0:15 This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com. 0:37 This podcast is sponsored by Jerry Peters and First Class Mortgage. 0:41 Our expertise, your piece of mind. 0:43 Visit us at firstclassmortgage.com. 0:49 Now, here's Joop and Vego! 0:51 Here we go! 1:04 Good evening and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 218, the beginning of season 12 of The GPL Podcast. 1:16 I'm your host, Jupiter, and of course, always joining me, Eric Vegoe Veegs. 1:23 How was your summer off? 1:26 It was hectic, it was very busy, but I'm glad to be back, and I'm excited for a great season ahead. 1:35 Nothing happened in the off season, so I mean, we didn't really need to show, did we? 1:41 Probably not, let's just get into it. 1:45 Coaches changed, players signed, a lot of excitement with some freshmen, certain players gone, just left the coop, saw other players not coming back for a possible fifth year. 2:03 Where do you want to start? 2:04 I mean, there's just a busy off season. 2:08 Well, let's start, I mean, let's just start with coaching. 2:12 Mel is gone and Cole is gone. 2:16 The whole state of Michigan needed to be replaced. 2:20 And I think it's a good thing for Michigan to move on. 2:24 And if I can get my echo fix, I will try. 2:28 We hear no echo. 2:29 So I can maybe get rid of the echo here. 2:33 Yeah, try to get rid of the echo there. 2:37 Hopefully that's better for you. 2:38 Maybe that'll help. 2:39 I think it did. 2:43 Just like just it's, you know, the first show of the year. 2:45 We got to work out the kinks. 2:46 I got a new MacBook, so I'm flying with some new technology. 2:51 Much like Michigan will be flying with new technology. 2:54 I think they had to move on just as peacefully. 2:56 We talked about it many times. 2:58 It was looking like it kind of needed to go. 3:02 Yeah, I think there's some certain things in the program that are just, that's college coaching. 3:07 You know, with the way scholarships are handed out and roles are, you know, maybe promised, but they have to be fought for. 3:13 Those are situations that are happening across colleges right now and in all of the NCAA, especially goalie is a high-profile position where if you have someone like Portillo coming in, who you know is going to be a goalie for a couple of years for you and is going to be maybe Big Ten, Goal Ten of the Year type player, you're going to make space for them, especially if you're sensing, you know, some issues there at the position with Straus Man coming back. 3:39 And then, you know, I think just some of the stuff with the team, some guys are not going to be happy with the roles that they're being given, and that's going to be challenging for everybody. 3:49 It's big boy hockey. 3:51 So I think from those things, those aren't surprises. 3:54 I think that the problems are when you get into the line, you know, with the GLI, with the COVID, you know, with some of the things in the investigation when you're kind of under oath. 4:05 Those are the things I think that get someone like Mellon in big, big trouble. 4:10 And I'm guessing there's lying on both sides. 4:14 We're never going to know the complete truth on that whole story. 4:22 I kind of wonder if some of these documents wouldn't have been released, if we would have known of a lot of this stuff. 4:29 And it seems like once some documents got released, there was a lot of pressure put on Michigan to get rid of Mellon. 4:36 Well, I think there was public pressure. 4:37 I think there were probably some regions... 4:39 What would there have been in that public pressure if some of those things didn't get out? 4:43 I don't think so. 4:44 I don't think there's any pressure unless the actual documents come out. 4:47 I think when those documents come out, because some regions aren't happy with the way the athletic department is handling the case, that was intentional. 4:55 And that was to turn up the heat and get a change in leadership there. 5:02 Also, Mr. 5:03 Cole is out at Michigan State. 5:04 We kind of... 5:05 He just couldn't quite get it turned around there. 5:12 It's been kind of sad to see Michigan State just not being able to turn around because they're the type of school that just seemed to jump up every 10 to 15 years and win a title. 5:23 Yeah. 5:24 I think the problem with Michigan State, like we talked about last year, they never found their identity. 5:28 We didn't know who they were. 5:30 Dan Cole was hired to have some of that Ann Arbor connection going. 5:36 I thought he landed a couple of recruits from Ann Arbor. 5:39 One of the Michigan State parents reached out to me and said, actually, he got none of them. 5:44 Those were committed to Anastas before he got there. 5:47 He never landed a player from the Ann Arbor program to Michigan State. 5:52 They hire a new coach. 5:53 Right away, he gets a couple of them. 5:55 It looks like Michigan State is going to have some more talented players coming into their program in the upcoming years. 6:03 And we know the talent will only go so far, but it's still a pretty darn good building block to getting a team to come together. 6:10 Yeah. 6:11 I mean, in the Big Ten, you're not going to compete unless you have some high-end skilled guys. 6:16 Yeah. 6:17 You can't really disagree with that. 6:19 Remember, for those of you watching live and in the YouTube chat, we'll try to answer your questions if you've got anything for us to talk about. 6:26 In the off-season leagues, Moscow was very busy. 6:34 Did a lot of recruiting and a lot of big-time recruits. 6:39 I'm not sure who the leader is, but to say that we stole a boy from Boston might be an understatement. 6:48 Jack Cole Iserman looks like one of the top players in his age group and very rare for Massachusetts kids to even consider Minnesota. 6:56 Much less come to Minnesota. 6:58 And I think that group of players all wants to win a title together. 7:03 They all want to come together. 7:04 It's kind of like one of those Fab Five type things where you get these players and they've met each other in all these select camps and development programs and they want to win a title. 7:18 It's a big thing. 7:20 Well, it did help that he was here in Minnesota playing at Shattuck. 7:27 But there were actually some pictures came out of he's just kind of been a fan for a while. 7:32 Well, he had a family connection in Minnesota who was like, hey, you may be a Massachusetts kid, but you should have some real hockey gear with some maroon and gold. 7:41 So that's where that kind of came from, is that family connection. 7:44 So it's probably always been the back of his mind. 7:46 I may be out East, but I want to be in Minnesota. 