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Now, here's Joop and Vego!
1:01
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 217, The Season Finale.
1:12
Well, Veegs, the season didn't really end the way that we want to, and definitely didn't go the way, you know, kind of we predicted, you know, we were thinking, you know, the Minnesota side was a little stronger.
1:25
Turns out Denver solved the puzzle the last 20 minutes of the national championship game.
1:33
And that was it for Mankato.
1:37
It totally reminded me of the game for Mankato against Providence, where they took a penalty and gave up a power play goal.
1:45
And from that moment on, they just lost their composure.
1:50
All of a sudden, the bad ice started to impact the Mavericks and they weren't able to control the puck to make plays and it really just all fell apart for them.
2:01
You know, some Gopher fans probably enjoyed watching that struggle.
2:06
Other people from Minnesota probably felt bad for them, but it definitely was.
2:13
I think a lot of people from Minnesota, Minnesota were thinking, why couldn't we do that?
2:18
Well, you know, you look back at that Minnesota State game, if Ben Myers scores that goal at the start of the third period, maybe it's a different game.
2:26
Maybe Minnesota is able to use their skill a little bit more.
2:30
Maybe Minnesota State doesn't find the toughness that they displayed throughout the rest of the tournament.
2:35
But what if they went five hole and hit the inside of his pad and just took a weird bounce, literally just almost like a 45 degree angle out.
2:45
It went right through them.
2:47
It did.
2:50
But I do think goaltending was a big difference in the Frozen Four.
2:54
Minnesota didn't get outstanding goaltending.
2:58
You know, you'd like your goaltender to be able to cover those wraparounds, but with a strong push across and recognizing that, you know, Closer wasn't able to do that.
3:08
You know, one time he was a little blocked off too.
3:10
One time he was a little blocked off by one of the players that we've been a little critical of this year, but you know, big strong goalie probably gets there anyway.
3:18
That's not exactly what they have in that.
3:21
But Denver's goaltending was outstanding during the weekend.
3:24
And I think that gave them the chance to take care of business.
3:31
Well, a lot of things going on.
3:33
Obviously this is our season finale.
3:37
A lot of news today, but I'm gonna start somewhere that I think it deserves.
3:41
I think the biggest news we've heard this week is Boston College now has a retired coach and boy, what a man and what a job.
3:53
What a career he had.
3:56
Yeah, he's one of the last of the old guard, Jerry York.
3:59
Yes.
3:59
You know, we were kind of saying, what's a generation of coaches?
4:04
You know, Jerry's right there.
4:06
You know, Red Berenson right there.
4:10
And some people were saying Lucia.
4:13
I'm like, I think he was kind of an in-between.
4:18
Yeah, he kind of fits that old guard though.
4:21
Like he fits in with that mentality.
4:24
So I can see that.
4:27
But he did a lot of good stuff for College Hockey.
4:29
It was fun when they came to Mariucci and you'd see him talk in the post game in that accent.
4:35
And he had that notebook all the time.
4:37
You'd see him on the bench.
4:38
He'd write little things down in his notebook.
4:40
And then in the post game, he'd have it out and he'd be reflecting in it before he met with the media or as he met with the media.
4:46
It was just, it was great.
4:48
I loved that kind of interaction with him.
4:50
Well, obviously it starts back in the early 70s.
4:53
That's Clarkson.
4:54
And then it was that Bowling Green, one national title, Bowling Green.
4:59
Gets to Boston, breaks their, you know, the big 50 year drought.
5:04
What was it?
5:05
The big, hey, 1949.
5:07
We always heard 1979 back in the day, Biggs.
5:11
They were hearing 1949, 1949, 1940.
5:15
He came in there and dominated those, you know, late 90s to mid 2015, you know, or so.
5:25
Just dominated.
5:26
He did.
5:26
And he's continued to attract really good players.
5:29
And they've done really well.
5:30
They haven't quite hit the heights that they hit there during that heyday.
5:34
But what a great man of college hockey.
5:38
He definitely was.
5:39
So I think that's the biggest news today.
5:41
And then another Boston school, since, you know, they've gotten rid of two Boston schools, don't have a coach.
5:49
And the man we've talked about a lot this season, Danton Cole in Michigan State, finally separated ways there.
5:59
Yeah, reading into the situation there, once the 80s met with the players and kind of got a grip on the situation there, they decided to pull the trigger and just think that they weren't going to be headed in the positive direction.
6:13
So we'll see a new coach take the helm there.
6:16
Maybe it's going to be a familiar face.
6:19
Michigan is, though, is, we'll talk about it after the season.
6:25
We'll talk about renewal.
6:26
They're not going to renew his contract, are they?
6:29
I don't think so.
6:29
There's been some rumors on the internet from people.
6:33
I don't know how much I trust them, but I had heard that they were just going to run out the clock on this one and not extend that contract.
6:41
So we'll see what happens.
6:43
I don't expect to hear anything very official.
6:46
You still see Mel Pearson congratulating all his players that are signing those pro deals after waiting for that extra year to get the true college experience.
6:56
They're all gone now.
6:57
They have quite the recruiting class coming in for next year that should fill a lot of holes, but man, a lot of talent.
7:03
It's not going to fill all the doors.
7:04
No, and there's not going to be the leadership like they used to have.
7:08
I mean, and then obviously a lot of those guys, they stayed this year specifically to win a title.
7:15
And they were in overtime and they'd lost to Denver in overtime, entertaining game, just didn't come together for them.
7:22
But that's the one game scenario.
7:25
It's just, you know, we've seen some other great Michigan teams of those late 90s, you know, they won their kind of first, you know, was early.
7:34
And then they had that next year where they were really loaded.
7:37
And then they didn't win.
7:38
And then it was like the year after when they had lost some players that they came back and won.
7:44
I saw this on Twitter, hockey is a funny thing.
7:47
Things happen.
7:49
Things do happen.
7:50
So what happened with the Gophers, Figs?
7:53
We had our little post game Thursday night.
7:58
I called it a carbon copy of last year just because of the way it turned out.
8:02
Not many shots, not many opportunities.
8:05
You didn't feel that way as much.
8:08
But the end result was the same.
8:10
Mankato took out Minnesota.
8:13
And I know you want to talk about this maybe a little bit later.
8:16
Another Minnesota team taking out Minnesota.
8:24
Yeah, I don't think the process was a carbon copy of last year.
8:29
Last year, Minnesota came out, made critical mistakes against Minnesota State, had to pay for them immediately.
8:36
Just giving away goals.
8:38
I don't think we saw the same kind of performance out of them.
8:43
It was the same result.
8:44
But I think they managed the puck a little bit better.
8:47
They just got outworked and out hustled.
