0:06 This is the GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:15 This podcast is sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage. 0:19 Our expertise, your peace of mind. 0:21 Visit us at firstclassmortgage.com. 0:28 Now, let's start the show with your hosts, Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:38 Yeah, this is the GPL podcast, episode number 215, tried to play the video, just wouldn't work. 0:46 So we move on without it. 0:48 We gotta do what we gotta do. 0:50 Show's gotta go on, right? 0:52 Well, it happens, for some reason, videos just, it started and stopped. 0:57 So apparently Stream Hours might be having an issue, even though I just tested this before we came on, but you know how things are. 1:05 Well, this is episode number 215. 1:09 Why are we really getting up there, Veegs? 1:11 Coming towards the end of season 11 of the GPL podcast. 1:16 It's been a blast. 1:19 Let's start off with the negativity. 1:22 Big Ten Championship started really well. 1:26 32 seconds in Gophers up one nothing. 1:33 Didn't stay that way for long, did it? 1:37 It was it was a short lived lead. 1:40 It was. 1:42 And you know what Tyler Duke said after the game, when that line went out with Johnson and Bresson, he's just like, I hope that they get a goal. 1:53 That that's what we need. 1:54 And sure enough, one of them gets loose between the Gophers top defensive pair, Faber and Johnson, and capitalize it to make it 1-1. 2:03 And he felt a little bit of that energy come out of the building after that. 2:08 But actually, I thought Minnesota controlled play for the rest of the period for the most part. 2:12 I thought they looked pretty good in the first period. 2:17 It was pretty interesting. 2:19 It seemed to... 2:22 Obviously, the crowd amazed balls. 2:25 I mean, the student section was full when the Gophers hit the ice for warm-ups. 2:35 By the time the game started, the crowd was full. 2:38 A record crowd ended up being there at Mary UcheeVeegs. 2:41 So when they scored 32 seconds in, wow. 2:46 The roof blew off. 2:48 And then just a minute later, yeah, let's just put that roof back on. 2:54 Yeah, the hype for this game was there. 2:58 I mean, I don't know if I've quite seen a building like that for warm-ups, for the start of the game, for a first goal. 3:06 Maybe ever, you have to maybe go back to that regional, where you had a lot of people who were Gopher fans, but didn't have season tickets, who couldn't really get tickets, jumped on that game and really changed the atmosphere of the building. 3:22 You know, you didn't have all the gray hairs in there, the old people who sit on their hands. 3:26 You had a bunch of people who are rowdy, who pre-gamed and wanted to be at the rink and be loud and make an impact. 3:33 And they saw a lot of goals. 3:36 I think if the Gophers could have got a couple more goals in that first period, we would have felt that energy longer in the night. 3:41 Oh, yeah. 3:42 Instead, we got a little bit of frustration that started to come out. 3:45 Oh, yes. 3:46 That really came at the goal that Kester kind of tipped in. 3:50 Well, yeah. 3:51 But Michigan did exactly what they needed to do. 3:54 That is perfect hockey. 3:57 You get down on the road, you respond, and they responded. 4:01 That helps. 4:02 I didn't actually think Michigan played a perfect first period, though. 4:06 They gave Minnesota probably three or four rush scoring chances throughout the period, where if Minnesota would have capitalized on one of those opportunities, they probably could have got a lead and maybe started to run with it a little bit and get that momentum going. 4:22 Instead, that Kester own goal at the end of the first kind of sent the momentum back the other way. 4:28 And some people think the Gophers are deflated. 4:32 I almost felt like they came into the second period of this attitude that they had to overcome it. 4:37 And then you started to see them try to hit those home runs that I know very frustrated with that. 4:45 Yeah, I've kind of been bringing that up well on that. 4:48 You have taught me very well on that. 4:50 I'm like, what are they doing? 4:53 What are they doing? 4:56 When Bob Motzkowitz says they need to stop going for home runs and hitting singles, that means you need to stay tight on your breakout. 5:04 You can't fly the zone early. 5:06 You should be looking for those five to ten foot passes. 5:10 You should be getting back with the puck and even with the puck on the breakout so that the passes are easier to make and you generate speed behind the puck. 5:20 So when you get in the neutral zone, you have multiple options. 5:24 You are forcing the Michigan defense to close gaps and you can get some momentum as you attack the offensive zone. 5:33 Instead, what we see Minnesota doing is getting stretched out, centers leaving the zone very early, Minnesota coming into a neutral zone where they don't have any speed and Michigan has three players back and the Gophers would skate the puck into bad situations and have to start over. 5:52 Or you see Gophers have long shifts of playing defense, get an opportunity and then maybe extend it too long and then the Gophers lose the momentum. 6:02 At some time, you need your players to say, all right, I just got to win a shift so that the line coming out after me has an advantage on their next shift. 6:12 And we just did not see that happen in the second period. 6:16 Here is my concern, Veegs. 6:18 This is the end of the season. 6:22 We are supposed to have learned this by now. 6:28 Not a great game. 6:29 They had their bad game against Penn State. 6:36 What about that? 6:37 I mean, this is, they're not supposed to be doing this now. 6:39 And we're seeing a lot of what we saw at the end of last season. 6:42 The only thing is it didn't end their season. 6:45 They get another chance to learn from it and come into this weekend and maybe apply that lesson. 6:51 Sometimes it takes something like this to reset a team and get them to focus and learn what does it have to look like to win playoff hockey games. 7:05 And maybe they can learn that lesson. 7:07 I think down the stretch of the season, maybe the competition let them into it. 7:12 You know, there are a lot of people saying good things about the Penn State Series, the Wisconsin Series. 7:20 You know, as they came down the stretch, Michigan State, you know, overcoming some adversity in those games. 7:26 I do think that the teams that are playing in that stretch almost let the Gophers into it at times and let them have those rush scoring chances that kind of give them some confidence. 