7:50 And then you get to Minnesota, you play for Shattuck, and you start seeing some of your buddies. 7:54 A lot of the guys you see all the time that you play with, wherever team you're on, US. 7:59 National Development or whatever. 8:01 He's like, this might be a good place to go. 8:05 Just think if we could hold on to some of these players, how strong a team it would be if you held on to a Knives and Cooley in the next couple of years. 8:12 Well, you never know. 8:13 I mean, look at the defensive core coming back from Minnesota. 8:16 Who would have thought that Faber, Johnson, and Lacombe would all be back for this thing? 8:23 I was talking to Bob this week, and he's like, I could coach hockey for another 20 years, and I will probably never ever have a deeper blue line than the one I have on my bench right now. 8:33 I mean, you have those three, but then you had Mike Kester, you had Matt Stoddaker, who's got some grit, and then you bring in guys like Luke Middlestadt, Cal Thomas, Ryan Chesley. 8:44 Those guys are players. 8:47 And the Gophers maybe have over recruited the position, and now they have a little bit of a logjam there with nine on the roster. 8:54 It looks like Fish is going to be playing forward, at least for the foreseeable future in practice, and maybe add some size there if they need it, but they're loaded back there. 9:05 And when you get guys to stick around, special seasons can happen. 9:09 That's definitely true. 9:10 We saw it happen back in 2002 and 2003. 9:13 You think of the defensive core they had back then. 9:17 Martin, Leopold, Ballard. 9:19 I mean, all guys that played in the NHL, Leopold came back for his senior year, won a Holby Baker. 9:27 A lot of guys kind of like, let's come back and do this. 9:32 And I would guess this defensive core, if they can finish it out, would rival that one pretty well. 9:41 Yeah, I think it rivals it right now. 9:44 I mean, the talent back there, the skill. 9:46 You gotta win. 9:47 You gotta win. 9:48 But I think just in raw talent, I think this group is pretty impressive in college. 9:54 I don't know if they'll go on to have like the long NHL careers, but it certainly looks like they're projecting that way. 9:59 Brock Faber got traded to the Minnesota Wild for a reason. 10:02 They really like his skill set, his size, his skating, his physicality. 10:08 He's probably going to step right into an NHL lineup at the end of the year. 10:12 Brian Johnson, great skater. 10:14 We haven't seen the high end production from him. 10:17 Maybe it's going to click this year. 10:19 Jackson Lacombe, he kind of rushed into college, hadn't played a lot of defense. 10:26 Now, I think last year he went through that first half of the season where he was pushing too much and he figured it out in the second half. 10:34 And if he can start off like that, he might be putting together those Hobie type numbers. 10:40 You look back at when Paul Martin was on the bench, Jordan Leopold on the bench, they had top scorers like Johnny Pohl, but it was those defensemen that drew all the accolades. 10:52 Brevers get a point. 10:54 There's only one puck though. 10:55 That will be the challenge. 10:57 And it always is. 10:58 It always is. 10:59 I think special teams time will be interesting to watch this year for the defensemen. 11:04 Brock Faber, that's the one element of his game. 11:07 I think we're hoping to see is a little bit more offensive talent. 11:11 You know, part of me just wonders, you know, maybe it's just not there, the vision. 11:16 You know, the skill is obviously there. 11:18 The skating is there. 11:19 The physicality is there. 11:20 But the vision and the ability to read those plays and make them happen, maybe it's not going to be there. 11:27 But I think we do see it there with Jackson LeCombe. 11:33 John Reynolds asking here, what are your early thoughts on Kurth? 11:37 Sort of cut tongue last year. 11:38 Hold that thought, Veegs, because I thought we would kind of go through each of the freshmen. 11:43 And now let's just get your thoughts on each of them. 11:45 I mean, we're going to start alphabetical order here. 11:49 Let's start with Mr. 11:51 Ryan Chesley. 11:53 Look at that fancy graphic I got going here, Veegs. 11:58 Get out of Mata Mita. 12:00 Looks like he's got a good height, a decent size, young. 12:03 But what are your thoughts on number 71? 12:07 Well, I think he's going to be one of the defensemen fitting right into the top six. 12:11 I think because of his physicality, he already looks like he belongs in college hockey, which sometimes you wonder about with a player at 18. 12:19 He's filled out. 12:20 So I think that isn't going to be a problem with him. 12:23 He's got a big shot, which is something. 12:26 I think the Minnesota Bull line has been missing the last couple of years, his threats to shoot from the point. 12:31 He's got a good one. 12:32 He's also got a good golf swing. 12:34 So I think that translates there. 12:37 So I think it's a good talent. 12:39 Right-handed shot going to be valuable this year for them. 12:42 Going in alphabetical order here. 12:44 And this is, here he is, Mr. 12:45 Cooley, Logan Cooley out of Pennsylvania. 12:49 Mr. 12:49 Superstar who doesn't seem to smile yet. 12:52 Haven't seen a picture of him smiling yet. 12:54 You have to find pictures of him after he scores. 12:58 A lot of flash to Logan's game. 13:02 I think the expectations are really high on him. 13:05 And I'm nervous to see how it translates to his season. 13:10 Bob wants to stick him at center this year, which is a little bit of a surprise to me. 13:14 We've seen some highly touted players come into Minnesota and they kind of get sheltered on the wing. 13:20 Well, with only two centers coming back with Nelson and Huglin, they need players to step in and play center. 13:32 So Kooley is going to get that shot. 13:35 We'll see how it goes. 13:36 He's got a lot of flash. 13:37 I hope he spends a lot of time in the offensive zone because that's, I think, where he's going to shine. 13:42 And I've seen him in line with Snuggerud and Pitlick. 13:46 And they could really put up a lot of points if they stick together and can get out of their own zone. 13:51 Do I sense a little concern with him at center though and your voice? 13:57 That was a frustration the last year and a half, two years that you had with Walker, probably not in the best position he should be playing to succeed. 14:07 What are your thoughts about Logan kind of doing a similar type of role? 14:12 I just got to see it on the ice. 14:14 You know, it's really hard to play center and college hockey as an 18 year old. 14:18 There's a lot of responsibility, especially playing below the dots in your own end and the want to be involved in that part of the rink. 14:29 I think it's a big challenge and I want to see that in play. 14:33 It's going to be a tough start to the season. 