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Firstclassmortgage.com Good evening, and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 223.
1:11
Well, good evening, Vegoe.
1:13
How are things with you tonight?
1:15
Doing well, battling a little bit of a cold, like it sounds like a bunch of the Gophers are right now.
1:20
You know, I'm just toughening it out, though.
1:22
Went to the curd room, got a good steam treatment before the podcast.
1:26
So I think anyone who's going through this crud that we have right now, I highly recommend that.
1:31
Well, speaking of toughing it out, our guest tonight was thinking he may not make it on time because he had to go have an MRI and, you know, injured himself.
1:45
So, yeah, I could see him in the in the guest room ready to come in.
1:49
We might want to bring him in.
1:50
Jess Myers.
1:52
Welcome back to the show.
1:53
Jess, I love it when we're ripping on you and you're not even in the show yet.
1:58
No, that's fine.
1:59
I'm guessing you do that most shows that I'm not on anyway, but that's fine.
2:04
How are you doing, man?
2:05
I'm doing OK.
2:06
I got like I said, I got on Twitter, I got an upper body injury, but I'm fighting through.
2:11
It's nothing real exciting and sexy.
2:13
I have a puppy and she was trying to run past me on Monday night at a dog park.
2:18
And I reached out and grabbed her collar and she just kept running.
2:20
And that led to me hyper extending my arm and possibly tearing my bicep, which, you know, happens to guys when they're 53 years old.
2:30
Jeff, Jeff, the trainer for the Gophers, I was at practice on Tuesday.
2:34
And and I said, hey, you might take a look at this.
2:37
He's like, no, no, not at all.
2:38
So he poked and prodded and did all the good things that he does and said, yeah, I was hoping to tell you you're just being a wimp, but I'm pretty sure you tore your bicep.
2:46
You better go get that looked at.
2:48
So I was going to give you a hard time because it looked like just a bruise from what I saw.
2:54
Oh, it's it's only candy asses can't play through bruises.
2:58
So, yeah, exactly.
2:59
Long way from your heart, he said.
3:04
So, no.
3:05
And, you know, as as one of the few traveling media members with the Gophers, boy, nice timing, right?
3:11
You know, in front of six consecutive road games when I'm going to Detroit tomorrow and hopefully going to Phoenix on Thanksgiving Day and then going to East Lansing.
3:19
So fun, fun times.
3:21
But I'm fighting through and hopefully I get some good news tomorrow when I get that MRI results back.
3:26
So I do recommend ice on the plane, Jess, because that thing will swell up on the plane.
3:32
Good to know.
3:32
Yes.
3:33
So the plane.
3:34
All right.
3:36
Well, we'd like to sneak ice in.
3:37
Maybe you have to be there.
3:38
Cold pack or something like that.
3:40
Cold pack.
3:40
Maybe talk to the trainers.
3:41
They'll get you one.
3:43
I'll bring I'll bring a cold pack.
3:44
Well, the team's there already.
3:45
They're there.
3:46
They're already in Michigan.
3:47
I'm flying on my own tomorrow.
3:48
So hopefully the folks at Delta are courteous, kind and forgiving.
3:52
And let me bring some ice.
3:55
All right, guys.
3:55
Well, we had a pretty big weekend last weekend where, you know, fairly unheralded Penn State came in, Veegs and showed they are for real or to win Friday night.
4:07
And the Gophers come back Saturday night with three at three one win.
4:10
But a solid weekend.
4:13
Yeah, I think Bob kind of tried to prepare us for the weekend by saying he thought Penn State was the sneaky team in the Big Ten and maybe, maybe they are the top team and they have all these goals returning.
4:26
They've got all this experience and they play this different style and they, they've won all their games.
4:31
And I think he was kind of expecting his team to struggle a little bit with them.
4:35
So he was trying to maybe get the minds right for that.
4:39
And Penn State played probably the best I've seen them play against Minnesota at Mariucci over the last decade or whatever.
4:47
And they put a lot of pressure on Minnesota.
4:49
And I don't think Minnesota really adjusted very well creating offense.
4:53
Bob said after the weekend, he's like, other than that one minute on Friday night, I thought we played okay.
5:00
I think that's been pretty kind to his team.
5:02
They went through long stretches where they turn the puck over and they didn't generate scoring chances.
5:07
So I think it was a real challenge for them all weekend.
5:10
And Jess, the Big Ten standings are almost upside down right now compared to what people were picking.
5:17
You've got Michigan State and Penn State right on the tail, Minnesota right behind, which is obviously good, but what is going on?
5:24
Well, Veegs, first of all, following on what you said, Bob changed his tune between Friday and Saturday.
5:30
Saturday, he said, other than one minute, we played pretty well.
5:33
Friday night after the game, if you'll recall, he said, you can't play 35 to 38 minutes against that team and expect to do well.
5:39
So that 22 minutes or whatever that he didn't shrunk to about one minute by the time.