8:51
You know, through the first period, I thought they played okay.
8:54
You know, they were winning some battles.
8:56
They were skating through checks.
8:57
But all of a sudden, in the second period, you saw that kind of end.
9:03
And you saw Minnesota State winning those battles.
9:06
And you saw Minnesota State winning shifts and putting together pressure that built up.
9:11
And a couple times, Minnesota got caught at kind of the end of an extended shift or something like that.
9:16
And they just lost track of guys in the zone.
9:19
Or they didn't have enough space to skate it out of pressure.
9:24
And all of a sudden, they started chasing play.
9:27
I don't know if they were chasing the game necessarily, but they were being out game managed by Minnesota State.
9:34
And I'm going to take the L on this.
9:35
I didn't expect Minnesota State to put that much pressure on Minnesota.
9:39
I thought it was going to be a little bit more of that trap, that 1-2-2.
9:43
It was definitely not that.
9:45
I don't know if you watched the championship game, but Colby Cohen talked about Mike Hastings learning a five-man pressure system from David Quinn at the Olympics.
9:57
And he implemented that in the second half.
10:00
And there was just not a lot of space even for Minnesota to move the puck unless they were super connected.
10:07
And they were not.
10:08
They did not respond well.
10:09
Are you talking about when they showed the end shot from the end of the ice?
10:15
Or actually the championship game.
10:16
So as Denver's coming up the ice, there were literally five guys right there in the neutral zone.
10:24
Ready to have every angle kind of covered.
10:26
Almost like the side of a dice.
10:30
Just like a little cross there.
10:34
And every player was above their check.
10:37
So as soon as that player was going to get the puck, they could step up and apply pressure.
10:42
And that takes discipline and effort and scouting and strategy.
10:47
And you have to break that by regrouping, by swinging, by trading positions, by confusing them.
10:55
Because when they apply that much pressure, if you're connected enough and you're behind the puck, you're going to get some speed eventually when they get out of position.
11:04
But Minnesota was never able to do that in the offensive zone.
11:08
Minnesota played three on five a lot.
11:11
I know the defenseman got pucks to the net.
11:13
I think they had probably 10 of the 15 shots or whatever it was.
11:17
But were any of those shots very dangerous?
11:20
It is usually coming from a defenseman who is given kind of a hand grenade.
11:25
And maybe they make one move to make sure they can get the puck through.
11:28
But there's no challenging McKay on that kind of stuff.
11:32
So here's the disappointment then, Veegs.
11:34
You adjust.
11:37
Short, quick passes, right?
11:39
You dump the puck.
11:42
And Minnesota's got the speed to be able to go chase the puck.
11:47
They just couldn't get any of that done.
11:49
Well, they started getting to the end of the shift by the time the puck got in the Minnesota State zone.
11:54
By that time, you got to change.
11:56
If you've done that much defending, you're tired and you can't forecheck.
12:01
You know, we talk about Bob's 45 seconds of hell on the ice.
12:05
Well, they burned up the first 30 seconds trying to get the puck back.
12:08
And they didn't have those connected shifts that you need to have to be successful.
12:13
And, you know, it's just a tough scenario for Minnesota.
12:17
I heard Mike Gensel this week on the Athletic Podcast with Michael Russo.
12:22
And he kind of threw out there, you know, to beat these older teams, you don't necessarily have to be older.
12:28
You need good players.
12:31
Does Minnesota have good players?
12:34
They're definitely not older.
12:35
They're the younger team.
12:38
I just don't see them playing well together, like Denver did in that third period.
12:43
But this comes down to playing smart, doesn't it?
12:47
It comes down to playing smart and playing connected.
12:49
Yeah.
12:53
It was very frustrating.
12:55
How many times did that wing get pressured in the defensive zone?
12:59
The puck comes to him.
13:00
He had a guy on right away.
13:02
Either he had had them kicking up off the glass or he was losing control of it.
13:06
And when he kicks it off the glass, there needs to be a player getting to the neutral zone in a hurry because if you don't get there on time, you're going to be late for the dance and they're going to go on without you.
13:19
And that was a problem for them because I think they got a little fatigued and they weren't anticipating each other and so they couldn't play fast.
13:30
So Minnesota loses, Michigan loses, no all Big Ten final, no Big Ten representation at all.
13:37
Denver, they came together at the right time, Bigs.
13:41
Not flashy, but solid all around.
13:44
I mean, solid defensively.
13:47
Maybe not that lockdown type of defense, but they were smart.
13:52
They did, they kind of bided their time.
13:54
They just kept, you know, it was a one, you know, it was a one goal game going into the third.
13:59
Well, it's only one.
14:00
All of a sudden, they finally got it.
14:03
It clicked and Mankato just couldn't recover.
14:08
Well, Mankato had a bunch of chances throughout the game.
14:11
They had breakaways, they had odd man rushes, they had scrambles in front of the net, and they just weren't able to finish.
14:16
Whether that's Denver just being close enough in position or Denver's goalie just being a little extra clutch to come through with those slight saves, that was the difference.
14:26
Then Denver's skill took over in that third period when they got some chances.
14:31
Their power play came through and looked pretty good.
14:34
Minnesota State just didn't have enough skill to really get the game back at that point.
14:39
It just makes you think if Minnesota could have stretched the lead, would the sticks have gotten gripped a little too tight for the Mavs, but they didn't get there and Denver did.
14:49
A penalty-free game, the Minnesota game, Minnesota to Minnesota State, I didn't see any problem with the penalty.
14:56
There was no glaring things out there.
14:58
If anything, I can remember you talked about, maybe Minnesota could have been called for some stick work, but it was a pretty clean game and the refs just let them play because there was, you know, I hear people, well, they never put us on the power play.
15:12
Minnesota didn't deserve to go on the power play.
15:14
There were no scoring chances that were taken away by stick work.
15:17
If anything, the Gopher players are getting frustrated and, you know, slashing the shim pads of the breezers, sometimes into the gloves a little bit, and those were frustration moves out of them.
15:28
You know, Minnesota State played a good game, and sometimes you have to play hard.
15:32
You have to take pucks to the net.
15:34
You have to have offensive zones where you cycle and draw, you know, a penalty or two, and Minnesota never really did that.
15:41
Definitely didn't.
15:43
So now it was the big wait to see what happens.
15:50
We heard pretty fast that Faber, I'm back.
15:55
Faber's back.
15:57
Myers signs today.
16:00
And now we've got a couple of guys, Brinkman, Kirk Schenck and Sorensen going to the portal.
16:05
Two of those are seniors.
16:06
Sorensen, the only one who was an underclassman.
16:11
Kind of what are your thoughts on all of that?