14:34 You know, they're going to get Lyndon Wood, you know, kind of get some stuff on film to see, but then it ramps up real quick and they play some some very difficult teams Minnesota State, North Dakota right away. 14:45 So, it's going to be a challenging schedule for him to come up to speed. 14:49 But the skill is there, the talent's there, the vision is there. 14:51 Like I've seen some plays he makes in the offensive zone, making cross ice passes. 14:57 If you're on the ice with him, be ready. 14:59 There you go. 15:00 And the guy, Mr. 15:02 Reynolds was just asked about a little while ago. 15:04 Connor Kurth, forward out of Elk River, Veegs. 15:09 Really a solid put together forward. 15:11 This is a guy who put up a lot of points in the USHL. 15:15 Yeah. 15:15 And he's played that experience of junior hockey. 15:19 One thing Bob talked about his first day was, we're going to get young quick, but we're going to get older. 15:24 And I think if he could edit that, he would say, we're going to get young quick, but we're going to get more experienced players coming in eventually. 15:33 Guys who've played two or three years of juniors post high school and have that experience. 15:38 And Kurth is one of those guys and he can shoot the puck. 15:42 I worry sometimes about his foot speed here and there, but we'll see how it goes. 15:47 You know, they need big players who can shoot. 15:50 So that's the role for him. 15:53 All right, moving on to Brody Lamb out of Byron, Minnesota. 15:58 Tall, little skinnier kid at 174, age 19. 16:03 Yeah, it looks like he's found some chemistry with Charlie Strobel already on the ice. 16:08 It looks like there are a pair of wingers out there that are sticking together through the preseason. 16:12 And they've been pressed. 16:13 I think they've got real good burst and timing, you know, ability to get across the offensive blue line and time their routes to the net to make plays and high compete. 16:25 You know, here's another player who played that extra post-draft year in the USHL, which I think is critical to their development. 16:32 He didn't play for a great competitive team in the USHL. 16:36 So that's always a little bit of a worry. 16:37 But it's a lot of it's a lot of games. 16:39 It's a lot of games. 16:40 I mean, even if you're not winning, I still think a lot of ice time really helps. 16:45 Yeah. 16:46 And so I think Lam's going to be counted on to contribute right away. 16:48 Maybe not in a high, high end role, but I think he looks pretty solid out there in practice so far. 16:55 Moving on to John Middlestad. 16:58 Out of Eden Prairie, we of course know who his older brother is. 17:03 Yeah, John Middlestad, 20-year-old freshman for the Gophers, which is unusual, but you need some guys like that in the program. 17:11 He's been trying. 17:13 You can't say no to Akuli though. 17:17 And, you know, he's played some center, and I think they're going to count on him for some depth at that position. 17:22 You know, maybe if there's some issues during the season where they need somebody who's a little bit more experienced to get in the lineup. 17:28 You know, even though he's a freshman, he's played a lot of games. 17:30 He's a pretty solidly built player. 17:33 And I think he's a guy who's going to know his role out there. 17:37 And, you know, it comes from a great family. 17:40 It's good to see that they haven't burned any bridges with the Middlestadt family because they all did come, unlike another family who had players go elsewhere, like the Lucius family. 17:49 You know, Middlestadt, they still came. 17:52 I think people were concerned about that. 17:54 And you need guys like this in the program. 17:56 We'll talk about Lucius in a little bit. 18:00 How about his brother Luke back there on defense, a year younger? 18:03 A year younger, but also a guy who played that extra year of junior hockey after high school. 18:09 He stayed all the way through and then played that extra year. 18:12 I think the COVID year really hurt Luke, because he didn't get a lot of games that year, and it hurt his draft stock. 18:19 I think it hurt his development a little bit. 18:21 So it maybe set him back. 18:23 But last year, he played great for Madison, put up a lot of points, very productive power play player, looked really good on the off wing on the power play as a scoring threat, which is something I think Minnesota needs to develop a little bit more. 18:38 Their power play was not very good at the top of the circles on the off wings. 18:43 So if they can get some players who can be dangerous from those spots, it would be helpful. 18:48 I know that Luke is comfortable playing on his strong side wing, which could frustrate some people. 18:53 You know, when you're left hand shot on the left hand side, instead of being on the off wing where you got yourself open. 18:59 Yeah, because your stick is... 19:00 Yeah, it's a little harder to one time it. 19:03 Yeah, it's on the board. 19:04 So you catch and you're more of a distributor, you're walking a guy. 19:08 So we'll see what happens. 19:09 I know that the Gophers are going to go with three power play units to start the year because they've got so much turnover. 19:15 And I think they're actually going to run three units. 19:17 Whereas last year... 19:18 That's not typical for many, many years. 19:22 At least that I can remember. 19:23 No, but there's so much skill in this forward group that I think that they want to try things out and see who can produce. 19:29 But he's kind of a gambler player, I think. 19:32 So I think he's going to have to learn how to choose his spots on the rink. 19:37 He's so used to jumping in the rush or jumping bull of the circle and not paying for it because other guys will cover. 19:44 I think that's something he's going to have to learn. 19:46 It could be some growing pains for him this season. 19:48 But he's got a great crew to learn from. 19:51 He does. 19:52 Moving on here. 19:54 Next, we get... 19:55 I'm not even going to try to pronounce his last name. 19:59 Garrett? 20:00 Pino Nimi. 20:01 Pino Nimi. 20:03 I think everybody calls him Pino around the rink. 20:07 That's not going to help us. 20:10 That's what I hear. 20:13 Is he as good as Leopold? 20:17 He's old. 20:17 He's 21. 20:19 He's a player who is patient, waiting to come to college. 20:22 What you'd like to see a staff able to do is get some of those guys to buy in and play those extra years. 