, because they have bent an awful lot in games at Mariucci in the past and managed to stay in more of them than probably they should have. 37:15 Correct. 37:17 A lot more. 37:20 Just because, I mean, just because it's, you know, there's emotions that take over in these games, right? 37:24 I mean, that's such a big part of it. 37:27 And then I think coaches try to downplay that and players try to, you know, say, well, it's, we tried not to make that a big deal. 37:34 It's a big deal. 37:35 Let's, I mean, let's be honest. 37:37 This is, there's still a lot of pride still. 37:41 Right. 37:41 We know Wisconsin doesn't have much to play for in the standings, given they don't have pairwise to play for. 37:48 What they can do is be a spoiler to any hopes Minnesota has. 37:54 And they can have some say, you know, in a rivalry. 37:58 And I think that's something, you know, when you get towards the end of the season, something you could remember as a positive. 38:08 There it is. 38:09 Predictions. 38:10 Let's start with you, Todd. 38:11 What do you think's going to happen this weekend? 38:15 I'm going to say either Gophers five or six points. 38:21 And that's just based on how they play. 38:25 A lot more to play for on one side than the other. 38:28 Even though we're talking about pride, there's pride plus a ring to play for on the other side. 38:35 And, I mean, it's just, let's look at the way, the form of these two teams, right? 38:42 I mean, the Badgers were lucky to get a win out of that series against Notre Dame. 38:48 Otherwise, they'd be coming in on an eight-game losing streak. 38:50 So, I just, I can see one of the games being close and why I say maybe five points instead of six. 39:03 But I just don't like this matchup for Wisconsin. 39:09 Veegs, I think Matsuko wants his bonus this year. 39:13 So, keep winning and hope for a Michigan loss, right? 39:17 Right. 39:18 He didn't really want to talk about the scenarios that could play out this weekend. 39:24 He said, we need to win Friday. 39:27 We win Friday, we're going to start talking about things that are possible on Saturday. 39:31 And he's like, I know you media guys are trying to goad me into this, but I'm not going to do it. 39:35 We got to win Friday. 39:36 But on Saturday, we'll be watching scoreboards and paying attention to what's going on. 39:41 But you got to win Friday night. 39:43 But you got to win Friday. 39:44 And I think this team's done a pretty decent job coming out on Friday nights and playing well. 39:50 So I'm not expecting this scary weekend for Minnesota. 39:56 I feel like they're playing with depth this time with the Olympians gone, have really allowed Huguen and Pitlick to figure things out. 40:03 I'm a little curious to see what's going to happen with Lucius. 40:07 You know, he's a player that had kind of a boo boo thing happen in Happy Valley. 40:14 We haven't really found out what happened, but he basically didn't feel like he could go. 40:20 And he told Moscow that he didn't want to take away anyone's ice time if they could do better than him. 40:26 You know, that was on a night where they were going to be short forwards. 40:30 So he was just, you know, pushing them into a situation where they'd play 11. 40:34 And then when the Olympians came back, you know, it was an easy choice for Bob to say, well, I've got enough forwards now. 40:40 I don't need to worry about you being healthy. 40:42 And so we'll see what happens with that situation this week. 40:46 You know, something's bothering him. 40:47 You know, there's a lot of players on this roster that have played through some significant injuries like Myers and Kester. 40:54 You know, they battled through for their teammates. 40:58 And Bob was very verbal thanking the guys who came back from China to make that Saturday game possible. 41:06 You know, Ben Myers travels for almost two days and he gets three assists. 41:10 And they don't beat Penn State without him in the lineup. 41:13 He is such a driver of play, especially when things aren't going well. 41:17 You saw kind of over stretches where you go, oh, man, I bet Bob wishes he could throw out the nine line right now and really change the momentum of a game. 41:24 Like a D-zone draws, being able to rely on Myers and Nyes to go out and change the momentum. 41:31 You know, they missed that when they were gone. 41:33 And it'll be interesting to see how that stuff plays out. 41:37 But I'm expecting six points this weekend. 41:41 That's what I expect too. 41:43 Sweet. 41:45 And then we'll just have to, you know, I believe the Notre Dame-Michigan games will be over before. 41:52 They both start at five. 41:53 The other series both start at five on Saturday. 