7:37 You never really saw a team like a Notre Dame or Michigan in that second period where they force Minnesota to play a difficult offensive ground game situation. 7:52 Can you still hear me, Veegs? 7:53 I'm having some computer issues. 7:55 I can still hear you. 7:56 Your video has gone somewhat frozen. 7:58 So I wondered if I was going to have to solo the podcast, like you've done some time and I have technical issues. 8:05 No, I'm just having some weird memory issues. 8:08 Chrome has been acting up on it. 8:11 See, and there we go. 8:12 We lost you. 8:14 I am glad that I have the power of running this show now from StreamYard. 8:19 So thank you. 8:21 I think what is going to be the big challenge for Minnesota is they get into the playoffs this weekend as they head out to Worcester. 8:29 Do they learn from this experience against Michigan? 8:34 And do they look back at times in the past where they have had issues, like when they lost to Minnesota State in the playoffs? 8:42 That's going to be key for this program. 8:45 I've kind of hedged my bets with Bob and what's going on with Gopher Hockey. 8:51 This will be a weekend where I think they can prove it. 8:53 I don't think it's exactly the most challenging regional they could have gotten. 9:00 I think the matchups they have this regional are going to be kind of favorable. 9:05 They're not going to have to slay the dragon in Worcester. 9:09 They don't play at Duluth. 9:10 They don't play in North Dakota. 9:12 They don't play in Minnesota State. 9:14 So they're going to see something different this weekend. 9:17 Welcome back, Jude. 9:18 Well, as you can see, Chrome just quit right on me. 9:23 Maybe that's a good thing. 9:24 It's good to have it happen early in the show rather at the end of the show, right? 9:30 Well, this is why I do love this platform. 9:32 This platform just keeps on going. 9:35 You took over very nicely. 9:36 I'm guessing you're answering a question there or two. 9:39 I'm trying to get my train of thought back here, Veegs. 9:43 Coming out of Michigan, any other things coming out of Michigan that you noticed? 9:48 That end of the game was pretty amazing. 9:50 It was. 9:51 Nice. 9:51 A couple of power plays, extra man. 9:53 They did come together. 9:55 Crowd was all excited. 9:57 Crowd was all excited when they scored with five seconds left. 10:00 Like, yeah, we're going to get the time goal. 10:03 But I went to the game as a fan. 10:07 I noticed I saw Jared in the chat. 10:10 He was sitting near me. 10:11 George GPL was sitting near me. 10:14 I had a fun time no matter what. 10:17 Veegs, they did oversell the student section a bit too much. 10:23 More than 1900 of them showed up. 10:26 Because all of them were trying to sit in front of me. 10:30 They kept getting booted out. 10:34 It's obviously not a bad problem to have. 10:37 Not a bad problem to have, exactly. 10:38 No, but as you can see, not ideal at all. 10:45 No, not ideal, but I think the atmosphere and the ability is worth the trade off of some of that, at least to those of us who have been wanting something like this for a long time. 10:56 I did get frustrated with the fans' reaction to the officiating. 11:00 The beers on the ice was kind of a black mark, I think, for Minnesota. 11:06 Jess Meyers kind of asked about it a little bit in the press conference afterwards to Bob Motzko, and Bob pretty much gave the no answer response, which might be added to our list of Jess Meyers and Bob Motzko interactions. 11:19 Oh, boy. 11:20 You know, I was actually going to bring up Ryan's question before my browser crapped out. 11:24 Ryan Kay, don't blame the officials often, but that was a very poorly called game all around on top of it all. 11:37 I guess a combination of two things. 11:39 Yes, not the greatest officiating game, but definitely not the worst. 11:43 Number two, completely different crowd there, Veegs. 11:47 Blue-collar crowd, not a normal Mariucci crowd. 11:53 I think that is 90% of why the beer and the pop were thrown on the ice. 12:00 I very unfortunately agree with you there. 12:02 It's just very unfortunate. 12:05 What about the roughing though? 12:06 Let's go back to the actual roughing because the fans were getting pretty frustrated. 12:10 Yeah, I think it started with the nice hit, which they reviewed. 12:15 And at full speed, it's one of those plays where the Michigan player goes down. 12:20 And as a ref, you gotta go, I think I saw this. 12:25 And you don't want officials making things up on the fly that they didn't see something in their calling. 12:34 I think the ref thought he saw maybe something there. 12:37 And so he calls the penalty. 12:40 Those open ice hits in college hockey, yes, those are things that probably aren't called in professional levels, but in college hockey, open ice, hard hits, intent to injure, more than separate from the puck, those draw the eyes a little bit differently. 12:55 And here's one thing though, Veegs, is that if he's gonna call it, he reviews it, it's not a five, it might not even have been a penalty, but he can't change that. 13:07 He made the call, he must stick with the call. 13:09 He can't go, oh, it was actually not a penalty. 13:11 So now he's just got to service two minutes no matter what. 13:14 It's just like, oh, this is not a five, let's move on. 13:18 May not, it looks like he didn't hit him in the head at all, looks like he didn't check. 13:21 But like you said, it's an instant, it happens just like that. 13:24 He's got to make his best judgment call. 13:28 I don't have a problem with that call because we see it all the time, good or not. 13:33 Things happen that quickly. 13:34 You can't reverse that on a video review. 13:36 I think you can be a little frustrated that it went against Minnesota, but I don't think you can be surprised that it was a call. 13:44 That's one of those penalties in college hockey. 13:47 You know, you're just going to see. 13:49 I was a little frustrated. 13:51 I think that the Krutschank odd man rush, where he couldn't get the shot off. 13:58 To me, that's one of those things where you want to let them play on the ice a little bit, but especially scoring chances, if you think that there's a hook or a hold on a scoring chance, those are calls I think you got to make. 14:14 And it didn't seem that the refs wanted to get involved on those kinds of situations. 14:21 And that's where the game kind of gets lost officiating wise for me. 14:26 I didn't think it was awful. 14:28 I didn't think it was clearly bad, but I think at that point of the game, Michigan is starting to push the line a little bit on what they are going to get away with. 14:38 And they're going to keep pushing that line until they get called. 