20:29 He's going to be counted on to play center. 20:31 He looks like a pretty solid 6'170 out there and has real good compete. 20:38 They're going to be playing him in some important roles this year. 20:41 I think of the centers, he's probably going to be counted on to be the most reliable out of the new centers. 20:51 We'll see what happens as the year goes on. 20:53 I've seen him out there with a couple different people like Kurth and Strobel. 20:57 I've seen him out there with who else? 21:03 Lamb and Strobel. 21:04 We'll see what happens. 21:08 Another legacy, Jimmy Snuggerud out of Chaska. 21:12 6'2 tall kid, a little younger, 18, 185. 21:16 Father Dave, famous Gopher. 21:21 Yeah, kid who's had an interesting path, you know, with all the Chaska, Breakaway Academy, you know, all that stuff, then Ann Arbor. 21:29 And still, he was one of the late, blooming players out of his class. 21:33 You know, he's one of those guys who was probably looked at as like a fourth, fifth, sixth round type kid and he jumped way up, I think. 21:39 Is he a second round pick? 21:42 You're asking the wrong guy. 21:43 I know, asking the wrong guy. 21:44 But he jumped up the boards. 21:46 Yeah, he jumped up the draft boards quite a bit. 21:49 And if he's playing on a line with Cooley and Pitlick, they're counting on him to score. 21:55 I think that's one of the things he did for Ann Arbor and the USA teams is score goals. 21:59 He was really noticeable in that U18 game last year. 22:03 At least I didn't even score against him. 22:05 He might even get one of the goals against the Gophers. 22:07 I don't remember, but I just remember seeing a lot of them out there and noticing him. 22:13 Yeah, I mean, he can score goals and that's why he's a first round pick. 22:17 You know, it's because goal scoring is a hard skill to teach and so when guys just have it, you know, they'll step in. 22:23 I think it'll be interesting to see if we see a power play with Cooley, Pitlick, Stungaroo, you know, and who else gets out there, maybe a big guy that can be in that presence with that group. 22:35 That could be an interesting group to watch. 22:37 I could see like a Jackson Nelson playing with them as the center and then putting a defenseman out there out top and allowing Cooley, Stungaroo and Pitlick to be the middle three. 22:50 That'd be fun to watch. 22:53 All right, Charlie Strobel out of Stillwater. 22:56 Another forward, Veegs. 23:00 Maybe a little surprise that he signed here. 23:03 You know, his uncle was the assistant coach at Wisconsin. 23:06 His obviously a lot of a lot of blood that went through Wisconsin, but he chose Minnesota. 23:16 Yeah, when he played for Hill Murray in the state tournament, he really shined and kind of shot into everyone's scouting books. 23:25 I think it's one of those things where we used to joke that who's the player that's going to look the best in the state high school tournament? 23:31 And why isn't he signing with the Gophers? 23:33 Well, Strobel is that guy. 23:34 You know, he really shined there. 23:36 He took his time developing in the USHL and then the BCHL and finding coaches that fit his playing style. 23:44 You know, he's a big dependable compete player. 23:48 And when he signed with Minnesota, one of the reasons he told me that he signed was that Bob understands my game and he knows how to play me. 23:57 And you get to some of these other teams and coaches and it's not always a great fit between the two. 24:03 They're just trying to put a square peg in a round hole. 24:07 Well, Bob knows where to put this guy and he's a square peg, a square hole, and you can count on him because he's going to be a dependable player. 24:16 All right, moving on to Cal Thomas, a defenseman out of Maple Grove, decent size, age 19. 24:25 Yeah, another older player. 24:27 I think this is one of those guys where he kind of got caught in that cycle of Bob expecting some defensemen to sign pro contracts and leave early. 24:36 And Thomas was that guy that they kind of expected to be able to plug in as kind of a, you know, not a top 4D, but a guy who's dependable in the lineup. 24:46 He's going to be in and out of the lineup this year, I think, developing. 24:50 He's a good size kid, good experience kid. 24:52 I think he goes back with Brock Faber in that Maple Grove area to youth, and they'll get to be on the same team this year. 25:00 And last but not least, Zach Weiss or Weiss, so you know how it is, a goalie from Owatonna. 25:07 And an offensive lineman. 25:08 How can you not like this guy? 25:10 He played football and hockey all the way through high school in Owatonna. 25:15 Really? 25:16 And he was kind of like the captain, offensive lineman, the leader of that group. 25:21 And I think he found out as he was getting older that he really liked hockey and really liked goaltending. 25:26 And so he was kind of a late transition to playing goalie, found a team in Rochester and that NH3L. 25:34 You know, it's not exactly a high end league, but he played well there. 25:38 And I think it's good to have guys like this in the program who are late bloomers and, you know, he's going to be a lunch pail guy. 25:46 As Brevver said about Strobel, it's the same thing about this guy. 25:50 He's going to come to work and face a lot of shots and you never know what could happen. 25:54 You know, with Bartoszkiewicz, not seen any action last year, but also a talented big goalie, it's good to have another option. 26:03 Well, that's going to do it for the freshmen here, but you mentioned Bartoszkiewicz. 26:07 Kind of a freshman. 26:09 Does he get an extra year since he didn't play? 26:11 He could be if they wanted to pursue it because he didn't play any games. 26:15 It's very rare in college hockey to redshirt someone. 26:19 It's an option if he, you know, were to stick around longer, they could get that extra year. 26:24 Well, we've got quite a bit more to talk about here, but first we need to hear from our sponsor. 26:31 Hey, fellow GPLers, Jerry Peters here from First Class Mortgage. 26:34 Have you refinanced your home in the last 12 months? 26:37 If you haven't, chances are you should. 26:39 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. 26:48 You can also use the equity in your home to finance those home improvement projects. 26:52 Or you can consolidate high interest rate credit cards into one new low monthly payment. 26:57 To hear more, call or text me today at 612-940-3291. 27:03 You can email me at jerry at firstclasscorp.com or you could go to firstclassmortgage.com to fill out a free online application. 27:12 Mention the GPL Podcast and receive a $300 closing cost credit. 