5:47
You're feeling good after a win.
5:48
I get that.
5:49
But the thing that really struck me about last weekend is going into the weekend.
5:54
The talk was, play our game.
5:57
Get to our game right away.
5:59
First 10 minutes, play Gopher Hockey.
6:02
Don't let them dictate the pace.
6:03
They didn't do that.
6:06
Penn State dictated the pace for the first 20 minutes of that Friday night's game.
6:11
Second period on Friday, Gophers were maybe as dominant as I've seen them all season.
6:16
They come within a Bryce Brzezinski pipe of taking the lead.
6:20
Then the dumb fates of hockey as they would have it in the final 10 seconds of the period, Penn State gets a guy out of the box, he gets a breakaway scores, and all of a sudden you're trying to get back to tide again and it just didn't happen.
6:34
Veegs, one thing you've been harping on this year is consecutive shifts, getting out there, keep playing, and having in a row, keep it going, keep it going, and there was just none of that.
6:48
No.
6:49
I think when you come into the series and you say you want to play Gopher Hockey, I don't know if that's always possible against the way Penn State plays because they play so aggressively along the wall in the defensive zone.
7:01
The thing I noticed was they basically choked off the Gophers from escaping up the wall to go that low-high game.
7:07
They completely choked that off, and the Gophers almost seemed hesitant to cycle back down and make plays down below the goal liner, behind the net and go the other way.
7:17
And I think that was the key to unlocking Penn State's defense was sticking to that, and that's an adjustment they have to make.
7:24
And I think one of the reasons Bob shortened his bench on Saturday is because he had a line of players that weren't doing that.
7:31
They weren't making the plays that were there.
7:33
They were trying to make the plays they're used to making.
7:36
And that's the big difference in that series is they got a couple of guys like Jackson Nelson, who played that low heavy game that you have to get play against Penn State.
7:46
And I think that's really what got them to win on Saturday.
7:49
You know, we've got Ryan Kay here saying, Lacombe played horrible Thursday night, Jess, and Lacombe did have kind of a brutal evening Thursday night.
7:59
And that was, you know, that's uncharacteristic, because Lacombe has been, you know...
8:03
Really it is.
8:04
It's been a lot.
8:06
Five, six games into this season, we were talking Hoby Baker, and granted, you know, we're 12 games into the season.
8:10
It's not like all is lost or anything like that if you have a rough game.
8:16
The other thing I'll say, Justin Close, who was fantastic at points last weekend, and then maybe that third goal in the first game is one they would like to have back, you know, just a basic shot from the hash marks or rising shot that fooled him.
8:30
You know, you're allowed one of those every now and then, but that did come at an inopportune time because a minute into the third period, you're down three to one then.
8:37
And the thing that really struck me about Penn State is defensively, they block shots, they get sticks and lanes, they're getting really good goaltending from Liam Souleir, and that's an interesting story.
8:49
I wrote about it this week in my Big Ten Notebook.
8:51
You know, here's a guy who came in, played five games his first year, he played 15 games last year, but didn't ever really become the number one guy in goal for Penn State until later last season.
9:02
Oscar Audio, who had been their number one guy, actually entered the transfer portal while they were still playing, which I think to me sends a message about, you know, where his head was last year, and that's kind of when Souleir took over the reins, but I was really impressed by Penn State defensively.
9:20
And for all the talk about the fact that all they do is try and score seven goals a game and put 50 shots on that, they're a good defensive team, and they're for real.
9:30
And basically, you know, we moved to a second game Friday night, and Minnesota turned it around again.
9:37
And it's one thing we have seen this year is, you know, they might play or even bad one night, but it's never two nights in a row on a weekend.
9:48
And that's the encouraging thing with a young team is they did respond pretty well.
9:52
I do think Penn State blocked 10 shots in that first period of the Friday game, and Minnesota was kind of feeding into that.
10:00
You know, you got to be patient when you have the puck and change the angle, and if the shot's not there, you got to cycle it back down low.
10:06
And that was a little frustrating thing to see that on Saturday night or Friday night.
10:11
I think Jess and I were joking, you know, is this a game where you kick the trash can if they keep this up through the second?
10:17
And luckily, they didn't have to.
10:19
They got some good scoring from that senior line of Nevers, Brudzinski and Nelson.
10:23
And I think that line actually did a lot for their style of play that night.
10:27
I think the younger lines kind of got frustrated with things a little bit and didn't adjust.
10:32
And so that was the big key.
10:33
And then back to Lacombe, I don't know if he had a bad, bad game, but he had a couple just critically bad plays.
10:40
And I think that's the difference.
10:41
You've got a guy like Jackson Lacombe who hasn't played a lot of defense in his lifetime.
10:48
And so I think he's still getting these experiences of how to handle those situations.
10:53
Because how many times do you think he's had a two on one without back checker support in a big game?
10:59
Not very often.