14:42 And why shouldn't they? 14:43 That's smart hockey. 14:45 If you're going to let me get away with this stuff, I'm going to keep doing it. 14:48 And I think Minnesota got a little frustrated with that. 14:51 You had Bros starting something where I think he was the one that pushed a Michigan player into Portillo. 14:59 It's one of those things where on its face, maybe a penalty, maybe not. 15:06 But with the way the game was going, did it have to be a penalty? 15:10 Not if you're letting all this other stuff go. 15:13 See, that's kind of where it gets tricky. 15:15 And at that point, I think the fans were lost. 15:17 There was another high hit in front of the Gopher bench where somebody finished with their hands high. 15:22 No call on that. 15:24 So at that point, you know, the game's a lot of hand. 15:27 The Jackson Nelson hit, that was a clear major for me. 15:31 You're hitting a player. 15:32 It doesn't matter if he turns at the last second. 15:34 Exactly. 15:35 A lot of people say, he turned, he turned. 15:38 So what? 15:39 This is about player safety. 15:41 And the thing is, it was in the neutral zone. 15:46 You don't need to hit somebody like that along the board. 15:48 Or even, you just not, you need to, you can hit them. 15:53 You can, you know, slow them down. 15:57 You can't hold, but I mean, come on. 16:00 You don't have to blow somebody up in the neutral zone. 16:04 And especially when they, when they're a player that turns like that, you just can't do that. 16:08 And that... 16:08 They did survive that. 16:10 And they survived. 16:10 They actually generated some momentum coming out of the kill. 16:13 They did. 16:13 I thought shorthanded, they had some scoring chances that they could have... 16:16 I think they had better chances than Michigan did. 16:18 Yeah, maybe accelerate that. 16:19 And then after that, they killed that off. 16:21 I think they put on some pressure on Michigan to end the third, encouraging stuff to see. 16:26 I really like the six on three, pulling the goalie. 16:29 I've talked about that before. 16:30 I think that's a cool move in hockey. 16:33 So I was glad to see that. 16:34 Portillo was good. 16:36 Portillo outplayed Close. 16:38 You know, I don't think Close played bad. 16:40 I don't think you can look at any of the goals scored on him and say, oh, those were bad. 16:44 But there are a lot of saves Portillo made where it's like, no, that's a good save. 16:48 That's a Big Ten goalie of the year save right there. 16:51 You know, those are the those are the little differences that happen. 16:54 And just too big of a hole to climb out of. 16:58 Are you concerned? 17:00 Of course, I'm concerned. 17:02 I mean, this is a program that I've had my concerns with all year. 17:07 I've gotten confident at times and they've got me back on board. 17:10 And then they play a game like this where it's just like the same things keep happening. 17:14 You know, for this team to be good, they need nine and twenty seven to be dangerous players. 17:19 Oh boy. 17:20 And I thought McLaughlin was a very dangerous player throughout the night. 17:25 He did a lot of good things, but he can't do it alone. 17:28 And I thought, you know, Brodzinski was kind of separated from his line mates for a lot of the game. 17:34 And so when you had a line like that was just all over the place and not working together and winning shifts. 17:40 It puts you in a tough spot because then you have the freshman line that's never really been in games like this. 17:46 And they're being counted on to be like your second line against a team like Michigan. 17:51 You know, that kind of separates things out a little bit. 17:54 And Minnesota's fourth line, not really sure what you have there. 18:00 I like Purvix. 18:01 I like Nelson. 18:02 You know, I like Sorensen at times, but I think they just need to play more cohesive to make things happen. 18:09 I thought Cruikshank played a pretty decent game. 18:11 I thought he did some things that would have allowed them to string shifts together. 18:18 But it just wasn't enough. 18:20 And you can't have games where it's just not enough at this time of year. 18:24 Cruikshank is a perfect player that, you know, could get other people going if the other players have the opportunity. 18:32 It's like, he is one of the best support players that this team has. 18:40 But when the other players aren't there. 18:43 And he makes good decisions. 18:44 Like, he'll come in the rush and he'll make a dangerous shot that has a rebound. 18:48 Or he'll come in and realize that there isn't a shot there that can get to the net and create danger. 18:53 So he takes it down below the goal line or puts it down below the goal line and goes to work. 18:58 You know, that's the kind of stuff you need to happen, that you don't always see out of some of the other players in the Gopher lineup. 19:05 You know, Moscow did move Hugelin to align with Walker McLaughlin for a little bit there in the third. 19:13 You know, maybe that's something that they'll look at this weekend. 19:16 I don't think we're going to see Lucius back. 19:18 So this team is what it is. 19:20 Hopefully they have what they need for Gopher fans out there. 19:23 But it is a concerning weekend. 19:27 Yeah, I'm going to come back to Lucius in just a second here. 19:30 But I saw a question from Jared. 19:32 Fine. 19:33 Your favorite concern, number nine, might be coming back for another year. 19:38 Let's hope he walks away. 19:40 Jared's not much of a fan of Walker. 19:44 But I'm not sure they actually have room to do this next year, Veegs. 19:48 I mean, they might have a room for a player, too. 19:50 But I'm not sure that happens. 19:53 But it kind of got me a roundabout way. 19:56 And actually, what you're referring to, this team goes as far as 9 and 27. 20:03 Yes, Myers and Nyes can be deadly. 20:07 But if those two are on their game, Minnesota could go just boom, all the way to the top. 20:14 It's going to help if 9 finds his game in a big one like this. 20:18 If he came back, can he play wing? 20:21 Please, please for more than a period. 20:24 Can you put him at wing for more than just 20 minutes? 20:27 He can be dangerous. 20:28 He can float around at wing. 20:29 But when he's at center, he just, he flies too quick. 20:34 He opens up things in transition the other way. 20:36 He gets too deep. 20:37 He's never the F3. 20:39 It just creates some issues. 20:41 So we'll see. 20:42 I mean, if Walker and McLaughlin were to come back, maybe that means the Lucius kids aren't gonna be here. 20:49 It's really super complicated, I think, for that. 20:52 And that's the question. 20:53 Ryan K has Lucius played his last game for the Gophers? 