27:16 Some restrictions do apply. 27:18 First Class Mortgage's NMLS number is 322842-480200. 27:24 This is not an agreement to lock you into an interest rate under Minnesota law. 27:27 First Class Mortgage is an equal housing lender. 27:32 And of course we thank Jerry for sponsoring the GPL Podcast. 27:35 Hopefully next week he'll have some new audio that's a little more up to date. 27:39 But he's always there to help you if you need him. 27:41 So just give him a call or send him an email. 27:45 Veegs, you just saw a comment. 27:47 Oh, I just saw a comment. 27:48 You know, what is Closer back? 27:50 Yes, Closer is there. 27:53 He sure is back. 27:55 They're going to be counting on him this year. 27:57 I think, you know, he's not your prototypical goalie, you know, big 6'3 guy. 28:01 He's a little bit smaller than that. 28:03 So, you know, he gets by on positioning and angles and being athletic and taking on shooters. 28:09 I thought he overachieved last year when he came in and assumed the net and played every game down the stretch. 28:16 I don't think that's going to happen this year. 28:18 I think Bartosz Gawicz is going to get some opportunities to play between the pipes. 28:22 But Closer showed that he was pretty reliable and Bob often joked, you know, how did I see this guy for so long and never think to give him a chance? 28:31 I think the team did play pretty well in front of him. 28:33 A little suspect in the Mankato game. 28:36 And you even mentioned in the season finale that goaltending won the national championship. 28:43 And that's why Denver won. 28:45 And obviously goaltending with Mankato allowed them to get to the final as well. 28:52 So hopefully some of the big time pressure he had helped him learn a bit. 29:00 Well, you're never going to grow anymore. 29:02 So I think that's one thing that's not going to be there. 29:06 He's going to be a reliable guy. 29:07 He's not going to be a game stealer. 29:09 I think that's just the reality for Gopher fans. 29:12 You hope that he develops some confidence from his experience last year. 29:17 And maybe he's a little more reliable. 29:20 And when there's a bad goal, you can just move on. 29:23 I think that's one of the most important attributes of a goaltender is being able to move on to the next shot. 29:30 I think this team will be very, very good defensively. 29:33 So they're not going to be asking their goalie to make 30, 40 saves a game. 29:38 He's just going to have to need to be focused to make those 20 to 25 saves a game. 29:43 And I think he can do that. 29:46 But you also think Bartosz Gawicz will get some time in there. 29:49 And, you know, we might even see him this weekend against Lyndon Wood. 29:53 I think. 29:54 Yeah, it's going to be hard to get the coaches to say that. 29:57 But I wouldn't be surprised if we see him this weekend. 29:59 I mean, he's a bigger goalie. 30:01 Yeah, if they're up like eight goals. 30:03 I mean, it's a brand new team in Lyndon Wood. 30:07 If there are a ton of goals. 30:10 You might see each goalie get a game because, you know, they're going to be playing four games in eight days here coming up. 30:16 So, you know, I don't think you want to be putting closer out there for, you know, 240 minutes right away to start the season. 30:23 You know, I think it'd be smart to give him a breather one of these nights against Lindenwood because I would I would be absolutely shocked if we see close games this weekend. 30:34 Lindenwood is kind of throwing their program together. 30:36 There's not a lot of high end skill there. 30:38 You look at some of the backgrounds on some of these players and it's not there's not a lot of USHL veterans on this team. 30:45 It's a lot of people from like the NH3L and things like that. 30:50 But hey, they started a program. 30:52 You got to start somewhere and got to start. 30:54 And Minnesota is playing them. 30:55 Obviously not a great matchup. 30:57 I don't even know. 30:58 We can't really talk about the manager because you just don't know what to expect. 31:01 I mean, hockey is different. 31:02 I don't know if we'll see a bunch of 10 RIP games. 31:05 You could. 31:06 I mean, we saw that against didn't Huntsville came in here mid early 2000s and something like that happened. 31:13 And it was pretty ugly. 31:15 Maybe we'll see that. 31:16 Who knows? 31:19 But let's keep moving our way out on your way. 31:21 We just talked to goalies. 31:23 What have you seen as the pairings back there on defense so far? 31:26 I mean, I know you've got to quite be practices. 31:28 Yeah, I think we've seen some different groups of pairings. 31:33 The one I like is a Faber-Kester pairing because I think Kester does just have that natural offensive ability that you would like out of this blue line where they can do a little bit more skill to create offense with that vision. 31:48 I think Kester is one of the defensemen on the Gophers who just has that. 31:53 And I think some of these things like skating, puck skills, those are all things that you can kind of develop as a player. 31:59 But that vision, to me, sometimes you just either have it or you don't. 32:03 And Kester is one of those players that really does have it. 32:06 Is maybe just the biggest story, you know, Faber, LeCombe and Johnson being just on the team? 32:12 I mean, I think so. 32:14 I mean, we've got pairings and stuff like that, but just the fact that they're there and we were concerned about them leaving and being very thin on defense. 32:22 I mean, certainly yours towards the end of the last season. 32:25 Yeah. 32:26 And we've seen in practice, I think, a little bit of LeCombe with Middlestadt. 32:31 And I think that's partially to kind of mentor these guys along. 32:34 You pair kind of a veteran guy with one of your younger defensemen and kind of help them along. 32:41 And both those guys see the game very offensively. 32:43 So I think that's a good learning experience there. 32:45 And then we've seen Chesley with Johnson. 32:48 You know, and that's a group that's also some skill there. 32:53 Physical players, good skaters, you know, that could be a tough matchup for them. 32:57 And then we've seen Thomas and Stoddicker together a little bit. 33:00 And those are kind of more, I think, depth guys this year. 33:03 I have a feeling we'll see Bob dress 7D most nights. 33:08 You know, a defenseman is one of those situations where, you know, if you have a guy get hurt or out of the game, you'd like to have that extra player there. 