11:02
He just kind of went down to his knees and ended up taking himself out of the play.
11:06
And I'm like, oh, and I doubt he'll do that again.
11:10
It looked even worse.
11:13
I will say I got to credit the conversations we have in the press box.
11:17
I've got to credit Dylan from Gopher Hole.
11:19
He had the line of the weekend.
11:21
Penn State's up by two in the third period in that first game.
11:24
And I jokingly said, does Penn State know how to go into a defensive shell?
11:28
And Dylan's line was, well, then they just shoot from the red line instead of shooting from the blue line.
11:36
Stick salute to Dylan.
11:37
Good line.
11:38
Excuse me.
11:43
Yeah.
11:45
Dylan's a good kid.
11:46
I like Dylan.
11:47
Absolutely.
11:48
So where does that lead us, Veegs?
11:51
I mean, you know, we're still looking for consistency over a weekend.
11:55
You know, we sought for Notre Dame.
11:59
Maybe it's still kind of that, you know, slowly going up type of line with little dips, little dips going up, still going up.
12:07
How do you feel about the whole situation of consistency?
12:11
Well, I think in goal, Justin Close played very well over the weekend.
12:14
I think that's one bit of consistency you can look at.
12:17
You know, the goals against were those odd man rushes where he's committed to the shooter and that's on the defensive to make sure the puck doesn't get across.
12:26
You know, he's a goalie who can't really play aggressively and take both the shooter and the second option on the rush.
12:33
You know, he's got to commit and he's got to rely on his teammates.
12:36
But again, on Friday night, I thought he played very well.
12:39
You know, he got a lot of shots, a lot of traffic.
12:41
He was very calm.
12:43
He wasn't giving up a lot of loose pucks in front of him.
12:46
And so I think that was a real consistent thing for the Gophers.
12:50
How are you feeling about their consistency, Jess?
12:52
It's not there yet, obviously.
12:54
You know, the night-to-night effort is not there.
12:56
Now, I'm not as concerned about it just because we saw this last year.
13:00
You know, I spent all of November last year writing about the fact that they couldn't sweep a series.
13:06
You know, Bob Motzko corrected me as he likes to do and said, hey, you haven't written about the fact that we've gotten points every weekend.
13:13
And that's true.
13:14
They have.
13:15
The expectations are sky high for this team.
13:17
And we just haven't seen again that consistent night in, night out effort.
13:21
And, you know, we talked about already, but the concern of starting slow in the first game of a series and needing a period or two to kind of figure out the other team.
13:31
Maybe everybody has to do that.
13:33
But that's one thing Bob Motzko talked about this week is it's not about counteracting what Michigan does as much or responding to what Michigan does is we need to play our game.
13:43
We need to play Gopher Hockey.
13:45
Similar message to what we got a week ago.
13:47
So I'll be very interested to see that first period on Thursday in Ann Arbor, what that looks like and if they can get to their game and get on the board and quiet that crowd and all of that.
13:57
Jess, is Pitlick in the doghouse right now?
14:02
I don't know that he's in the doghouse.
14:04
I mean, it would be, you know, he made the dumbest play of the year so far and hopefully the dumbest play we will see all year.
14:11
Because if somebody does something more egregious than that, oh boy.
14:15
You know, and to his credit, youthful, exuberant mistake.
14:20
He scores in a big game in front of a sold out crowd and he celebrated in a way that got him in trouble.
14:26
He won't do it again, I promise you.
14:30
But I do think, you know, Bob Motzko has made a little bit of mentions here and there of we've got to get Pitlick going.
14:37
You know, I think he, the coach sees that they need to light a fire a little bit under him.
14:44
You know, I hope the mistake he made against North Dakota does not haunt him because he's a great player and a really good kid.
14:51
And, you know, talking to him for the story I did about Aaron Hughlin a couple of weeks ago, you know, just what's it like being on a line with Aaron and what's he like?
14:58
He's a really good, soft-spoken kid.
15:01
He doesn't have, I'll go ahead and say it, he doesn't have the arrogance that his brother Rem had when I dealt with Rem.
15:07
Rem always came across as a very, very self-confident guy, let's say.
15:12
And I don't see that in Rhett.
15:13
So I hope he can kind of find his groove here.
15:16
And we're seeing that from some guys.
15:17
You know, Hughlin finally got a goal.
15:20
That was eating at him, albeit in a losing effort.
15:23
But he finally got to see the red light go on.
15:25
Bryce Brodzinski now is getting put in those areas where he's just deadly with the puck.
15:29
And I like to see that.
15:31
And then you mentioned Jackson Nelson.
15:32
Man, I have loved what I've seen from him this year.
15:35
Somebody, I don't know if I needed to remind him, but somebody got him to figure out that, hey, I'm six foot four and I can do a lot of stuff.
15:43
And it seems like I think Nelson being matched with Bryce Brodzinski is good because Bryce needs somebody to kind of set him up.