20:58 Here's what's weird, Veegs. 21:00 That's not normal. 21:03 Moscow was talking about Nelson every other day. 21:07 He's gonna be back. 21:07 He's got this injury. 21:08 He's gonna be five weeks, six weeks, whatever it is. 21:12 Lucius, not a fricking peep. 21:16 One word answers from the Gophers. 21:18 Yes, he's not gonna say it. 21:20 It's not just an injury from just, we're just kind of putting puzzle pieces together. 21:25 There's something weird going on. 21:26 I think it's an injury, but it's just something that he's not happy with. 21:31 That's where I would go. 21:33 There's something there going on injury-wise. 21:36 Oh yeah, I don't know about that. 21:38 But clearly, Bob's frustrated by it. 21:40 You can see it when he answers these questions about him and how he talks about it. 21:45 Yeah, because it's not like he was talking about Nelson at all. 21:49 Or Pitlick. 21:50 Yeah, so we'll see. 21:53 I think it's probably too early for that. 21:55 I think Bob's really focused on the NCAA Tournament and maybe not about soothing of an ego of a freshman. 22:02 We know how Bob doesn't even like to talk about freshmen until they get to campus. 22:06 I don't think he said anything about his commits that have signed yet to the media. 22:12 He likes to talk about that when they come to campus and once they do something. 22:18 If Lucius does move on somewhere, it's got to be a major junior. 22:21 He's not ready to go play HL, he's not ready to go right to the pros. 22:25 He needs time to develop and strengthen. 22:29 Well, we're going to talk about the NCAA Tournament in a bit, but hopefully things work for me here and we can hear from our sponsor. 22:38 Hey, fellow GPLers, Jerry Peters here from First Class Mortgage. 22:41 Have you refinanced your home in the last 12 months? 22:44 If you haven't, chances are you should. 22:46 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. 22:55 You can also use the equity in your home to finance those home improvement projects. 22:59 Or you can consolidate high interest rate credit cards into one new low monthly payment. 23:04 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291. 23:10 You can email me at jerry at firstclasscorp.com. 23:14 Or you could go to firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 23:18 Mention the GPL podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 23:23 Some restrictions do apply. 23:25 First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322842-480200. 23:31 This is not an agreement to lock into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 23:34 First Class Mortgage is an Equal Housing Lender. 23:39 And of course, we always thank Jerry for sponsoring the GPL podcast. 23:46 Veegs, I've been saying this forever. 23:49 My favorite weekend of the year. 23:50 Three days just moved to four days. 23:55 I'm not so sure on that. 23:56 My Saturdays and Sundays won't be as busy. 24:01 But it's regional weekend, my favorite weekend. 24:04 Gophers there or not, best weekend of the year for me. 24:08 That's right. 24:09 It's going to be great. 24:10 I like having the games spread out over the four days. 24:13 I think it's more likely that we'll be able to watch most of the games. 24:18 Sometimes there's that overlap where you're trying to get multiple screens going. 24:21 There'll be a little less of that this year, hopefully. 24:24 And so maybe a little more attention could be played to the games with just four a day on the first two days. 24:30 There's actually a lot of time between the games at each regional, too. 24:33 It's not like when they're done about an hour, hour and a half later. 24:37 It's there's quite a bit of time. 24:39 I mean, I'm just looking at my first set of games here with Michigan and American International, Quinnipiac and St. 24:45 Cloud. 24:46 One game's at two, one game's at seven. 24:50 So they're like building in overtime time a little bit. 24:53 Just make it a little more casual. 24:55 Of course, I'm guessing maybe they're also, are they doing two sessions at some of these things? 25:01 Yeah, I don't know. 25:02 It'll be interesting to watch. 25:03 That's a little different. 25:05 We're obviously not going out there this year. 25:07 No. 25:08 To see them in person. 25:09 So we'll be watching on TV with everyone. 25:12 I think it's going to be good for the game to have those. 25:15 I'm looking forward to, I think, on the first day, I want to see how Minnesota Duluth plays. 25:22 They're playing a Michigan Tech team that I don't think is supposed to be super dangerous. 25:26 Tech hasn't done great against tournament teams. 25:29 But on the flip side, Minnesota Duluth sometimes has trouble scoring. 25:33 So we'll see if they can get a lead and pull that one out. 25:37 Because if they can get through and play Denver, that's a very exciting regional final for a frozen four spot. 25:45 Well, let's just go ahead and hit up that regional then. 25:48 That's the Loveland Regional. 25:50 You've got the number one seed in that regional, Denver, a playing UMass Lowell to kick off tomorrow night 8 p.m. 25:58 Central Time. 26:00 You've got Duluth and Tech playing tomorrow afternoon. 26:05 Any other thoughts? 26:08 Those are two easy games to pick on paper. 26:13 I'm just trying to think of like the odds. 26:16 If I look at my Draft King odds for those games, you know, Denver is a minus 340 favorite, so Duluth is a minus 220 favorite. 26:25 So the odds makers think that those are pretty easy games. 26:28 I think that 3-2 game between Duluth and Tech is probably one of the bigger spreads out there. 26:34 Really? 26:35 Well, look at what Duluth did. 26:38 They shut out their tournament. 26:41 Right. 26:42 And that's what Scott Sandlin teams do. 26:44 You know, I've often asked Scott how he develops leadership and how he develops teams. 26:49 And it's through hard work and trusting your veteran players and just kind of giving your freshman a little bit at a time. 26:59 You know, I think he was really shocked when he had Perunovic made that big leap and become such a player right away. 27:04 That's very rare for a bulldog team to have a young player like that mature into a relied on position. 27:12 But they had to that year because they had so many freshmen D on that crew. 27:16 You know, this is more one of those unheralded Duluth teams that's grown over the year and was very tough down the stretch. 27:23 I mean, they almost missed the tournament a month ago. 27:26 Right? 27:28 They did. 27:28 They were outside the pairwise. 27:30 They had to get in and now they're a two seed. 27:33 So, it looks like you're sticking with Duluth and Denver making that regional final. 