16:14
I mean, we all expected Myers.
16:17
We probably expected it a little sooner.
16:19
Some people are offended that he went to the avalanche.
16:25
Kids, I'm taking the best deal on a great team.
16:29
It's a great decision by him and he didn't rush it.
16:32
You know, he took a couple of days.
16:33
A lot of people thought he'd be gone first thing, but he wasn't.
16:39
Just your thoughts on all of that so far.
16:42
Yeah, I think Myers, we knew he was gone.
16:45
He's been a great player for Minnesota.
16:47
He's put in the time.
16:49
He could have signed last year with any number of teams, probably not all 32 like he could have this year.
16:55
He really shined.
16:56
He was the player that they counted on throughout the season.
17:00
That's why he was a Hobie Baker finalist that some guy from Minnesota State finally won an award.
17:07
Anyway, he was a great player for Minnesota.
17:10
He'll be a great fit on the Avs.
17:12
He plays a tough style.
17:14
I know the Wild fans are disappointed that a Minnesota player has gone to the Avs, just like Eric Johnson being in the Avs, and he probably can give Ben Myers some advice on what it's like to take adversity.
17:27
Is he up and down?
17:29
Sample was up early in the year, and he's spent most of the year in the minors, in the AHL.
17:33
So I think minors will probably stick with them.
17:35
They could probably use some help in the bottom six.
17:38
Blake McLaughlin, the other player that signed.
17:41
That's right.
17:41
Yep.
17:42
He got to deal with Anaheim, where he's on an amateur tryout for the rest of the year, and he'll go play in San Diego, and then he's got a two-year deal with them.
17:51
So one of the things people should be aware of when these players are signing deals, you know, if they sign a player contract, like LaFontaine or Myers signed, that means the NHL team really, really wants them, and it burns a year of their contract, so they get to restricted free agency earlier, or they get to, you know, most of these college players, when they leave, they're going to get to UFA at 27, but they can hit RFA earlier if they burn a year.
18:21
Players like McLaughlin, they're signing that amateur tryout contract right now, so they're not burning a year.
18:27
They'll play some AHL games this year, and then their player contract will start next year.
18:33
So that's when they'll start working their clock towards being an RFA.
18:38
So I thought Blake was a fun player to watch for Minnesota, always provided tons of energy, fun on the forecheck, fun in chaos, on a power play, scrambles around the net, always liked watching him play.
18:53
He could make tight moves in a foam booth.
18:56
Didn't get much help the last month or so of the season.
18:59
Didn't get much help this part of the year.
19:02
And then on the power play this year, he just did not get some of the points that you would expect with the ice time he was getting.
19:09
I'm interested to see how he plays in professional hockey.
19:13
Because I think he's got room to grow his game there with his intensity in battle.
19:18
I think that would be a good fit for them.
19:20
And then the other news, Brock Faber is back.
19:24
He's back.
19:25
But I see Chris Hekka is in the chat talking about it.
19:28
And you've been talking about the past couple of days.
19:31
Let's bring up that chat there.
19:34
Can we talk about how Faber didn't make any of the All America, All US CHL and quite a few other teams?
19:41
The dude played 30 minutes a game in the Olympics, probably good enough to make second team NCAA.
19:46
I think you had a beef with it too, but a lot of times it's just a point.
19:53
You gotta have points.
19:55
I mean, heck, he's even a suck around pick in an Olympian.
19:59
So it's not like people don't know who he is.
20:01
Faber played at all this year and he was way up there.
20:05
Which is baffling to me.
20:07
He missed half the year and somehow he was getting these awards.
20:11
So I think some of these voters are just blind on some of the stuff.
20:19
It's a who's popular, it's who's getting the points.
20:22
But the AHCHA is the coaches, All America.
20:25
And that's what determines mural cred.
20:28
And how do the coaches not give him the award?
20:30
Now that's just receipts for how this stuff should maybe be changed.
20:37
Because that's a travesty to me in the awards.
20:40
Because if he did leave, for him not to go up on the mural would be sad.
20:45
But he wants to be back.
20:48
He wants to be back.
20:50
He is 19 years old.
20:51
He is young.
20:52
Sanderson is young too.
20:54
So I don't understand that argument.
20:56
Maybe just because NCHC didn't have a good defenseman this year.
20:58
I don't know.
21:03
But I understand your frustration.
21:06
Did people miss the Olympics as well where he played very well?
21:12
It was in Beijing.
21:14
So you had to stay up to watch it.
21:16
Think of it this way.
21:18
I think Meyers got a lot more push because of the Olympics.
21:25
Probably got some push too.
21:27
Why not Saber?
21:28
He led the team in minutes played.
21:31
He might have led the Olympics in minutes played.
21:39
I don't get it, Veegs.
21:40
I don't get it.
21:41
I don't get it either.
21:42
I know the CHN guys were talking about after the regional, how impressed they were with Brock Faber's play.
21:50
And I thought that would maybe have them reconsider their teams.
21:53
Wasn't even a regional player though, was he?
21:56
Was he all region?
21:57
I think he had to be.
22:01
You can check the receipts on that.
22:02
But he's, I think, a reason why Bob might be sleeping well this week.
22:08
You know, he doesn't have to worry about the Ryan Johnson and Jackson Lecombe early departure risk because he knows he has Brock Faber coming back.
22:16
Who can play 30 minutes a night if he needs to?
22:19
And he will stabilize the defensive unit for Minnesota that again, should be one of the best in the country because Mike Kester is going to be back.
22:28
You know, they'll have Stoddaker and Fish coming back.
22:31
You know, some guys with some sandpaper who can play with skilled guys.
22:35
And we'll see what happens with the three freshmen commits to fill out that decor.
22:41
Well, I can't go on without talking a little bit about Sammy Walker.
22:44
A lot of people not happy with my tweet, wondering, you know, for one thing, why he wasn't talking to the media at the end.
22:50
And you know, you kind of learn that, hey, people didn't ask to talk to him, things like that.
22:56
And I think some of the frustration with me, Veegs, it wasn't just that.
22:59
It's just I never saw that senior leadership for the team, you know, for in games, you know, after games, his play had really gone down.
23:11
I mean, you had even documented he had one point on the season in the power play.
23:15
So it's just kind of a culmination of that disappointment.
23:22
I don't even want to talk about off the ice stuff because we know off the ice, the kid is a plus plus plus.
23:28
Buss has asked, you know, he's always working with kids.
23:31
I mean, phenomenal kid.
23:35
My part was more of on the ice and team leadership when it came to hockey.
23:44
Sometimes you want your captain to be the player that plays the style of hockey.
23:50
You want the rest of your team to play.
23:55
Is that fair?