15:55
Bryce definitely needs a space grader.
15:57
Because he saw that pass by Cooley.
15:59
Put him right in a great position.
16:01
Brodzinski took the shot and scored his other two goals on Friday.
16:06
Same type of thing.
16:08
He was in a good position.
16:09
He didn't have to get into a good position.
16:11
He got to a good position and someone fed him the puck.
16:14
Well, I think one of the things about Bryce when he's playing well, he catches the puck and releases it.
16:21
He doesn't have to dust it off.
16:22
He doesn't over stick handle it.
16:23
He's able to catch a puck, pick a spot and fire and deliver it.
16:28
And so if he's playing with a group of players that also think the same way and can get him the puck in those situations, it's going to make him way more dangerous.
16:37
And getting back to Pitlick being in the doghouse, I think it's because of the pucks he was throwing away against Penn State.
16:43
And that's just not how you're going to be successful.
16:46
If you're blindly throwing pucks up the ice towards your points or to the middle of the ice and you're not doing it with a purpose, that's going to get you in the doghouse real quick.
16:56
Because this is a team that needs to string those shifts together and that is the antithesis of that.
17:03
Can I answer the question I saw in the chat here?
17:06
Go ahead.
17:06
Which one?
17:07
I see Steve Larson asked me at 942, what expectations does Jess have for the Gophers this season?
17:13
I will reiterate what I said at their first practice, about September 15th or so.
17:19
I did a little video with Pat Micheletti that day.
17:23
And I said this then, I'll say it again, on January 1st I expect that this will be the best team in college hockey.
17:29
I just think there's that natural break-in period with 10 new faces in the lineup, guys who haven't played college hockey before.
17:35
As good as they are, it takes a while to get your groove, to get up to speed, to get used to going into Yoast Ice Arena, or going on the road, or going into a place like Ohio State where there's zero atmosphere and you have to kind of get your blood pumping on your own.
17:52
They didn't do that, learning how to do those things.
17:55
I think this is far and away the most talented team that Bob Motzko has had and maybe the most talented Gopher team in the last decade.
18:03
So I fully expect this team should win the Big Ten title and should be in the Frozen Four.
18:08
And there you got Eric Prever.
18:10
You don't win titles in November or December, but you can lose them.
18:13
And he's not wrong.
18:15
Well, you could win the Mariucci Classic in December back in the day.
18:21
Yeah, well, what can you do?
18:24
So there's my answer.
18:25
I have faith.
18:27
Well, going back to like, you don't expect the Gophers to come away with a weekend not having points.
18:32
Like, Bob, that's the expectation is that anything less than a split is incredibly disappointing.
18:39
And anything more than a split is kind of the expectation.
18:43
Well, I go back to, you know, the theory 30 years ago when I first started covering college hockey was if you want to win your conference, you sweep your home series and you split your road series.
18:53
If you do that, you know, you will be one of the two, three teams battling for a conference title the last couple of weeks of the season.
19:00
So I put a big kind of emphasis on your home games that, you know, you got to get two wins in those, especially when there are conference points on the line.
19:08
They haven't done that yet.
19:09
You know, they didn't do that in November last year and then they got hot at the right time.
19:13
Well, they did it against Notre Dame.
19:16
Yep, you're right.
19:16
They did it against Notre Dame.
19:17
The weekend was was a very big where they that was the weekend really where they put it together.
19:23
Jess, I mean, they really did.
19:25
Absolutely.
19:26
So, which is funny because it came after the weekend against Ohio State where they didn't really have it together.
19:32
And I kind of got away with a split there.
19:35
They played well.
19:36
And now they go into the Penn State Series and kind of give one away.
19:39
Maybe going into the Michigan Series now, they they'll come in motivated on Friday and they won't have to get yelled at Saturday morning.
19:47
Well, let's get into that series in just a second here.
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21:30
I see a question here from Tim.
21:32
And he wants to know from Bob really has been praising Lamb.
21:37
Thoughts on his play?
21:39
We'll have you up first on that, Jess.
21:40
Mr.
21:41
Lamb.
21:43
It's a battle for third place among top rookie on this team, clearly.
21:47
Because 92 and 81 have kind of taken that title already, I think, with what they've done.
21:54
But I really like what Brody Lamb's done.
21:57
For a guy who came in out of a lesser-heralded high school program, played some time in Green Bay, he uses his size well.
22:05
He seems to fit in really well on that...
22:07
What are we calling that line?
22:09
Pitlip, Coughlin and Lamb.
22:10
They all have seven on there.
22:11
Could be the Magnificent Seven, could be Lucky Sevens.
22:16
How about the name lines or line names or whatever?
22:21
We've got to have a name for everything.
22:23
A writer, that's what we do.
22:25
We come up with goofy stuff.
22:27
So no, I'm all in on Brody Lamb.
22:29
Great player.
22:30
Since we're talking about freshmen, the one I will say is I'm not making the line charts out.