27:39 And I'm picking Duluth out of that region because of that veteran savviness that Sandlin always seems to deliver. 27:48 You can't really bet against him. 27:50 He's done it so many times. 27:52 And I don't know, you know, after the NCHC weekend, if Denver is that team that can really make it happen. 27:59 I know they scored a lot of goals this year. 28:01 I know they have a lot of talent. 28:03 I just think when they play that style against Duluth, it could get wired down. 28:07 And as good as Brink has been, I have not been super impressed with him when I watch. 28:13 I don't know what it is, but just when I've watched Denver games, he has not flashed me as an elite player in college hockey. 28:21 I know the numbers are there. 28:22 I know he produces. 28:24 Maybe I'm just watching the wrong games, but he just doesn't consistently win shifts for me. 28:30 Okay. 28:32 Let's move over to the number one seed, Michigan. 28:34 Earning that number one seed by defeating Minnesota. 28:38 They're taking on American International and everyone, boy, in the past, everyone's like, Michigan, Michigan. 28:46 Who, what? 28:49 AIC has taken out the number one overall seed before. 28:52 This is nothing new for them. 28:54 Not saying this will happen, but stranger things have happened. 28:59 These stranger things have happened after watching Michigan very closely this last week. 29:05 And though Michigan has a ton of talent. 29:08 And the one thing that really impressed me with Michigan is how much during that second period, they controlled the puck and controlled shifts. 29:18 And that really was not something I think we saw from Michigan, maybe in the past couple of years or even earlier in the season. 29:26 I think they have matured as a team and know how to compete, which I don't know if we've seen all the time. 29:35 And some of the nights where Michigan's got in trouble, it's because of major penalties and things like that. 29:40 If they can avoid that against AIC, I think it's going to be an easy game for them from that standpoint. 29:45 And if they fall behind, I think they have the talent to come back. 29:51 Well, and then obviously on the other side, we've got Quinnipiac and St. 29:55 Cloud State. 29:57 That's a fun matchup, Veegs. 29:59 That's a really fun matchup. 30:01 It's a fun matchup because St. 30:02 Cloud's healthy, I think, based on everything I've seen. 30:06 Except for maybe their goalie has an issue. 30:09 Herniac maybe has something that's come up. 30:12 So that could be a surprise as we get to Puck Drop. 30:16 If he's in net, I've heard it's a concern. 30:19 But most of their skaters are healthy, and that's a dangerous team there. 30:23 I think they maybe don't have as good a record because of their first half. 30:28 They didn't do very well against some of the higher ranked teams in the pairwise. 30:32 But I like St. 30:33 Cloud in their game too for a big matchup. 30:36 St. 30:37 Cloud, Michigan in that regional final. 30:40 Oh, that's good. 30:42 This is just a fun weekend, Bigs. 30:44 It'll be great. 30:46 And as much as we get a lot of, you know, perps out there, you know, perks, hype, whatever it is for them, I don't think they're going to be there. 30:58 Well, there you go, St. 30:59 Cloud of Michigan. 31:00 Then I'm thinking Michigan does dispatch of St. 31:04 Cloud. 31:10 Oh, maybe that's not your baby. 31:12 Your bracket has Michigan losing in the regional leagues. 31:17 You know, if I could get confirmation that St. 31:20 Cloud was going to have their goalie healthy for the weekend, I would have some confidence in picking them right now. 31:27 But I think that little bit of mystery, I would pick Michigan go through. 31:31 Okay. 31:32 Okay. 31:35 Oh, boy. 31:36 Mankato. 31:39 First, let's talk about what happened in Mankato this past weekend. 31:45 As our game was ending, oh, they're going overtime and then Mankato wins. 31:52 And then, oh, wait, go, the puck went underneath the net. 31:56 And, oh, there's a whole debacle. 31:58 Makes the don not look so great. 32:04 According to who? 32:05 According to who? 32:07 Some of the people we hang out with. 32:11 Those people might be biased in some way. 32:14 Possibly. 32:17 I'm not going to get into the whole thing. 32:24 Technically, they broke the rules, Veegs. 32:27 But they broke the rules when they didn't look at the initial, they didn't look at the first overtime goal and see that it wasn't good. 32:34 Two wrongs make a right? 32:36 It does for me. 32:37 I think they made the right call. 32:39 It should not have taken that long. 32:42 But I think that's the difference when you have the CCHA versus the Big Ten or NCHC. 32:48 You just are a little more organized, I think, in some of these different leagues. 32:52 CCHA, it's more willy-nilly. 32:57 Once Don saw that, he's like, we're getting this right. 33:00 Luckily, things were worked out between Bemidji and Minnesota State. 33:07 Mike Hastings, gracious man. 33:09 You can be gracious when you've already locked up a number one seed. 33:12 If there was only one spot at stake in that game, I don't know if he would be as gracious, but I think they made the right decision there and figured it out. 33:23 It would have been crazy if Bemidji would have scored that goal, but I think that your conference commissioner is the one that gets to make the shot call there. 33:34 If he thinks that's what you're going to do, that's why you have a commissioner. 33:39 So, Minnesota State Mankato, they're going to be playing Harvard. 33:42 Harvard got that overtime victory against Quinnipiac to get into the tournament leagues. 33:48 I don't think they're much, they're not, they're not AIC. 33:52 Well, pairwise is not too far away, but they're peaking at a good time. 33:56 They could give Mankato a little trouble, couldn't they? 33:59 They could easily give Mankato a little bit of trouble. 34:02 You know, we've picked on Minnesota State a little bit for playing in the CCHA. 34:06 They have a lot of games where they are unbeatable. 34:11 Just the way they're going to play when they get on the ice. 34:14 It's kind of like some of those old WCHA days when you had those Gopher teams where they could play a really bad game and they're still only going to give up 10, 15 shots, and they're going to be able to pull off the win. 34:27 You know, it just doesn't matter. 34:28 They make a mistake. 34:29 They'll reel them back in. 34:30 That's kind of been Minnesota State's season. 34:34 They have done well this year when they have played good teams. 34:37 I think this is probably one of Minnesota State's strongest non-conference schedules they've ever had. 34:43 I think the CCHA has had pretty decent luck with Michigan Tech and Bemidji State playing tough schedules. 