33:16 And I think also for special teams, the way the Gophers lineup is, look at the penalty kill. 33:22 It's going to be a lot of new guys. 33:25 And I think it's going to be helpful to have maybe some extra defensemen to fill those minutes on the PK. 33:30 What do we have? 33:31 Eight or nine defensemen total right now? 33:33 There's eight plus Fish. 33:35 Fish technically defends them. 33:36 So they do have a little depth back there. 33:41 We did like Fish's game at the end of last year. 33:46 He wasn't... 33:47 I wouldn't say he was a big star, but he paid really solid fundamental defense when they needed him to. 33:58 Well, when he got his chance midseason with the guys out for their World Juniors and stuff, he stepped in the lineup no problems. 34:05 Made some really nice plays, shutting down transition stuff coming at him and getting the offense going the other way. 34:11 He chipped in, got a couple of points right away. 34:14 I think he was one of the stars of the week, which had to be a highlight for Fish's season. 34:21 It really comes down to guys not leaving. 34:23 That is what it is. 34:25 A lot of schools get accused of over recruiting. 34:29 I don't think you can accuse Bob of over recruiting the position when you've got Johnson, Faber and Lecombe all coming back, you know, to run it back another time. 34:39 So that's just very unusual in college hockey to see that. 34:43 Looks like those Huntsville games were after the 0-2, 0-3 season? 34:52 So it was 2004, they came in. 34:54 It was pretty ugly. 34:55 It was like 10-1, something, 10-0, something like that. 34:59 It was pretty bad. 35:01 I have a hard time seeing Lindenwood being more competitive than St. 35:04 Thomas. 35:06 I think St. 35:07 Thomas had a lot of players come into the program with a little bit more pedigree and background. 35:12 Lindenwood seems to be more of that team that's almost going like from a club right into D1. 35:19 And this is one of those games that got scheduled because I think Bob had a hard time finding someone to play. 35:23 Yes. 35:24 He's like, well, you know, it's summer and I've got two extra games I still need to find, who am I going to get? 35:30 Lindenwood? 35:31 Sure. 35:31 Let's get them in there. 35:33 Okay. 35:34 You've talked about the forwards a little bit. 35:36 Give us your thoughts on what you've seen so far with the lines and the chemistry. 35:41 Yeah, I think the chemistry seems to be okay among the lines. 35:45 I'm just a little bit worried right now about the connection between the defense and the forwards because the defense are so quick right now. 35:53 They are all coming back. 35:54 They are very fast on their retrievals. 35:56 They are very fast on their decision making. 35:59 And it's almost like they are catching the forwards too soon. 36:03 I know that sometimes we see the forwards take off out of the zone too soon. 36:08 But I think what I'm seeing is I'm seeing the defensemen get into the transition quicker than the forwards are ready. 36:13 So I think that's something to watch as we go. 36:16 I'm really interested to see who Matthew Nyes plays with. 36:20 He did not have a great world junior this summer. 36:25 I felt like he was maybe trying to do too much on his own. 36:28 Last year playing with Ben Myers was such a great relationship because they were able to play off of each other, running scissors plays off the boards and things and really creating two on ones out of nothing very frequently. 36:42 And I think he's got to find that player. 36:44 I think Bob is trying to put him with Aaron Hublin this season, who's another competitive player who's good at making end zone plays happen. 36:53 We're looking for that ground game. 36:55 Overtime winning goal against UMass. 36:58 Wow, it was all him. 37:01 I think that could be a pair that could be really good for Minnesota. 37:04 They just need to find a complimentary player for him. 37:08 Jackson Nelson seems to be playing a lot with Nevers and Brodzinski. 37:13 That's a group where we're wondering what's there this year. 37:17 Brodzinski, you know, he's got a great shot. 37:19 Boy, it would be really nice to see him. 37:24 We know he could score. 37:26 Got a shot. 37:27 Just got to see him actually get finished. 37:31 Yeah, I was pretty hard on Sammy Walker last season. 37:34 I think Bryce Brodzinski was putting a tough spot playing with a player like him all season because he's a center who's not starting low and slow in the defensive zone to get in transition. 37:46 And Brodzinski's foot speed wasn't really enough where he was going to catch up to Sammy in transition. 37:52 So I think when he plays maybe with some more like speed players and players who think the game differently, it could unlock a better season for Brodzinski because we've all seen him score goals. 38:04 He has got a shot. 38:05 He's got a great shot. 38:07 And so I think if he can be on that off wing left wing with Nevers on the right and Jackson down the middle, that's an opportunity for him to go into some of that space that Nelson creates and get shots off. 38:20 And then you have players who seem to be talented around the net. 38:23 For whatever reason, Nevers scores a lot of goals in practice. 38:27 He's got great hands around the net in practice, but we just never really saw that in games. 38:32 And so maybe there's something there for players as they come back and they want to make some of their college careers. 38:40 It's going to be fun. 38:41 Thoughts on the Big Ten? 38:44 The coaches picked Minnesota first. 38:50 Why? 38:51 And it wasn't Michigan second. 38:53 What was it? 38:54 It was Notre Dame, wasn't it? 38:55 Notre Dame. 38:55 Notre Dame's got a lot of players coming back. 38:58 They do. 38:59 I think they might be the best Big Ten right out of the gate. 39:02 They might be the best Big Ten team right out of the gate, because I think they've got enough returning talent and structure to their team. 39:09 If we're looking for a Big Ten team that's got structure, it's Jeff Jackson's team. 39:13 Always. 39:13 It's like if you want to go to college and learn play defense, that's the school for you. 39:20 And, you know, I think they will be very tough out of the start. 39:24 And that's a team for Minnesota. 39:26 It's kind of a benchmark team. 39:28 You know, can you beat a team like that during the season that's very structured and disciplined? 39:33 Whereas I think Minnesota is going to be a fast team. 39:36 I think it's going to be a team that's kind of developing on the fly and figuring things out. 39:41 Yes, they have all their defense back pretty much. 39:45 And they're going to be putting in two new guys, but they're forwards. 39:48 There's so much change there that they still have to figure out. 39:53 Question from Twitter earlier. 39:56 Brian Deutsch, biggest loss in the off season, asking for a friend. 