22:36
I don't make these decisions.
22:38
I don't know how you don't have Charlie Strobel in your lineup every night.
22:40
He impresses me every time he's on the ice.
22:43
And he's been in that rotation with one of the Middlestads or I know they've sat down Pinanemi one night.
22:50
They sat down Kurth one night.
22:52
It's just a numbers game with him.
22:53
But I really like everything I've seen from Charlie Strobel so far.
22:57
Thoughts on Lamb, Veegs?
22:59
I think part of the praise for Lamb coming out this weekend was for his defensive play.
23:04
I thought he was one of those freshmen who did a good job of doing the hard work along the wall, winning the battles to get the puck out of the D-zone and then blocking shots.
23:15
So I think that's something that Bob is trying to reinforce for all of his forwards, is that's the kind of stuff that's going to get my praise.
23:24
I felt like Lamb got lost there in the middle stretch of the season, but he's kind of finding his B-game again, which is good defensive presence, smart plays with the puck and using your body.
23:38
But he's got great size and he's been a good addition to the team, even though he's probably the last player to get added to this roster.
23:47
All right, big weekend this weekend, Veegs.
23:49
A Thursday, Friday series again, and everyone's complaining, what is this?
23:55
It's football, folks.
23:57
There's a thing called the Big House.
23:59
There's 110,000 people coming in on Saturday.
24:02
Although it's going to be cold on Saturday.
24:04
I don't know if they're going to get that many there.
24:05
They probably still will.
24:07
Tickets are probably sold, Jess.
24:11
And they're still going to broadcast the game and all the Big Ten schools are going to get their $45, $50 million.
24:16
In color?
24:17
They'll have it on color TV?
24:19
4K probably, Jess.
24:21
But really, Jess, people are complaining, but this is the reality.
24:25
Football rules.
24:26
If football is at a normal time, if it's early maybe, 11 o'clock, maybe they do a 7 o'clock hockey game.
24:36
But last weekend, there was a 2 p.m.
24:39
game.
24:40
There's not going to be hockey on that day.
24:42
They don't want any other major sports.
24:44
And now we've got this weekend.
24:45
It's just the same thing.
24:46
It just happens to be two weekends in a row.
24:48
And I'll say this too.
24:51
When you have conflicts with other sports, move the hockey game.
24:54
I'm fine with that.
24:56
And what I'm referencing here is a couple times now, Ohio State has had a noon basketball game and then like an 8 p.m.
25:04
hockey game in the same venue on the same day.
25:06
Don't do that.
25:08
All you're doing is punishing the people who work at your arena.
25:10
The ice isn't going to be very good.
25:13
You're not going to be able to have your regular pre-skate routine, all of that stuff.
25:17
Don't do that.
25:19
Don't try and be cute and have two events in the same venue on the same day.
25:24
Or how about women's volleyball and men's basketball right before men's hockey starts?
25:30
And swimming.
25:32
That was pretty bad.
25:34
There's a swimming...
25:34
I got to the rink at 3 o'clock that day.
25:36
They should have fit in a wrestling match too.
25:39
Probably didn't need to get to the rink at 3 o'clock, but what the heck?
25:41
That was there.
25:42
Yeah, why not?
25:45
Well, like Jeremy Gates says in the chat here, football pays the checks.
25:48
So, I mean, they're going to set the rules for it.
25:50
You know, I saw the Rub is talking about...
25:53
He's fine with the games, but he doesn't like the early times.
25:56
It's the early times to get them on the network.
26:00
I love the early times.
26:01
I'm just going to throw it out there.
26:02
Yeah, but if it wasn't on a big, you know, Big Ten network, you're not going to have these early times.
26:09
And Jeremy, you know, who says football writes the checks.
26:13
One of the greatest lines I've ever heard about the impact of college football on any college, but this happened to be at the University of Minnesota.
26:20
Back when I was working at the state legislature, back in the 2000s when they were trying to get Huntington Bank Stadium built, they were coming to the legislature asking for money.
26:28
And Robert Brunix, who was the university president at the time, was talking about, you know, how athletics was in the red, but they needed new sources, blah, blah, blah.
26:36
His great line was, football is the cause of and the solution to all of our athletic issues.
26:45
It's just something we have to live with, Veegs.
26:48
Yeah, it's hard to be half in on football and have it be a moneymaker.
26:51
If you ignore it for many times like Brunix inherited, that's going to be the situation.
26:56
But, you know, I think the players actually don't mind this, playing on the road early.
27:02
You know, they're going to be home Friday night by 10 o'clock.
27:06
They'll have Saturday as an off day.
27:08
It's probably a little nice break for the players when they're on the road.
27:12
Maybe Yost will be a little bit calmer.
27:14
I imagine the children of Yost don't have early bedtime, so they'll still be there and be as creative as they are.
27:22
5.30 tomorrow night, 5 on Friday.