34:50 You know, Michigan State didn't particularly, or Michigan Tech didn't play particularly well in those games, but at least they played them and they got rewarded for it by getting in on the pairwise, but the league as a whole was very top heavy. 35:02 So, I think Minnesota State has enough experience now, or they'll come into this weekend and they're going to be able to come out of this game against Harvard. 35:11 You know, Harvard is coming from out east. 35:13 I don't think the east has been very good this year. 35:15 You just have to look at the ECAC and Hockey East. 35:19 Those teams got slaughtered in non-conference. 35:22 They didn't even do very well against Atlantic Hockey. 35:25 So, it's a league that I have a hard time seeing them do well in the tournament. 35:32 And that's game numero uno tomorrow, folks. 35:35 11 a.m. 35:35 Minnesota State takes on Harvard, ESPNU, the kickoff this wonderful weekend. 35:41 And that's going to be followed up at 5 p.m. 35:44 North Dakota and Notre Dame. 35:46 I like this matchup because North Dakota is a little injured right now, Veegs. 35:52 And otherwise, I would have picked them straight through. 35:56 But it makes it a little more interesting when somebody like Cassanderson is down. 36:01 Yeah, and North Dakota has been a team that's fortunate to have all those transfer portal players. 36:08 You know, they lost so many players to the pros from last year's team, and they were able to plug everything in with transfers. 36:15 It sounds like, according to Chris Peters, they might be the team that's going to get to Ritter next year. 36:20 That's what I was just about to say. 36:22 Yeah. 36:22 So, I mean, they've done very well. 36:24 The portal's been very, very, very good, Mr. 36:27 Barry. 36:28 And I think they're able to pull out this game with Notre Dame. 36:33 But we'll see. 36:35 Losing Sanderson does hurt them quite a bit. 36:37 I don't think they quite have a player like him. 36:40 Nobody really does in college hockey. 36:43 This is probably the closest game in the first round for me in terms of matchup and what to expect. 36:51 So I think Notre Dame is going to come out here. 36:55 And really, the key is that if Notre Dame gets a lead, North Dakota could be in trouble. 37:00 Because we've seen Notre Dame, I mean, if they get even a one, it's strange that a one goal lead probably wouldn't hold up. 37:09 But if they get a two goal lead, North Dakota will be in panic mode because it's going to be tough for them to score. 37:17 And North Dakota has done very well against Michigan this year. 37:20 I don't think they're going to be nervous at all about this matchup. 37:23 So it's one I'll be excited to see. 37:28 All right. 37:28 Well, you picked North Dakota. 37:31 Taking on Minnesota State. 37:35 Minnesota State's got some great defense. 37:38 They got a great goalie. 37:40 They do also have one of the top offenses. 37:43 What do you think? 37:46 Minnesota State and North Dakota. 37:47 Who comes out of their Veegs? 37:48 I think it's going to be one of those games where you're going to be lucky to see four goals. 37:53 I would put the over-under and four and a half and bet the under. 37:57 I think Minnesota State's going to pull this one out. 37:59 I think, as I said before, McKay is a good goalie. 38:03 He's not going to see a lot of shots in either of these games. 38:07 That's perfect for him. 38:09 That's the right style. 38:11 I think they're going to be headed to Boston. 38:15 All right, well, that brings us to the Worcester Regional Vigz. 38:20 Worcester. 38:22 Western Michigan and Northeastern. 38:26 I did a little Twitter poll earlier this week. 38:29 By far, this one was the most that people thought could be an upset. 38:35 When you've got somebody like Levi Annet for Northeastern Vigz, he could come through the whole region and shut everybody down. 38:45 He could. 38:46 There is the school of thought that he has not played well against top teams. 38:52 Okay. 38:52 He did not carry Northeastern down the stretch here. 38:56 He's had a lot of nice games, but again, East Coast hockey has not been very difficult this year. 39:02 There's not a lot of power teams out there. 39:05 Maybe it's a little bit of smoke and mirrors with those stats. 39:08 I don't think Northeastern is as dangerous with him and the net as some would pin them. 39:16 I think Western Michigan, they've got some of the top scores in the country with Frank and Adderd, pull players who probably could have been Olympic type players. 39:28 Maybe there's some anti-Western Michigan thing out there. 39:33 I'm pulling for Western Michigan to get through in this one. 39:37 I just wish that they were in a bracket with Michigan, so we could see that game happens. 39:42 But unfortunately, Western is going to have to get through Minnesota to get to a position where they get to Michigan. 39:50 I would have liked to have seen that matchup happen earlier and easier, but it's not in the cards. 39:55 They can only meet in the finals. 39:57 I know, they can only meet in the finals. 40:00 There was a young Michigan writer at the games, all the games when they were here earlier this year. 40:07 I was asking him about it. 40:08 He's like, you know, we kind of wanted to see it too. 40:15 So, you know, I'll have to see. 40:16 So you're thinking Western Michigan is going to come through there. 40:19 Yeah, I think I still think I think that's the one that's if there is an upset, that's the one that will happen for number one. 40:26 It will be that game. 40:28 Not saying it will, but that's the most likely one in my view. 40:32 It makes sense from that standpoint. 40:35 I can be talked into it. 40:36 I just don't think Northeastern is going to be very good. 40:39 I don't think as highly touted as Levy is. 40:43 I think he might get the Richter Award winner. 40:48 Because that's what it is like now. 40:50 It's before the regional folks. 40:52 I think he's going to get it. 40:54 I think he's going to lay an egg a little bit in the regional. 40:57 It's going to be egg on the face of everyone who votes. 41:00 Sounds familiar. 41:02 We'll be hearing it from Minnesota State fans all tournament. 41:06 Okay, here we go. 41:08 UMass, Minnesota Veegs. 41:14 Minnesota has not done great out at Wooster, especially against a team like Bob PC. 41:18 They took them out last time they were there. 41:23 They are the defending national champion. 41:27 They have players who have been there, been through the washing machine spin cycle. 41:34 Maybe they're not the top team they were last year, but boy, that experience does matter, Veegs. 