41:59 I was thinking about how last season, you know, Minnesota and Wisconsin going Minnesota leading going into the last weekend, but losing to Michigan that first game, then opened the door for Wisconsin on the last day. 42:13 And I wonder if that'll know if you if Minnesota gets some help from Notre Dame on Friday and then you've got a Saturday night home game against Wisconsin with a chance to win a championship. 42:27 I hope that's a good atmosphere. 42:29 I mean, I don't know what crowds have been like there, but I hope there's something. 42:35 They have not been great this year. 42:38 Well, they have been great. 42:39 I mean, Todd, you take a photo at the beginning of every game. 42:42 Every game. 42:43 And it's starting to depress me. 42:46 For my own scrapbooking purpose. 42:51 Yeah. 42:51 Did you see the one from Super Bowl Sunday? 42:54 You didn't hear us talk about it on the GPL Podcast? 43:02 We were wondering if that might be the lowest attended college hockey game in Big Ten history. 43:11 The Minnesota Michigan one, what was it officially? 43:13 1800 and 2200 or something like that. 43:16 Yeah. 43:17 And this one was, I was told was 1400. 43:20 So it was ugly. 43:28 They knew what they were getting into. 43:30 I mean, I was told there was nothing else they could do if they wanted to play the game and they, you know, felt like they needed to play the game to her that, you know, to make sure everyone got the right, you know, had the same number of games and they weren't going to point percentage. 43:44 Tip of the hat for playing the game. 43:46 Yeah. 43:46 I mean, it was really, I mean, they knew they were going to take it on the chin there, but had to be done. 43:53 Gosh, what else have we got? 43:56 Corey says, he says, it appears the Big Ten counts three on three wins as a win for tiebreaker step one. 44:04 Therefore the Gophers own the tiebreaker with Michigan. 44:07 If they sweep and Michigan gets four, regardless of how they get four, what? 44:14 Oh, this is why we have Todd here. 44:19 Todd is the man. 44:20 I printed this out this week and put it in my notebook because I knew it was going to come up at some point. 44:24 There you go. 44:27 So I, and I had to ask this, I had to ask someone at the Big Ten this, whether when they talk about the first tiebreaker being head to head between the teams, whether it means like when you look at Minnesota and Michigan, Michigan got seven points in the series, Minnesota got five. 44:51 That doesn't matter. 44:52 They both got two wins, even though one was an overtime for Minnesota. 44:56 So that counts as the same. 44:57 That's the same. 44:58 That's a split. 44:59 Yeah. 45:01 So. 45:01 Yeah. 45:01 So like you said, it is not the first tiebreaker, the second tiebreaker, the team with the best regular season winning percentage in all Big Ten games. 45:11 So not point percentage, not point percentage, winning percentage. 45:17 So that treats an overtime win as the same as a regulation win. 45:26 I've got a headache already. 45:27 I don't. 45:28 This is all very logical to me. 45:29 I got it now. 45:31 I mean, I understand it, but if your standings go by points and give a different amount of points for an overtime win as a regulation win, why doesn't your tiebreak? 45:46 Seven to five. 45:48 That makes sense to me. 45:49 That makes sense to you, doesn't it, Bigs? 45:50 I mean, if you're going to go off points for the league standings, that makes sense. 45:58 I had the same discussions last year about why I was winning percentage and not point percentage, and we all know that if it was point percentage, Gophers would have won the championship. 46:07 Bob would have got an extra 30 grand. 46:09 Right. 46:11 He's really hoping he gets that 30 grand this year. 46:19 But just win both games. 46:21 Well, we do know that there will be changes to overtime and three-on-three, and how it's applied to the pairwise. 46:28 Because we've always talked about how this OT thing only matters for the pairwise. 46:32 Well, it turns out those three-on-three and shootout things matter for tiebreakers. 46:39 We missed out on a talking point all season that probably won't be there next year. 46:49 I mean, and I just always think about Michigan Tech in terms of why the overtime, the loser point or loser 45% means something. 46:59 Ask Michigan Tech how much it means, because they're in the conversation to be in the tournament because they've lost so many games in overtime. 47:08 When they've lost, they've lost them in overtime. 47:13 Gaming system, it's weird. 47:15 It's college hockey. 47:16 We expect things to go a little sideways from time to time. 47:20 Embrace the weird, right? 47:21 Yeah, embrace it. 47:23 It's not weird. 47:23 It's college hockey. 47:25 Sure. 47:25 It's just like those wild ads we've all been seeing in Minnesota. 47:32 I don't know. 47:33 It is goofy. 47:36 I still miss some other pieces of the pairwise that used to be there. 