27:25
I like that.
27:28
I'm a writer on Deadline.
27:30
Play it at 2.
27:30
I'm fine with that.
27:32
But I understand, especially for a weeknight game on a Friday night, people need to get off work.
27:38
They need to get to the arena.
27:41
Give them a break.
27:41
Remember, it's a little earlier, because obviously they're an hour ahead.
27:45
So a 6.30 start is not egregious by any means.
27:50
You won't have early starts the following weekend at Arizona State.
27:58
It's all good.
27:59
It's all good.
27:59
All right, Veegs, how about the hockey games actually this weekend?
28:04
Michigan, they got this guy who's playing really well.
28:07
Fantilly, this kid is lighting the league up.
28:12
Yeah, he's kind of like Matthew Nyes, light.
28:16
He's a little bit slighter than Nyes, but the same kind of player.
28:21
Heavy, tall, makes skilled plays, very quick, very good vision, you know, in tight spaces.
28:28
He's going to be a handful for Minnesota.
28:30
I think the big issue for Minnesota will be trying to find ways to match him with Brock Faber or Ryan Johnson on the ice and try to make sure they've got some defensive minded players out there when he's out there because he'll be physical.
28:47
I think that's the biggest question with freshmen who come into college hockey is how do they play through contact?
28:53
We've seen Minnesota's freshmen do a pretty good job of that.
28:56
Fantili is doing great.
28:57
I think he's leading the nation in scoring as a freshman in his draft year, which is pretty amazing.
29:04
Initial thoughts, Jess?
29:07
Well, I don't like to break news on somebody else's podcast, but in the last couple of hours, I've learned Michigan is a mess health-wise right now.
29:18
I was told they had 10 forwards and six defensemen at practice yesterday.
29:23
No players were made available to the media.
29:25
Their head coach was not available to the media.
29:27
So I'm wondering what that line chart is going to look like tomorrow night.
29:32
And I'm not saying I'm happy about that.
29:35
I want to see the two best rosters that these two teams have.
29:40
Now, before Gopher fans get gleeful about this, Justin Close missed a practice this week.
29:47
I said to Bob Motzko, your team has been relatively healthy.
29:50
And he said, clearly you weren't watching practice.
29:52
I was talking physical health.
29:55
I'm talking sprained ankles and torn biceps and the other crap that people deal with.
30:02
But illness is making its way through rosters right now.
30:07
So that to me is going to be the most telling thing I see tomorrow in Michigan is when I first get handed that line chart, what both teams are going to look like.
30:17
And now, just because I like to stir the pot, did Connor give you that news about Michigan?
30:22
Connor?
30:24
I have my own sources.
30:32
The Mel.
30:33
The Mel gave you that.
30:38
I just like to stir the pot.
30:39
That's all right.
30:40
Okay.
30:40
Funny thing is, I was telling Veegs when I was, Jess was two people from me, you know, I asked him to be in the podcast.
30:46
I'm like, can we get, Connor, you're good on the same one?
30:49
He's like, let's go.
30:53
So joining us live, no.
30:58
That would have been, that would have been nice.
31:00
But when I go into the four box, somebody's baby daddy is going to show up next.
31:05
This is, this is fun.
31:09
Well, maybe we'll do it for the next episode.
31:12
You know, when they come here.
31:16
Sure.
31:18
You and Tex can go at it.
31:23
I think you'll be curious with all the illness going around.
31:26
We are in kind of a post COVID era now of college athletics, where I think people are still smart about the COVID stuff out there.
31:36
But I think a lot of this is just normal cold season is in full swing all over the country.
31:41
I know I saw something that weren't like a tri-demic thing with RSV and flu and all kinds of stuff in the air.
31:49
And I think that's just what we're going through as society kind of comes back together.
31:54
I want to make a comment on one of the comments.
31:57
I was going to say, were you reading the chat there?
31:59
Tim H says, Mel, referring to former Michigan coach Mel Pearson, would have canceled the games.
32:05
I did get somebody contact me tonight saying, I heard that Michigan has a ton of illnesses, a lot of players out of the lineup.
32:11
What's the odds that they canceled the games?
32:13
Okay, let me say this.
32:16
Mel Pearson is not there anymore, but after last year and that fiasco with them not wanting to play Western Michigan or not playing Western Michigan, can you imagine the Hutzpah Michigan would need to go to the Big Ten and say, hey, we have to postpone these games?
32:29
And I certainly hope if them or anyone else asked that, the Big Ten would say, get bent.
32:38
Put a team on the ice.
32:39
I don't care if it's somebody off the intramural team.
32:44
Well, the key difference here is this is a conference game, so they would have to ask somebody permission before they moved out.
32:50
Correct.
32:51
Correct.
32:52
All right, Jess, let's hear about it before we get back to the games.
32:55
What are we hearing about?
32:56
The Mel.
32:57
The Mel.
32:58
The hell.
32:59
The Mel.