23:56
I don't know, but I think that's a standard that oftentimes coaches look at when they're trying to figure out who awards the letter.
24:04
Sometimes when players award the letter, they go to maybe the guy who they admire, that they like, that they're buddies with.
24:14
It's maybe a different label to put on someone.
24:19
You know, Brock Faber, Ben Myers, they play like captains on the ice.
24:25
Sammy Walker maybe behaves like a captain away from the ice with kids and maybe alums and donors and things like that.
24:32
I don't know.
24:34
Gensel on his podcast with Russo said, Say what you will about Sammy Walker.
24:38
He's a three time captain, great part of Gopher Hockey.
24:43
I just think that Sammy's role on this team would have been better on the wing, focusing on killing penalties, almost like that Cruikshank role.
24:55
Cruikshank played penalty kill.
24:58
He played wing.
24:59
It was a supporting role.
25:01
He was, I thought, fairly effective there.
25:04
I think if Sammy Walker played in that situation, he would have helped the team more, and maybe there would have been less pressure on him on the ice, and maybe we would have seen more.
25:15
I think as the season goes on, you know, that power play stuff, distracted from his game, having to play center, distracted from his game, like in that goal where he kind of got in the crease and got close his way on the wraparound, getting in the way of what Walker does really well.
25:32
He's not going to be a center as a pro.
25:34
He's going to be a wing.
25:35
He's going to be a penalty kick.
25:40
I don't think he's an NHLer.
25:43
I mean, if he really embraces the Wes Walls kind of role on a team, he could be, but that's a long way from where his game is right now.
25:56
I've been pretty hard on him.
25:58
I'm not hard on him as a person.
26:00
I'm hard on the role that he's in this year.
26:03
Exactly, because his off ice stuff and his volunteering stuff, off the charts, great with everybody.
26:12
I'm definitely more down on him than you are.
26:15
It's just not what I wanted to see at the end of the year.
26:22
One thing we talked about the last couple of months is that if this team wants to win it, the BMW line needs to show up.
26:32
Some of the other lines made up for it, down the stretch to get them to where they were.
26:38
But honestly, that line needed to do something to make a difference for this team to win, and it just didn't come together.
26:50
Yeah, I kind of thought coming to the Minnesota State game that Minnesota might be able to get away being a one-line team with Myers, Huglin and Nyes, and it just didn't work because that Walker-McLaughlin line didn't produce much.
27:07
They didn't produce momentum.
27:09
They didn't produce energy.
27:10
They didn't really take advantage of scoring chances when they were there.
27:15
It just wasn't enough.
27:16
And then we saw the Nelson Burrows-Pitlick line disappear a little bit.
27:21
I didn't think they were very connected.
27:23
They seemed like one guy was going, and the other two were like, what is going on?
27:29
This is scary.
27:31
And then I don't know if that fourth line with Purbecks and Sorensen, and the other guys coming in there, I don't think that line really matched and produced, so it was challenging.
27:43
And it's probably the biggest negative to the season for my criticism of the coaching staff is not being able to figure that out.
27:54
And I get it that they had a great second half where they were sweeping weekends and they were winning games, but you got to know, is this going to work in the playoffs?
28:04
And that's a little bit on the coaches to figure out.
28:09
So yes, BMW disappointed me.
28:12
I think this team could have easily won a national championship if they played the way we've seen them play in the past.
28:19
Just didn't come together.
28:20
I see a message from Josh here.
28:24
I'm joining here late.
28:25
Have you guys talked about Chaz Lucius injury mystery?
28:29
And what his future looks like here?
28:33
No mystery.
28:35
Kind of a little bit foot injury.
28:38
Coaches maybe felt he could have played through it.
28:40
He didn't.
28:43
And then, I'm guessing he may have been able to play towards the end of the season, Veegs, but he hadn't played.
28:48
You had been discussing that.
28:50
You're not going to throw him in there out of nowhere.
28:53
But I have seen some positive comments coming back recently saying he's excited to be back for next year because his brother's coming in and hopefully he can get past some of these little injury bugs he's had.
29:07
Yeah, you know, he just needs to grow up a little bit.
29:10
He is kind of an underdeveloped kid who hasn't had time to build up that size and strength to protect himself through a college hockey season.
29:19
And being as skilled as he is, he's going to be a target for people.
29:23
And when he has that foot injury, you know, it's always complicated, you know, old school hockey people are like, if you can put your foot in a boot and skate, you can get through it.
29:36
But there's probably the more modern person who says, yeah, but if something bad happens, it's going to get worse and it's require surgery.
29:44
And it could be a big derail to your career.
29:47
He's already had a couple of those where he's had to take time off from training to heal up.
29:52
So I'm sure, you know, long trajectory, this is probably the right move for him.
29:58
You know, from the Gopher fan perspective, you're like, this was such a big chance this year with all the pieces in place and having what they need.
30:07
If they had a little bit more offense to put in that lineup, they're not a one-line team.
30:12
They're probably harder to play against and they can generate some momentum.
30:15
I mean, if you could have kept Hugo and Bros and Pitlick together, maybe they play more comfortable and you keep Lucius Nyes and Myers together and you've got a top six all of a sudden.
30:26
But that's not what happened.
30:28
And I'm looking forward.
30:30
I think on GPL, we've overblown the situation a little bit, you know, in the threads and in the posts and things like that.
30:37
Well, you know what?
30:39
It didn't help that Matsuko was so quiet about it.
30:42
And at first, he's like, oh, we'll give him a week.
30:44
I'll see what's going on.
30:46
I mean, Matsuko was awfully weird about it.
30:50
There was no doubt about that.
30:51
I think it's because he was frustrated with it because he's old school and he wants him to play through it and he's not doing it.
30:58
And I don't think the conversation between them was very comfortable.
31:02
You know, Chaz is kind of a quiet, confident kid, but he's not very talkative.
31:08
You know, he's very scripted with how things go.
31:11
And I think when there's a challenging conversation, maybe that could be a difficult point for them to reach.
31:18
And maturity and time will smooth that over.
31:21
He's a great player.
31:22
You know, there's a reason why he's one of the best goal scorers in his age group in the country.
31:27
And if he gets a full off season, maybe we see him back at center next year, and we'll see that creativity even more.
31:35
All right, well, we've got a bunch more stuff to talk about here.
31:38
I know Vegoe's got some attendance stats that people look forward to every year.
31:43
But first, we need to hear from our sponsor.
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32:57
Well, Veegs, like you said, we have some good news.
33:00
We've got Faberbach, Meyers left, a couple other seniors, Kirk Schenck going back in, maybe once, not sure what he's doing there, Brinkman.
33:12
Sorensen's interesting, okay.