47:41 My favorite was always, how are you playing now? 47:44 The last 16 games. 47:47 I always kind of liked that being part of it. 47:51 I always saw why they got rid of that because, I mean... 47:57 Who do you play the last 16 games? 47:59 Yeah, exactly. 48:03 The conference dictates when you play what teams. 48:06 Just because you got an easy schedule down the stretch, why should that benefit you? 48:12 I had that problem, I guess, with that part of it. 48:18 And then you had Bob talk about, he doesn't really like the three-on-three and how it affects pairwise. 48:25 He's like, regulation over, pairwise over. 48:29 That's how Bob... 48:30 I mean, he was saying that on his radio show? 48:32 His radio show, yeah. 48:35 And the other thing that's happened in Minnesota here is the last five, or this will be the fifth week in a row, they're playing a team coming off a bye. 48:43 Which, whoever created the schedule for the Big Ten has apparently done them a favor by doing this. 48:50 Because every Friday night the team has come out rusty that they're playing against. 48:54 But that's not what you'd expect. 48:55 You'd expect them to come out fresher. 48:58 But that's interesting. 49:02 Yeah, that shouldn't be allowed to happen. 49:04 No, it's amazing that no one discovered that when they were doing it either. 49:10 There's a lot of things the Big Ten misses. 49:12 I mean, we've seen it all since it began, Veegs. 49:18 But it'll be interesting to see what happens with Minnesota. 49:20 You know, we had a comment in here about, you know, which forward is going to get pulled out of the lineup. 49:27 It's going to be interesting. 49:28 I don't think it'll be Braz. 49:33 I don't think it'll be Nevers or Bros or Nevers because those two have shown the ability to play on the power play. 49:39 So I think their spots are pretty safe. 49:41 So we'll think maybe it's Schmidt and Sorensen that get out. 49:45 I've really liked the Sorensen-Purbick Schmidt line. 49:48 It's kind of an energy line for the Gophers the last couple of weeks. 49:52 But I don't know if they're going to be able to keep that line together as they get everybody back and back healthy, especially if Jackson Nelson decides that he can play this week. 50:01 You know, he's coming off a broken ankle and has been skating for a little while, but hasn't been 100%. 50:06 So I think that will be interesting to see if he gets in the lineup. 50:10 And then if Carl Fish sticks in the lineup, he's been a bright spot for Minnesota. 50:14 And I think he's competing with Stoddicker and Brinkman for ice time in that kind of role. 50:19 Is it something where they might play seven defensemen, please, and keep fish in? 50:24 Well, it's always more damaging your lineup to lose one of your six defensemen than is to lose one of your 12 forwards. 50:32 You know, because it's very helpful to have those D, especially if a D takes a penalty. 50:36 You know, it's hard to change up your lineup there. 50:39 So maybe we'll see those 70. 50:41 And Rossini's done a nice job. 50:42 I don't think he'll make the lineup though. 50:44 No, I don't think he will. 50:49 Well, we'll just have to wait and see. 50:51 It's coming up soon. 50:53 I'm looking forward to it. 50:54 Todd, again, you're like the record holder for being on the GPL Podcast. 50:59 We'll have to get you a jacket, a smoking rack. 51:03 I take that as a badge of honor, honestly. 51:05 I mean, that's like, thank you guys for having me. 51:09 Well, I'm glad we found you and started getting you on the podcast. 51:12 So it's great to have your perspective. 51:15 And, you know, I see comments in the beginning. 51:17 You know, they were saying that that's a badger fan I like. 51:24 Okay, maybe you're a badger fan in your youth. 51:27 Obviously, you're still in my youth. 51:28 You're a fan. 51:29 I mean, if you weren't a fan of the team, you probably wouldn't be working. 51:33 Yeah, I can say that. 51:36 I mean, I grew up watching that team because that's what I had to watch. 51:40 Yeah. 51:40 I mean, that was that was his, right? 51:43 But we really appreciate you coming on. 51:45 We're going to keep bringing you on for like ever and ever and ever. 51:48 So that's that's that's the good thing. 51:52 You got any last things for the podcast here for us? 51:56 No, let's get to the weekend. 51:58 I'm ready. 51:58 Let's get to the weekend. 52:00 You are correct. 52:03 Well, that's going to do it for this episode of the GPL Podcast. 52:07 I want to thank Todd for once again coming on. 52:10 We'll be back next week to recap the Badger series. 52:14 And depending on where Minnesota finishes, we'll preview the next weekend or we'll preview something. 52:22 For those of you currently watching, stay tuned for some overtime. 52:25 And for the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.