32:59
It's Michigan Week.
33:00
It's Michigan Week.
33:02
Obviously.
33:04
Report.
33:05
It's pretty clear.
33:06
I didn't read too much into it, but some regions wanted him gone.
33:13
And they probably released.
33:15
They let that report get out.
33:17
Just to use it as because they knew it didn't look good.
33:23
And you were the only person who got to talk to Mel after that.
33:27
I'll let you just continue from there.
33:29
Well, let me say this.
33:31
Number one, I've known Mel Pearson for more than a decade.
33:33
It goes back to his first year at Michigan Tech.
33:36
I was up in Houghton.
33:37
I went into his office, did an interview with him about one of his players then.
33:42
Always found him to be a great guy, frankly.
33:45
Just somebody you could sit down and talk with.
33:48
Now you read the report, you hear stories from people who played for him.
33:52
It sounds like he had maybe a different persona as a coach behind closed doors.
33:57
I think most coaches are that way.
34:00
Most coaches put on a face for the media and put on a different face once the door is shut.
34:06
Bob Mosco is never going to kick a garbage can in front of us, but he's made it clear that you do that behind closed doors now and then.
34:13
So with all of that said, I will admit I have a friendship with Mel Pearson and still do.
34:19
I think he's an outstanding person.
34:21
I never played for him.
34:23
I never got benched by him.
34:25
I never got yelled at by him.
34:27
Whatever.
34:29
I have gotten yelled at by other coaches in this league, but that's okay.
34:32
That's fine.
34:33
Not everybody's going to like.
34:34
So with all of that said, when Mel Pearson was on August 2nd or whatever it was, when they made it clear that he would not be coming back.
34:42
And it was a weird situation, as you remember, because his contract had expired on May 1st.
34:46
Yes.
34:47
But we spent three months with everybody at Michigan saying, oh, no, he's still our coach.
34:51
It's not going to matter.
34:52
Then the report came out and then things got, you know, much more complicated.
34:57
And they said, we're going to move on.
35:01
A couple of weeks later, my phone rang and it was Mel Pearson.
35:05
Now, I had written a column just prior to him being let go saying, for those of us who know Mel Pearson, this is bewildering.
35:13
You know, it's like it's like this doesn't fit with the person that we've known.
35:18
But again, we're not behind those closed doors.
35:22
My phone rings and I see it's Mel Pearson.
35:23
And my initial thought is, okay, I'm going to let this roll the voicemail because I'm thinking maybe two weeks later, he's upset about reading what I wrote, whatever.
35:32
But I thought, you know what, I'm 53.
35:35
I've been yelled at by coaches before.
35:36
If there's music to be faced, I'll face it.
35:39
We actually had a very nice conversation and included in that conversation was him saying to me, if I want to tell my story, would you be willing to sit down and listen and tell my story?
35:50
I said, absolutely.
35:51
Because I just, no matter what you think of him, no matter what you think of anybody, I think everyone deserves that right to tell their side of the story.
36:02
So it worked out great.
36:04
He came to Minnesota to do some scouting for a AAA team that he's coaching with now.
36:10
We met at a hotel lobby in Dinah, which ironically is where he was high school hockey star back in the 70s.
36:16
We talked for about an hour.
36:20
There were some funny moments.
36:22
There were some tears shed.
36:23
It was a very frank conversation.
36:26
No subjects were off the table.
36:28
I asked some questions that I knew he probably wasn't comfortable answering.
36:33
He gave me some answers that were frankly uncomfortable.
36:37
But he was open and I think for the most part he was very honest with me.
36:43
We addressed a lot of the things that were in that report.
36:46
I managed to sit down and put together, I think it was about a 5,500 word story when all was said and done.
36:53
In the journalism world, a thousand words is a pretty big story.
36:57
Well, we managed to put together about five times that.
37:01
I got several negative comments.
37:04
I got 10 times as many positive comments.
37:08
A lot of people didn't like the fact that, a lot of people want Mel Pearson to go away and not be heard from again.
37:14
Sorry, that's not the way I work.
37:16
And to those who criticize me in print, I've made this very clear in Twitter.
37:21
I'll say it again, I stand by what I wrote.
37:25
Fair enough, Jess.
37:27
That's why we have you on, because we know you give us a straight scoop of what happened.
37:31
That's what happened.
37:33
Do you think that Mel understands why he's no longer the coach at Michigan?
37:41
And I mean, in the conversation I had with him that day, he said, you know, am I a perfect person?
37:46
No.
37:47
Could I have done some things differently?
37:48
No.
37:49
He showed me documentation from people who had worked for him.
37:53
And in this documentation that is written on his behalf, there's stuff like, you know, Mel could be better with people or Mel could do this differently.
38:01
I mean, I think he acknowledges that in this era of, you know, more sensitivity, let's call it, he wasn't always there.
38:10
So I think he understands that.