33:13
I haven't heard anything about Walker.
33:17
Honestly, I hope he doesn't come back for any sort of fifth year senior thing.
33:25
But you kind of touched on it a little bit.
33:27
We've got Lacombe, we've got Johnson on defense, and we've got Knives.
33:34
And some tweets today saying Knives is going to take a little bit of time to think about it, but it's kind of a wait and see thing right now to see how the next year's team will kind of shape up and come together.
33:48
Yeah, it's definitely going to be interesting to see how this goes.
33:51
You know, I did see Matthew Knives at the Wild Game last night.
33:54
He was in the 200 level and joined himself with the people.
33:59
And so maybe that's a sign that he's not ready to start making NHL money and go sit down the suites in the lower bowl.
34:05
I don't know.
34:06
We'll see.
34:07
He met with Kyle Dubas today.
34:08
I know Knives is leaning towards coming back.
34:13
He knows that there is more to his game that he can work on at the collegiate level.
34:18
And so that when he does make the move to the NHL, he is a success right away.
34:23
You know, you see sometimes with players, you know, they make the leap too early and it's really hard to go back.
34:29
You know, if you don't fit right away, you're going to go to the NHL and you're going to play for the Marlies and you're going to take buses and you're going to eat McDonald's and you're not going to be able to train.
34:40
And it's very different than being at a Big Ten school where you have Caldeets and all the training facilities that Minnesota has.
34:48
You have the meal plan.
34:50
You have the Athletes Village.
34:52
You get chartered jets to all your road games.
34:55
You know, and you don't have to worry about your playing time.
34:58
You know, Maddox Fleming was a player who went to the development team and he got put on the third and fourth lines and wasn't on power play.
35:07
And he's like, I don't feel good about my game.
35:10
And so he went to Sioux Falls in the USHL and he got back on the first two lines.
35:14
He got back on the first power play and he's he's found his game a little bit.
35:18
He's not playing for a winning team, but he's developing his game.
35:23
And so I think for a player like Matthew Nyes, do you want to take the chance and go to Toronto and be a third or fourth line player and not touch the power play?
35:30
I mean, I don't know if you've seen the Toronto Maple Leafs this year, but they've got this Austin Matthews guy who's going to get as much power play time as he can get.
35:37
You know, they've got Jonathan DeVaris, they've got Mitch Marner.
35:41
They've got a lot of options up there to score goals.
35:44
They're not going to be looking for Matthew Nyes to play number one power play.
35:48
So in my perspective, that money is going to be there for him a year later.
35:54
We'll see what he wants to do.
35:56
He said when he went to the USA camp, he always viewed himself as a bit of a lone wolf.
36:01
He grew up in the junior team and saw himself as a leader and a teammate.
36:06
We'll see what happens there.
36:08
He's an important player.
36:09
If he comes back, now you've got a key player up front in Nyes, and you've got a key player in the back in favor, and you're cooking with gas.
36:20
I'm seeing a couple of questions about the portal.
36:23
What do you think about the portal?
36:26
The portal is full right now, Veegs.
36:30
We've got our inside guy who gets all this portal information.
36:35
Let me tell you, we started that about mid-March, March 16th, something 17th.
36:42
I just checked it today.
36:43
There's 56,000 page views of just that transfer portal page.
36:50
People are interested.
36:53
There are a lot of players in that portal right now, Veegs.
36:57
Yeah, you definitely have a lot of options with that extra COVID year for players.
37:03
It's going to be a challenge.
37:05
Bob, I think maybe made the right call last year by moving on from guys like McManus and Burke and bringing in his freshman class because I think those freshmen are going to pay off down the line.
37:19
Well, McManus was a senior.
37:22
Burke wasn't.
37:24
So maybe Burke would have been a good guy to have instead of a Cruikshank this year?
37:31
Maybe.
37:33
It's hard to know.
37:35
Maybe Burke would have been more comfortable than Cruikshank.
37:38
He never really seemed to be comfortable on the ice other than looking really good skating.
37:43
He just didn't make a lot of plays that we saw.
37:46
He was kind of always just an inch off on his goal scoring chances.
37:50
Oh, that's a great description because that's exactly how I felt during the period season with them.
37:56
So whatever that hesitation was, it just didn't click for him.
37:59
I feel really bad for a guy like Johnny Sorensen not to keep playing for the Gophers.
38:06
It seems like a Minnesota kid who is a patient late bloomer who went and played in the NHL, three-sport athlete growing up.
38:14
I thought he contributed some things for Minnesota.
38:17
But at the same point, this is a business.
38:20
There's money.
38:21
There's a lot of pressure.
38:23
Bob is thinking, I got to bring in these recruits who have committed to me.
38:28
He's already got maybe some hard choices to make on people who are committed to the program.
38:33
And so he's got to have the long view.
38:37
We'll see.
38:39
The one thing we've seen this year, I mistakenly had the wrong teams in next year, but there are three kind of essentially new teams next year.
38:47
You've got Stonehill, Linenwood and Anchorage coming back.
38:51
They're going to need bodies.
38:53
So I would say this next season, quite a few of these kids are going to have a place to play.
38:59
And then our guy Nate Wells also reminded me with Augustana the year after, and then Robert Morris is coming back.
39:06
So the next two years, there's going to be some spots.
39:12
But there's not going to be as many spots on teams like Minnesota and whatnot.
39:20
That don't need to also, maybe St.
39:22
Thomas.
39:22
We've seen St.
39:23
Thomas has nine guys in the portal right now.
39:26
So they're going to need bodies.
39:29
But, you know, the scholarships are going back to 18.
39:34
These schools are kind of limited at what they can do.
39:38
I mean, I could see, you know, in an emergency situation, people using it, but I don't see Minnesota using it all that much in the next couple years, unless something strange happens.
39:51
Yeah, they've got a lot of commits kind of piled up for this year.
39:56
Maybe the next year, they don't have that problem like we're seeing right now.
40:00
We're kind of seeing a crunch where Bob's like, I got to recruit from Minnesota, I got to recruit from Minnesota.
40:05
And he hasn't had very many spots open up at Minnesota.
40:09
So I think he's got that old school kind of handshake agreement where like, I told you to have a spot here.
40:16
I'm going to make the room.
40:18
You know, I didn't tell these other players that I would have spots for them forever.
40:22
And so I think that's why we're seeing some of that transition there.
40:25
You know, the portal is good for players who are looking for playing time.
40:29
I hate it for these players that get told they don't have a spot.
40:36
Well, I mean, it's Sorenson is the one from Minnesota, you know, Kirk Schenck and Brinkman, they were seniors.
40:46
Yep, they got their four years.