41:41 It does matter, and they play the right way. 41:45 I think Carvel is one of the best coaches in college hockey. 41:50 He's done a lot of amazing things there. 41:52 He's gotten a lot of the right players there, and he's developed them. 41:55 And not all his players have been as hyped as McCarr, but they've done a pretty good job with their players. 42:03 And it's a tough draw for Minnesota. 42:07 It's just, it's kind of one of those kryptonite games in my mind. 42:13 Well, we had a question on Twitter about that as well, didn't we? 42:17 You know, which I can, I'll have to look it up here. 42:20 It is Phil Stark of the teams in the tournament, which one will benefit from the daft? 42:24 Oh, sorry, that's another question. 42:26 Sorry, Jason Michael, let me get this right. 42:28 Is the best region, is this the best regional for the Gophers realistically could have, they could have gotten? 42:34 I mean, I think so. 42:36 I brought up earlier where they don't have like a true dragon in their region, like a North Dakota or Minnesota State or Minnesota Duluth, you know, they don't have the distraction factor of playing St. 42:48 Cloud. 42:49 You know, they're not playing, you know, Michigan in the final after losing them the week before. 42:57 You know, I do feel like this is probably the best region they could have been put into. 43:02 But at the same time, it's going to require them to play at a level that we just haven't seen from them play very often. 43:08 I don't think their matchup with Omaha last year was at all scary. 43:13 That Omaha team, I don't think was that great. 43:16 You know, no disrespect to what they're doing there, but that wasn't a very good team that made the tournament. 43:21 And I think this UMass team is a little bit different. 43:23 I think UMass is a pretty good team that played in a weak conference and dominated for the most part. 43:31 It's just the rest of their league wasn't very good. 43:33 So they're hurt a little bit in the pairwise there. 43:36 So it's a tough matchup. 43:38 You could very easily see the seeds flipped here, where UMass would be the two seed and Minnesota would be the three seed. 43:47 And I'd like to remind people that it has been 20 years since Minnesota has successfully gotten out of a regional outside the state of Minnesota. 44:03 20 years. 44:03 It was 2002 when they beat Colorado College in Michigan, when they only had to play one game, by the way, they had to buy that was because we had 12 teams at the time. 44:17 That's kind of one of the issues I have. 44:18 It's like they got to show me here because it's been 20 years, Veegs. 44:22 Yeah. 44:25 Do you think Minnesota at least squeaks through? 44:29 You're looking a little unsure there. 44:31 I'm totally unsure. 44:34 Here's the thing. 44:36 Bob's got this program in a great spot. 44:39 I think they have an older team, an experienced team. 44:43 They do have the freshman line, but they have been pretty comfortable together. 44:47 The other lines are all veteran lines. 44:49 The blue line, all veterans. 44:51 Close. 44:53 Got a lot of experience here down the stretch. 44:55 He's an older guy. 44:56 He's not like some freshman that hasn't played a lot of juniors or something like that. 45:01 He's pretty experienced and he seems like a pretty calm guy. 45:05 And I don't think you're going to see games where he's going to need to stand on his head for them to win. 45:10 Is this the best Gopher team we've seen in six, seven years? 45:14 It should be. 45:16 Is it going to be enough? 45:19 I think it is. 45:20 It's going to be scary. 45:22 It's going to be scary. 45:24 But I think they get through against UMass, even though I'm not confident about it. 45:29 I would not put any money on this game if I was betting. 45:33 Well, that's just a way for me to say it. 45:38 OK, well, we theoretically put Minnesota and Western Michigan in the final on Sunday. 45:51 9-27, Veegs. 45:52 This weekend is 9-27. 45:56 If they play well, the Gophers get through. 45:59 Yeah, if they do, true. 46:00 If they play well, I think they sail through. 46:04 Because I think those two could have that much of an effect on a game. 46:08 Because if they have that much of an effect, that means the teams have to try to concentrate more on them, and it opens up Nyes and Meyers, opens up the Freshmen. 46:16 It just opens up so many things. 46:21 It's that, I mean, literally, this season depends on those two this weekend. 46:26 Sorry, guys. 46:30 It's what it comes down to for me, and just based on what I've seen in big games, they have not delivered enough for me to have confidence in them getting past Western Michigan. 46:43 I think the Broncos get through, and they're the team that gets out of Worcester. 46:47 Twenty-one years. 46:49 I know. 46:50 But I would be more than happy to be surprised. 46:53 I'd be more than happy to be surprised. 46:55 Yeah, I'm right. 46:56 You can go back to Gopher Puck Live and you can look at that play-by-play thing on Walker and what they need to change. 47:03 If he can change that in a big game, it's going to pay dividends. 47:07 If he does the same stuff that they've done, or if they fall behind and they start trying to go to homerun hockey, they're not going to be successful. 47:16 You can't do that at this time of year. 47:19 So for me, it's similar. 47:24 It's been, like I said, 20 years since they've been through a regional. 47:27 They've had a lot of good teams in those 20 years. 47:31 A lot of times those teams lined up and they got to play at Mariucci early on in the 2000s or they got to play at the X. 47:38 And they used that to their advantage. 47:40 Good for them. 47:43 But anywhere else, a lot of times, they lose the first game and they obviously haven't won the second game. 47:51 So definitely prove us wrong, right, Veegs? 47:55 Please prove us wrong. 47:57 But it's just, like I said, it's been 20 years. 48:00 Show us. 48:03 That's kind of how I feel right now, Veegs. 48:06 That's where I'm at, too. 48:07 You know, I'd love to feel more confident about them for the Gopher fandom that's out there. 48:12 It's just we haven't seen it in the big games for them. 48:15 And it's frustrating to watch it and see it come out all the time, these big games. 48:21 And, you know, I just get up in that press box and I just go, And the thing is, Vicks, I think what makes it even more frustrating is that we've seen them play the way they can and dominate some of the best teams. 48:40 They play smart. 48:42 They don't, they're not playing the stretch hockey. 