40:06 Brian Deutsch has left us, folks. 40:09 Moved on to a new job. 40:10 He's no longer our main media guy at the U. 40:16 We've got a new guy now, rookie. 40:18 Hopefully you've been getting him all up to speed, right Veegs? 40:22 We're trying, we're trying to get him up to speed. 40:24 I think he's got the energy. 40:26 It's a little different CNS ID who's not grumpy around. 40:31 So that part's weird, and I gotta adjust. 40:35 Well, the fact that he tweeted that, Deutsch has one of the best sense of humors there is out there. 40:40 Hopefully Scott Slarks won't be grumpy, but we'll see. 40:46 I think he so knew you can't be grumpy, right? 40:49 Well, Deutsch always was kind of grumpy though. 40:53 Yeah, I don't think it was at the beginning. 40:54 We thought Lucia leaving would help with his grumpiness. 40:58 Didn't quite work. 40:59 Didn't quite work. 41:00 But he does kind of bring up a valid question. 41:03 Quite a few players decided to not come back this year, Biggs. 41:08 Most notably, Mr. 41:09 Chaz Lucius decided to, kind of, well, he didn't leave, but signed a pro contract. 41:16 But it also was kind of, some family issues there. 41:22 Well, I think it's just a personality difference. 41:26 I don't think he was ready to commit to being a college hockey player and be a good teammate. 41:32 And I think, some of the things that came out about the chemistry in the locker room is I think some players didn't invest in being part of the team. 41:43 They weren't around the guys for all the stuff, the team building, they were just there to practice, travel to games, play games, do their skill work. 41:53 They weren't all in on being college hockey players. 41:56 I think that's a big difference between teams that can go far and teams that can flash. 42:02 And I think this year's team, you hear some of the messaging out of Matthew Nye's, is what advice do I have for the young guys? 42:09 Be around the team as much as you can. 42:12 Be all in, be a part of the pack. 42:14 And I think that's something that they need to do if they're gonna go far. 42:18 Is they need to hold each other accountable and they need to be able to count on each other. 42:22 And I think some of the players that left or maybe not players you could count on. 42:28 Well, let's go through that list quick. 42:29 We had Brendan Boynton, Goalie, Tristan Brose, Jack Purpick, Denman, Kirk Schenck, Ben Brinkman and Johnny Sorensen. 42:40 Some of those guys are seniors. 42:44 I mean, they could have technically could have come back. 42:46 Kirk Schenck obviously went to St. 42:48 Clouds. 42:49 He's gonna have a third team in three years. 42:53 Oh, I thought he could have shined here. 42:56 You just couldn't quite get it going. 42:58 Oyton, did he ever play? 43:02 He even got a scratch for being on the bench for a couple of games. 43:06 So read into that what you will. 43:08 Now read into that what you will. 43:10 But he was not- 43:11 He ended up at American International. 43:15 Good for him. 43:16 He's getting a chance to play there. 43:18 I think the people that are subtracted from the team, I feel bad about Johnny Sorensen and Purpick. 43:25 Those are two guys that didn't fit in for the numbers. 43:31 I think when you have the COVID years and things like that and the recruiting pipeline that Minnesota had, they could have come back, but there probably just wasn't a spot for them to be in the lineup. 43:44 And I think that's kind of the unfortunate thing with college hockey right now is that's how it works out sometimes. 43:50 And they're going to places where hopefully they get to play. 43:53 Yeah, Sorensen going to Fairbanks and Purvix going to Western Michigan. 43:58 And then you've got, well, what have we got here? 44:02 Brinkman ends up going to Notre Dame. 44:03 So we'll see him again fairly soon. 44:10 Yep, that'll be good for him. 44:11 It's a good fit for him, I think style-wise for Brinkman. 44:15 Notre Dame will be a good spot. 44:16 And all those Edina kids, they love Notre Dame somehow. 44:19 So it should be a good fit there. 44:21 I'm sure he'll know lots of people on campus. 44:23 I mean, Blake McLaughlin, I will miss him as a player. 44:26 I think he might transition to be a better pro than college player, a really hard worker, high compete, just doesn't always fit in, I think, with the flow of things. 44:36 He and Sammy were kind of connected at the brain. 44:40 It's what I like for times, which doesn't always work great. 44:43 But I think the biggest miss from... 44:45 At least they didn't enter the portal. 44:47 They just decided, you know what? 44:49 Yep, time to move forward. 44:51 Yep, San Diego would be a great place for Blake and Samuel. 44:55 Be interesting in Iowa, how that works out. 44:58 But I think McLaughlin will be a better pro. 45:01 And the biggest miss from that is the penalty kill. 45:04 I think last year they really counted on Meyers and Nelson to come out and win draws and start things off being big, heavy. 45:12 And then Sammy and Blake coming on and being like terriers out there and just being on top of every puck. 45:19 They don't have that this year. 45:20 So who are those players going to be? 45:22 I know Nyes and Huglin got some chances to kill penalties at the end of last year, but I don't see them playing that many minutes on the PK this year because they're going to need them on offense, on the power play and heavy minutes, you know, at even strength. 45:37 So I think there's going to be other, you know, opportunities there. 45:43 All right, Veegs. 45:45 I mean, really not much to predict this weekend. 45:48 It's going to be a sweep. 45:49 It's going to be kind of ugly. 45:52 What can we take from a weekend like this against a brand new Division I team? 45:57 I mean, what can you take from it? 46:01 Well, it's one of those weekends where you worry about yourself. 46:04 You know, I was talking to the coaching staff a little bit this week and they're just like, you know, we can't even really scout their power play and penalty kill for this week. 46:11 So we're just focused on ourselves. 46:14 So I think the things to watch this weekend are centers. 46:18 How engaged are they in the defensive zone? 46:20 Where's their positioning? 46:21 Are they just kind of hanging out in the slot, watching the defensemen win the puck all the time? 46:26 Cause that's going to happen. 46:27 You know, the defensemen are going to win a lot of pucks, but you want your centers to be supporting and jumping in where they can. 46:34 And the other thing I'm looking for is power play chances. 