40:48
Walker is a senior, Lotham was a senior, obviously he signed.
40:54
You're seeing a lot of players in there that have one year of eligibility, but there are quite a few with two and three years eligibility.
41:04
Those are definitely more unhappy underclassmen, you know, either I'm on a bad team or I'm not being used well, blah, blah, blah.
41:11
Or there's a coaching change and you don't fit with them anymore.
41:16
That's why we got Cruikshank.
41:21
But, you know, there is a time though, I mean, I hate to be kind of mean, but if you're a senior, if you've graduated, unless you want to further your education or unless you want to play the pros, this is your time.
41:44
This is, I mean, this is your time to move on in life.
41:49
It's tough to say that to players.
41:51
People want to keep playing hockey.
41:53
Yeah, we understand that, but you got a college education.
41:57
Time to use it.
41:58
Is that being a little too mean, Veegs?
42:02
I just think players have to understand that when they get their scholarship, it's guaranteed for four years in the Big Ten.
42:09
It doesn't guarantee you to play hockey for four years in the Big Ten.
42:13
You know, a guy like Sorensen, I believe he could still be on scholarship with you as a student.
42:20
It's just he doesn't have a spot to play right now.
42:23
You know, Brinkman, Kurchink, they've used up that timeline.
42:30
I wish them nothing but the best.
42:31
I thought Ben Brinkman really embraced his role this year, and I thought he was a good player for them.
42:37
We don't know what's going on with Sorenson.
42:40
I mean, maybe he just...
42:43
We don't know if we don't want you to play here anymore, do we?
42:46
Yeah, I do.
42:49
It's not a...
42:51
Brad Schlossman wrote about this today, that coaches are being put in a really hard spot right now with the COVID year and the players having extra years, and the timeline for everybody coming in is getting crunched, and you've got coaches who have tough decisions, and it's the unfortunate part of this pandemic and the NCAA and the transfer portal, it's all coming together.
43:17
All right, well, LVX, let's move on to one of your favorite topics that you've been covering for...
43:29
Well, ever since Minnesota started having attendance issues.
43:34
Tickets, people in the seats, number of no-shows, looked quite a bit better this year.
43:43
I've seen some of the numbers you've put together, and we can bring it up here for the people watching.
43:49
We'll try to describe as much as we can for the people listening here.
43:53
But always interesting numbers, I'll say, Veegs.
43:59
Always interesting numbers.
44:02
It is, and I think this year's numbers probably affected by the pandemic a little bit.
44:08
As we look at trends over the years for Gopher Hockey, we've seen some things that don't look great.
44:18
The numbers are not inspiring in terms of the season ticket holders.
44:24
We look back, pre-Big Ten and the first year of the Big Ten, they sold nearly 8,000 season tickets.
44:31
7,765 is where that season ticket base started.
44:36
We've seen it continue to drop almost in a straight line down, 10% a year.
44:44
It goes to 7,400, 6,800, 6,000, 5,500, 5,000, 4,500.
44:52
This year is 4,055.
44:57
That's almost half of what it used to be.
45:01
There's a lot of things that contribute to that.
45:05
Maybe it's the successful Wild Team, maybe it's scholarship seeding, maybe it's the pandemic, maybe it's frustration with Tom Lucia.
45:14
The reseeding too.
45:16
Yeah, the reseeding.
45:17
That was back before 2010.
45:19
People put up with it for a year, but that break...
45:23
Yeah, that's right.
45:25
That first year, it didn't have an impact.
45:27
But what it did is it burned through their waiting list.
45:31
Yes.
45:32
It totally went through that waiting list of like 2,000 people or whatever.
45:36
And all of a sudden, as soon as they lost people, they were like, you're up next.
45:40
And people are like, oh, really?
45:42
Nope.
45:43
And then they see, oh, I could have bought tickets now.
45:46
I didn't even have to be on the waiting list.
45:48
So that's gone.
45:50
And every year it's chipped away.
45:52
And I think, you know, the pandemic probably impacts that a little bit this year with some of the numbers early in the year.
46:01
But we saw at the end of the year, maybe what's the future of Gopher Hockey?
46:07
So I think if we can share our screen for the people who are watching live, you know, this is the game by game scans for Minnesota.
46:16
And you can see it, it doesn't start out too great.
46:20
You know, I've got the exhibition in there first because it's kind of an outlier in terms of how I look at the numbers.
46:26
But Mercyhurst opened the year.
46:28
Now, let's see if I can do that.
46:30
Can I zoom in?
46:32
I don't know if you can or not.
46:34
I don't know.
46:36
Maybe not my best thing.
46:38
Well, you know, if I'll, you know, I could bring it up myself, actually, if we need to.
46:44
Oh, boy.
46:44
Oh, let's look at the average numbers.
46:48
The average numbers.
46:49
So we can look at, you know, the scans game by game.
46:54
But this has been over the years about the number of people who no show.
46:59
And we can see it's pretty consistent in the number of people who aren't showing up.
47:05
They've bought tickets, but they don't come.
47:08
And you can see that percentage, you know, applies.
47:11
You know, there's two to three thousand people who have bought tickets.
47:14
They consider it kind of their donation to the University of Minnesota, and they don't show up to the games.
47:21
So that's been pretty consistent.
47:23
And that's that yellow bar for people.
47:25
Sorry, I was grabbing another file there real quick.
47:30
But at the end of the year, we saw some amazing crowds like we saw that Penn State crowd at the end of the year.
47:38
We saw that Michigan crowd at the end of the Big Ten.
47:41
And those are record crowds for Minnesota, where they're getting nearly 10,000 people in the building.
47:52
And it's a real 10,000 people in the building.
47:55
And it was just...
47:57
You know, one thing I found out interesting about that, you know, at the end of the season there, Veegs, 10,000 people and almost 5,000 no shows?
48:07
That must have been the extra tickets they had for the students.
48:12
Yep.
48:13
So there's some extra tickets in there that don't really count once they get to that point.
48:18
So that's kind of some interesting stuff there that I think I saw.
48:22
Or that could just be me screwing up the Excel sheet because I haven't proved it very much.
48:27
It was a busy day.
48:28
I just got this request back today.
48:31
And so I was trying to whip it together for this show.
48:34
But you can just see that trend throughout the year.
48:37
And look at those maroon bars.
48:40
They're going up and you can see some of those yellow bars.
48:42
They're going down.
48:44
So it's an impressive season for Minnesota towards the end.
48:47
But that early part of the year, I think that's just COVID having an impact.
48:52
And so I'll clean this up and we'll have it on the new GopherPuckLive site that Juke has been working on shortly.
49:02
So as soon as Juke makes that code transition, I will get this article on there and it will give people a reason to visit the new site.