48:44 When things aren't quite working, they dump the puck in. 48:46 They're not losing the puck at the offensive blue line. 48:50 They're doing the smart things. 48:51 They're thinking with their head. 48:54 And that just seems like they just, it just keeps rolling like it makes snowball. 48:59 Yeah, Bob says sometimes it's like they want it too bad. 49:03 Like, okay, they want to try so hard that they just don't play simple percentage hockey. 49:10 And I totally get that. 49:12 It's just so at some point you got to coach that out of them. 49:16 Yeah. 49:18 And at some times you got to make changes in the game. 49:23 How much would you love? 49:24 Oh, they don't see it working. 49:25 All of a sudden he puts Walker out on the wing, Veegs. 49:27 You would lose your shit. 49:28 I'm sorry, you kind of would. 49:30 I would, I would, I would be like, wow, that's a big time coach call. 49:35 That's like a Nick Saban benching his quarterback, Jalen Hurts, for the backup, Tua, you know. 49:45 That takes guts to make that kind of decision. 49:47 And maybe if you've been trying to baby this along all year because of egos, you know what? 49:53 You can break a few eggs at the end of the year to make the omelet. 49:59 Go ahead and do it. 50:00 I would love to see it if they fall behind for Walker to move to wing, you know, something. 50:07 I would love to see him start that way. 50:10 I would love to see that because UMass is not expecting it. 50:14 No, that's true. 50:15 I mean, I'd like to see him start it. 50:17 I'd like to see him end with it. 50:18 One of the two. 50:18 But, you know, Bob said time and time again that Walker's not going to play center at the pro level. 50:26 So why force it now? 50:27 Walker's not going to play at the pro level in my opinion. 50:30 He's going to get a chance somewhere. 50:31 He'll get a chance and he'll play wing. 50:33 And he'll play wing and he'll use his speed and maybe he'll figure it out. 50:37 And maybe he'll be like a Wes Walls. 50:39 Because Walker is a great penalty killer. 50:43 He's got great speed. 50:44 He's got great recovery ability. 50:46 He's just not super creative with the puck. 50:48 We see that on the power play point where he's got the one year, one goal, the one point all year, despite playing just as much as anybody else in the power play. 50:57 He's got one point. 50:59 So he's got some things to learn. 51:02 But I don't know if he's learned it yet at Minnesota. 51:07 This will be a great weekend. 51:08 I'm looking forward to all the hockey on TV. 51:10 Oh boy, it's the best. 51:13 Have fun this weekend, folks. 51:15 You know, not just Minnesota game. 51:16 This is college hockey. 51:17 This is what we all love. 51:19 It's not always about Minnesota. 51:21 This is just, wow, I love this weekend. 51:24 Everyone needs to embrace it. 51:26 And of course, there will be way more upsets than we talked about on the show because that's just what happens. 51:32 Weird things, and that's what makes it so fun. 51:35 What's your number one seed that could get upset? 51:38 If you're going to pick one, it's happened all the time. 51:42 I think we picked number one seeds to get through. 51:46 But if you had to pick one. 51:52 Um, I'll pick Mankato. 51:57 Sorry. 51:58 Don't do it to me. 52:00 Really? 52:02 It's really between Mankato and Western. 52:04 I just think those first games are going to be tougher than I think. 52:07 Of course, it doesn't matter what I think. 52:09 For all we know, all of a sudden, AIC is going to take out Michigan. 52:11 We're all, all our miles are going to drop to the floor. 52:14 It's, we've never been able to predict it. 52:16 No, most people can't. 52:17 Yes, you can predict there's going to be an upset, but which one is it? 52:22 I don't know. 52:22 Yeah, as much as I do think Levy's a bit of a paper tiger, he could, of course, steal a game. 52:31 There's a reason why he's He's predicted to do well. 52:34 Ryan, Cato can't score. 52:36 They're one of the top scoring teams in the country. 52:39 Nathan Smith, one of the top forwards in college hockey. 52:42 Are they top five in scoring? 52:43 Yeah. 52:45 This isn't the Men KO of old. 52:47 They're a legit team. 52:49 And they play great team defense and great special teams. 52:53 There you go. 52:53 And they played a tough schedule this year. 52:56 They did. 52:57 You got anything else for us here, Veegs? 52:59 No, that's it. 53:00 Let's get to some games. 53:01 Let's hopefully have two more podcasts this season. 53:05 Yes. 53:06 Instead of just one. 53:10 That was the idea. 53:12 Which is possible. 53:13 That is possible. 53:15 All right. 53:17 Are we back the Wednesday before the Frozen 4? 53:19 If we're doing this, we'll be off next week. 53:22 So what else? 53:26 Here's what I was thinking though, Veegs. 53:28 If they make it through the regional, let's take next Wednesday off. 53:34 We'll do the Wednesday before the Frozen 4. 53:37 If they don't, we're closing up shop next Wednesday night. 53:41 Same bat time, same bat channel. 53:43 What do you think? 53:43 Does that work? 53:46 I don't think we need to. 53:47 I mean, even if they make the Frozen 4. 53:49 Or this is like on air, on recording, production meeting. 53:55 Or do we have it next week and then have the day off before the Frozen 4? 54:01 And just have it next week no matter what? 54:03 I think we skip next week. 54:05 We either do it the Wednesday, the Frozen 4, or after the Frozen 4. 54:10 So just close up the season after the Frozen 4 no matter what? 54:13 Right, because then we'll know. 54:15 Yeah, I like that. 54:17 Who signs contracts everywhere? 54:20 I think we'll see Walker and McLaughlin head off into the sunset and try their hand at AHL or European Hockey. 54:28 And then I think we'll have some other question marks. 54:30 Like, will Ben Miners sign with the Wild? 54:33 Will Brock Strayer go to the Kings? 54:35 Will Matthew Nives be a fourth liner for Toronto? 54:38 All that stuff will be known in about three weeks. 54:41 So no matter what, we are not on next week, folks. 54:44 Taking the week off. 54:45 If they make it to the Frozen 4, we'll be back that Wednesday before the Frozen 4. 54:49 And guaranteed we'll be back to close up the season no matter what the week after the Frozen 4. 54:55 So that definitely works for me. 54:57 I like your, you're a smart guy, Veegs. 54:58 I am a smart guy. 54:59 Look at these diplomas over here, you know? 55:05 Well, that is going to do it for the GPL Podcast this week. 55:08 Hopefully we'll be back next Wednesday. 55:13 Hopefully the team wins. 55:14 We'll have to see. 55:15 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for a bit of overtime for next, for the rest of you, we'll catch you next time on the GPL Podcast.