46:38 How creative do they look? 46:40 You know, I think sometimes the Gopher power play the last couple of years has gotten very mechanical and you want to have some creativity and quick thinking. 46:49 And we're looking for that vision and that flair on the power play. 46:54 You know, that's going to come out on a natural talent, I think with this group and that vision. 46:58 So Logan Cooley on the power play, I'm excited to watch because I think he's got some of the best vision out there. 47:04 And it'd just be interesting to see the groups that get put together. 47:08 Tell me about Steve Miller. 47:10 Man, this is a guy who is well-liked in college hockey. 47:15 You know, he's been around a long time, you know, learned a lot from Gwazdeki and Steve Roelich. 47:24 He's been a six time pick for the World Juniors. 47:29 I think this year is the first time in six, seven years that he hasn't been on the staff. 47:35 And he just fills a lot of different roles there. 47:37 And he's specialized on defense, he's specialized on PK. 47:42 And I think, you know, one of his things is attention to detail about winning the puck back. 47:47 And I think that's going to be important for this team because there's so many new forwards, you know, you want to go play offense. 47:53 Well, you gotta get the puck first to go do it. 47:55 So how do you, you know, get turnover opportunities and then what do you do with it? 48:00 And so I think his emphasis there and in recruiting, I think Steve Miller has shown himself to be a very good addition of the staff. 48:08 You know, Bob's a good recruiter, but he can't be out there as often as the assistant coaches can be, you know, because there's so much more to being a head coach than just the hockey stuff. 48:18 You know, there's all the administrative stuff. 48:20 There's the media, there's the alumni, you know, there's the oversight of everything. 48:24 COVID's been a big thing for head coaches. 48:26 So to have an assistant coach like Steve Miller, that's a reason why Minnesota has one of the best recruiting classes coming in in a couple of years here. 48:35 I mean, they are not missing. 48:37 They are getting pretty much everyone they're targeting. 48:40 And it's fun to see. 48:42 You know, I think he's a great addition to the staff. 48:47 He's got a lot of experience, a lot of attention to detail. 48:49 And it's great to have a veteran like that at Minnesota. 48:53 All right. 48:55 What else? 48:56 You got any other thoughts for the show tonight? 48:58 We'll talk about a couple of other things in overtime, but that should be a pretty well-rounded preview of the season. 49:06 Yeah, I think in the coaches' poll, the one team that I was surprised was low is Ohio State. 49:11 I think they're gonna outperform some of the expectations. 49:14 Nobish. 49:17 He's good. 49:18 Yeah, they've got good goaltending. 49:19 They've got good defensemen. 49:22 So I think that'll be a team to watch. 49:24 I am wondering about the train wreck that could be coming to Wisconsin. 49:28 You know, they had to turn over their coaching staff. 49:31 Oh, what a shame. 49:32 Yeah, big shame there. 49:33 So that'll be interesting to watch. 49:35 And then last season on the big sheet, and Mary G coming up. 49:39 Yeah, John Reynolds asking about the enhancements coming forward. 49:42 We can get more into that on overtime, but it looks like it was approved. 49:48 That thing's final. 49:49 We've seen some, I mean, the plans I saw, it was down to 89 feet wide, but we heard 92 or 91 and a half. 49:56 So it's getting me a little skinnier and a lot of changes coming. 50:02 Yep, a lot of changes. 50:03 It'll be interesting to see what they can do with the seating bowl, with premium seating in the arena. 50:08 That's something that every athletic group is looking to do is how can I make a premium experience for fans? 50:16 And some of the renderings are pretty interesting actually. 50:18 Yeah, so I'm digging around trying to find more detail because the renderings are just concepts. 50:23 They're not actually what they have in mind. 50:26 Necessarily, they're still evaluating that. 50:29 And the first step is obviously gonna be the ice sheet size and the first reconfiguration of the bowl. 50:35 There's also some things in the concourse that they'll be working on in a second phase. 50:39 I think a lot of this depends on how quickly everything recovers from COVID. 50:46 We've seen good football crowds at Huntington Bank Stadium this year. 50:50 As we all know, the football money kind of drives the athletic department. 50:54 I think if the hockey program... 50:56 That media money too. 50:57 Can get, yeah, the media money. 50:58 If the hockey program can get good attendance this year, I think those things might happen faster because it seems like they're having a hard time getting donors to come forward for this work. 51:08 So the U is having to kind of figure out a way to finance it themselves. 51:14 Lou Nanny out of money maybe. 51:16 Well, you know, he already did the team room downstairs and everything, so he's put in a lot of time. 51:23 He's the hardest-working nanny. 51:27 Can't argue with that. 51:29 Can't argue with that. 51:31 Well, it's glad to be back, Veegs. 51:33 Great to be back. 51:34 I'm looking forward to seeing this team on the ice. 51:36 I've enjoyed being back in Marriottchie. 51:38 Like all the COVID restrictions are gone. 51:41 So, you know, I just got my Omicron booster this week. 51:45 So I feel super protected for the season. 51:47 So here we go. 51:49 Here we go is right. 51:52 Let's go. 51:53 I've seen quite a few of them in chat. 51:56 Let's go. 51:57 People are ready. 51:58 They want to see this team. 51:59 There'll probably be some growing pains in there somewhere, but just stay healthy this weekend, Veegs. 52:05 That's all you can ask. 52:05 Just stay healthy, right? 52:07 Yep. 52:07 Don't have the expectations that this team is going to look like a number one team through the month of October. 52:13 I don't think we're going to see that. 52:15 It's going to take some time to figure things out, defensively, they'll be very strong, but I think it's going to take some time. 52:21 So it should be a fun journey to watch. 52:24 All right then. 52:25 Well, that's going to do it for the season premiere of the GPL Podcast. 52:29 Let's get Vegoe off the screen and me there instead. 52:32 We'll be back next week to recap this moving series. 52:36 Hopefully they stay healthy and preview the home and home series of Minnesota State. 52:42 Pat McAleady is scheduled to join us next week. 52:45 So that will be fun as well. 52:47 For those of you currently watching, stay tuned a bit of overtime. 52:50 For the rest of you, we'll see you next time on The GPL Podcast.