49:10
Yeah, I'm switching over the message board tomorrow.
49:13
The rest of the site is already kind of updating.
49:15
You can kind of notice here we've got kind of slightly different colors and things like that.
49:20
But I'll do the finish the transition tomorrow.
49:23
Knock on wood.
49:24
Hopefully it goes well.
49:26
A lot going on with that.
49:32
I'm still concerned about, I mean, what can you do about the no shows?
49:39
You know they know who it is.
49:43
But it's like, I mean, they're getting paid.
49:48
Right.
49:49
They're making money.
49:50
I mean, yes, they're not getting, you know, maybe.
49:54
I'm kind of curious how many of those no shows also paid for parking.
50:00
That would be an interesting number to hear or to find out.
50:03
We've never get the parking numbers.
50:05
We could.
50:06
We could probably get parking numbers from Parking and Transportation.
50:09
They're subject to Freedom of Information Act requests, just like the athletic department.
50:13
But it might take longer.
50:15
I mean, they use getting their money.
50:18
And if those season ticket holders also have parking, which I know a lot of them do, that's, you know, they're getting that money.
50:25
They're not getting concessions.
50:27
But, you know, they know who's not coming.
50:31
But do they care since they're still getting the money?
50:38
I think they care.
50:39
I think their solution is to try to oversell student section tickets and try to make it as easy as possible for people to resell their tickets or donate them.
50:53
I know that they're limited in their staffing and their abilities to be agile for that.
50:58
We saw, I think, everybody focused on hockey that last month of the year to try to push tickets and create atmosphere.
51:05
And I am seeing in my thing, I've got a no-show issue in my calculations.
51:10
The ticket scan number is real.
51:12
The announced is real.
51:14
The no-show is a little goofy.
51:15
So apologies for that.
51:18
Working on a shoestring budget here of putting together this kind of stuff.
51:22
But I don't know if it's necessarily pricing.
51:26
Everybody goes to pricing immediately is the issue.
51:28
The prices weren't bad for the Wisconsin game at the end of the year.
51:36
And yet they sold 9,000 and 10,000 tickets and they had 7,000 and 8,000 people show up.
51:42
It's not like they cut prices for those games.
51:45
Now the Penn State game, the Big Ten was gracious enough to let the U charge an affordable price for those tickets.
51:53
I think it was 15, 20 bucks for people to go to those games.
51:57
Even with that, they only sold 7,000 tickets.
52:01
Now of those 7,000 tickets, 6,000 people showed up, which is not something the U is normally seen.
52:09
At like a 90% redemption rate, very rare.
52:12
And then of course that Michigan game, you know, they sold...
52:15
Insane.
52:16
Nearly 11,000 seats plus, because they oversold the student section, they had 10,252 people actually in the building.
52:24
That's the most I've ever seen in 10 years of data here.
52:31
Oh, definitely.
52:32
Which is just amazing.
52:33
It was the least amount of empty seats we've seen ever, I would say, for a game at Mariucci for the Gophers.
52:41
I mean, even back in the 90s and mid 2000s, there was always those empty seats.
52:45
There was not many empty seats for that game.
52:49
It was phenomenal.
52:50
The five sections of students out of this world.
52:54
And you could tell it wasn't a normal audience because a lot of beer ended up on the ice.
53:00
Bit of an issue.
53:02
But even then, the price for those games was 20, 25 bucks.
53:08
That's not much of a discount over what a season ticket costs.
53:13
You know, I know people look at those individual premium games, you know, the St.
53:18
Cloud State, the Minnesota Duluth, the Michigan game, the Wisconsin game.
53:21
If you want to buy just a single ticket to those games during the regular season, you're going to pay $70, $80 to sit between the blue lines.
53:29
One, there's not very many seats there for sale on the single game ticket sales anyway, because that's where a lot of season ticket holders are.
53:38
But in the corners, you know, you can get a season ticket for 20, 25 bucks.
53:46
Still a problem.
53:47
Still a problem.
53:49
But I think we've seen what it can be.
53:52
Yes, we can see what it can be.
53:53
Winning helps.
53:55
It really does.
53:57
So we have that to look forward to.
54:01
And just like the Mute may have put themselves in this position, but they also don't have the resources to sell 4,000 more tickets a game when that many season ticket holders are not back.
54:15
Yeah, they put themselves in that situation.
54:17
But I mean, it was something they never had to deal with at the old Mariucci, the new Mariucci for literally 15 years.
54:31
It was not a problem.
54:33
It was tough to get.
54:34
I remember when single tickets would go on sale, Vig, you had to get on the phone right then to get your tickets.
54:41
And it was not easy to get them.
54:44
So it's just something they're adjusting to.
54:46
And hopefully, you know, like I see Tim talking about a lot of staff being cut because of COVID.
54:53
That's another whole issue.
54:55
But we need to move on a little bit here.
54:57
But he also said I'm right.
54:59
So that's always good.
55:00
I always like to hear that.
55:02
Confirm Vegoe's comments.
55:03
Vegoe's right.
55:04
That's what I think from that comment.
55:07
Who's coming in next year?
55:10
Coolie Kid, another Lucius, Snuggerude.
55:14
Some of us old timers recognize that name as Snuggerude.
55:19
Just a quick thought on next season.
55:22
Obviously, we know some of it will depend on who's back and who comes back and blah, blah, blah.
55:27
But your thoughts?
55:30
Yeah, I think the big key for the Gophers next year will be Logan Coolie coming in.
55:35
He's going to be the first or second pick in the draft, I believe, and a lot of the scouts watching him say he is an NHL level skater already.
55:44
His skating is on par with NHL centers.
55:48
He's going to be a good fit right away for college hockey.
55:51
And I think they need a skilled center, because I think they're also going to have to move Lucius.
55:58
You know, Chas is going to have to play center.
56:00
You know, they need another skilled guy there.
56:03
And then you have Hughland, Nelson and Purbeck's options.
56:08
So we saw Hughland move to the wing.
56:10
Maybe that's the better fit for him long term.
56:14
He could be a great center for Minnesota.
56:16
I don't know if anyone got a chance to read Scott Wheeler's article on Hughland about his back problems and all the heartache he went through to try to get back playing and what he went through this year.
56:27
He's kind of like one of those guys who needs a lot of time to warm up and get his body ready to play, almost like Tiger Woods at the Masters.
56:34
You know, and he's a young guy.
56:35
So maybe he's going to be a better fit on the wing if that's something that's going on with him.
56:40
So I think if you have Lucius, Cooley, Nelson, Purbeck's down the middle, you know, that's a good start.
56:46
And then you have, you know, Faber, a 1D caster on the other.
56:50
Hopefully Ryan Johnson or Jackson LeCombe comes back on their set there.
56:54
You know, other players that are coming in that can score, Connor Kurth is maybe a less heralded player because he went to Gentry and he hasn't been on all the select teams all the way through, but he's a very solid player.
57:08
He's done very well scoring in the USHL.
57:11
He's a big body.
57:12
I'd like to see that as Minnesota hopefully goes to an NHL size sheet, not next year, but the following.
57:19
And then you've got a guy like Charlie Strobel who's another big physical player.
57:23
I think he'll be coming in to provide some of that sandpaper that Motzko needs on the wing.
57:29
Cruz Lucius, we mentioned him.
57:30
He's going to be playing with his brother again, reunited.
57:34
He's also kind of dealt with some injuries.
57:36
You know, he's grown.
57:38
He's not the little, little kid that we saw on the commitment picture.
57:41
He's grown to be a legit NHL prospect.
57:46
Right.
57:47
Yeah, when they were, like, Peewee age, they were very small looking.
57:51
But he'll be playing.
57:52
He's missed some time this year due to injury.
57:54
You know, I just hope that's not a genetic trait with them and he gets a good off season and he's ready.
58:00
But he's another skilled player, a playmaker.
58:02
I don't think he's quite as big or a goal scorer like his brother, but he'll be good.
58:06
It'll be interesting to see what they do with Pinamini.
58:09
You know, he's a player who's put in his time in the USHL.
58:13
He'll be almost 21 next year.
58:16
So one of those older players who's put in the time in junior, you know, John Middlestadt, you know, he hasn't signed in NLI.
58:23
That could mean he's going to be a financial tender player where he doesn't get a scholarship and he just gets financial aid like a normal student and participates in the hockey team.
58:34
Luke did sign.
58:36
Luke did sign.
58:37
And he's got more points in the USHL than just about any Gopher commit in recent memory.
58:42
He's had a really great year for Madison there.
58:46
He missed last year basically due to COVID.
58:49
He didn't get to play very many games.
58:51
He went undrafted.
58:52
I don't think NHL teams will make that mistake this time around.
58:55
I think he'll get picked somewhere as an overage player.
58:58
And then we've got guys like Brody Lamb and Jimmy Snuggerud, who I think Snuggerud's going to come in.
59:05
I believe he's signed.
59:07
But I don't know if Brody Lamb has.
59:13
And that's why we don't have room for fifth year seniors and things like that.
59:17
That's why we're not going to see a lot going on there unless something strange happens right now.
59:23
Yep.
59:25
So we'll see what happens there.
59:27
You know, they've got nine, ten guys who I think all are ready to come play and they probably have an 11th or 12th player who could maybe come in, like a guy like Lamb.
59:40
You know, he's put in two years now of juniors.
59:44
One more year.
59:44
He's been good this year.
59:46
But I just don't know if they have the room for that when they have guys like Strobel and Kurth and Pinomini who've put in the time and juniors waiting to play at Minnesota.
1:00:02
It's kind of a hurry up and wait type of thing.
1:00:04
They kind of need to see what happens with Knives, what happens with, not Faber, Lacombe and Johnson.
1:00:13
And you never know.
1:00:14
I mean, sometimes you have kids decide in two or three months that they look, you know, so and so teen, you know, lost the guy over the summer or something like that.
1:00:29
And, you know, so things can change.
1:00:31
We've got six months, Veegs.
1:00:33
A lot could happen in six months.
1:00:35
A lot could happen.
1:00:38
I mean, I could see a situation where if Knives leaves, there's room for Walker to come back.
1:00:45
As much as it's going to be frustrating to me, I will try to take Bob to a baseball game and talk to him for four hours.
1:00:51
About why Walker should play wing and penalty kill.
1:00:56
I'll try to get good seats at maybe a game.
1:00:59
Yeah, but do we need a four time captain?
1:01:04
It would be unique.
1:01:08
Walker could be a good player for this team.
1:01:10
He could be.
1:01:11
He could be.
1:01:12
If he's in the right position.
1:01:13
If he was put in the right position.
1:01:15
Yes.
1:01:16
And maybe if he plays with someone like a Cooley or Lucius when they're developed enough to play center, maybe he can flash because Walker has some skills, the speed, the dangerous ability on the rush.
1:01:31
I don't know.
1:01:32
That'll be an interesting thing because he hasn't signed.
1:01:35
And again, you know, if you're evaluating the desire of the NHL team to sign the player or the player to stay in college, just look at the terms of the contract.
1:01:45
If it's an ATO and no player contract for next year, you know, that's a sign that the player wanted to leave and start his pro career.
1:01:54
If they burn a year, that means the team really, really wanted to play, get the player and cut out all the spots.
1:02:03
If it's something in between where it's an ATO and they start their contract next year, kind of like, you know, we'll take you.
1:02:08
We want you.
1:02:10
But we're not trying to get you away from school.
1:02:14
Well, Veegs, it was a fun podcasting season for us.
1:02:17
Season number 11 wrapped up tonight.
1:02:21
Couple new things, you know, with the stream yard.
1:02:25
Team didn't quite finish the way we wanted to, but it was a fun year.
1:02:29
And they made it to the Frozen Four.
1:02:31
They did.
1:02:31
We have very high standards at Minnesota.
1:02:35
You know, Bob was very critical of the people who didn't like them splitting early in the year.
1:02:40
We didn't like them splitting because we knew this team had the talent to do what they did.
1:02:44
Correct.
1:02:44
And it's too bad that LaFontaine left mid-year.
1:02:49
You know, I think maybe if he would have found his game, that could have been a difference maker.
1:02:53
It's hard to know.
1:02:54
He didn't play great the first half.
1:02:56
He didn't.
1:02:57
Close played okay, but he wasn't...
1:03:00
wasn't to the point where he usually outplayed the goalie at the other end of the ice.
1:03:04
Yeah.
1:03:07
That's it, Veegs.
1:03:08
We're done.
1:03:10
You get a six month break now.
1:03:12
Six month break.
1:03:14
All right.
1:03:14
We'll try to figure out where all these guys fit and what's next.
1:03:20
And that is it for the season of the GPL Podcast.
1:03:24
You know, we will be back in what?
1:03:26
About six months now.
1:03:29
And it should be fun.
1:03:32
For those of you currently watching live, we'll stay tuned for a bit of overtime.
1:03:37
For the rest of you, this is the end of the 11th season of the GPL Podcast.
1:03:41
We'll see you back sometime in either late September or early October.
1:03:46
But let me tell you, we appreciate all of you fans who've been listening all year long or watching all year long, you know, either on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
1:03:57
So thank you very much for listening and we will see you next season.
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