38:13
But he was, I won't say defensive, but he was very frank about, you know, saying things like, if my program was such a mess, if the atmosphere was so toxic, in this era of the transfer portal, why in the last five years did one player transfer?
38:29
You know, why when four of the top five picks in the NHL draft were Michigan guys, and all of them have big money waved in their faces, and all four of them say, you know what?
38:38
No, I want to go back and play one more year for Mel Pearson, want to try and win a national title.
38:43
If the atmosphere was that bad and it was that toxic, I don't know that you see that happen.
38:49
So I do think that there were issues in that program, clearly, and I think everybody on, you know, whether you like Mel or dislike Mel has acknowledged there were issues that could have been corrected and hopefully would have been corrected, but I think it had gotten to the point, like you had mentioned, with some of the board of regents that it was just time to move on.
39:10
I think some people who are critical of that article that you wrote and in your interview that you conducted don't understand the realities of big time athletics, whether it's Big Ten athletics, NCHC athletics, Big Ten football, you know, professional sports.
39:27
There's going to be tough conversations throughout the year about playing time, everyone's experience.
39:33
You know, this isn't rec league hockey.
39:35
You know, Mel's getting paid a very handsome salary to coach Michigan Hockey.
39:41
He's going to do what's best for him and what's best for his program.
39:44
He's not going to massage everything for fourth and fifth line players.
39:49
And it's going to be difficult for everybody to handle that.
39:51
You know, there's going to be injuries, there's going to be mental health stuff that comes up.
39:54
There's going to be scholarship money that gets complicated.
39:58
And so it's a tough world, I think, for these coaches.
40:01
And I think what Mel lost sight of maybe was some of the small stuff that's really important.
40:06
Yep.
40:07
That's not the hockey side.
40:08
That's the people side.
40:10
And I think he just lost sight of that.
40:12
And I think that's common for some of these people in these positions.
40:15
They don't see that perspective.
40:16
They're all about the hockey stuff first.
40:23
I'll say this, too, as long as we're on this topic.
40:28
The vitriol directed at Mel Pearson that I've gotten from a handful of Michigan Tech fans.
40:34
Wow.
40:36
Now, and the reason I get it, you're mad because he left.
40:40
Okay.
40:41
And now that it's popular to rip on Mel Pearson, it's easy to jump on that bandwagon.
40:47
If you're a Michigan Tech fan over the age of 30, did you enjoy the GLI consolation game that much all those years?
40:54
Because your program was a joke for 30 years, and Mel Pearson had you in the NCAA tournament three years later.
41:01
He literally turned your program around, and yep, he left and went to Michigan like everybody knew he would eventually.
41:08
But wow, if you're a Michigan Tech fan and you have nothing good to say about Mel Pearson, I do not understand you at all.
41:15
Bitterness.
41:17
It's just bitterness.
41:18
Yep.
41:19
I get that, but it's like, come on, guys.
41:21
You know, I watched a lot of bad hockey coming out of Houghton from the years, you know, 1991 to 2011 inclusive.
41:29
Well, yeah, but really since 1977 and on, I mean, late 70s on, it's just been.
41:40
That's true.
41:40
True.
41:41
There's a lot of coaches who want to coach at Minnesota and Michigan, because look at the recruiting classes you're able to get when you're a competent coach at these schools.
41:52
It's pretty turnkey.
41:55
And for the people, you know, listening to the podcast, Eric Breiber had a question.
42:00
Motts go gets the same vitriol from SCSU.
42:04
And that's most definitely true.
42:06
Well, not to refute that, but I will say, you know, like last year, for example, when the Gophers played up there and Bob Motts goes introduced, I'd say it was about 50 50.
42:15
There were booze definitely.
42:16
And there were a lot of cheers to now.
42:19
Part of that is Mac Motts go.
42:20
Correct.
42:21
He was such a huge part of that community.
42:23
That family was such a huge part of that community.
42:25
Are you going to lustily boo a guy who just lost his son and, you know, a seat is reserved for his son in the arena and all of that.
42:34
And, you know, people who knew Mac better than me have told me there was nothing he wanted more in his life than to be a Husky someday.
42:40
And, you know, so the ties between those programs will always agree.
42:43
But, yep, there is a certain brand of St.
42:47
Cloud State fan who is never going to forgive Bob Matzko for having the gall to go on to a higher paying job with some more resources.
42:56
At a university that may not be dying as much as St.
43:00
Cloud is because beyond hockey, it's really looking bleak up there.
43:10
Yeah, I mean, their enrollments down, they expanded in the wrong areas as an academic institution.
43:15
You know, they already cut their football program to try to stave things off.
43:20
You know, it's like when you're on the lifeboat and you're trying to cut some weight, you know, you got to figure out things to toss overboard and they've got some challenges ahead still.
43:28
They definitely do.
43:29
Okay, let's get back to hockey guys.
43:33
Sorry, you know, I just I had you here, Jess, and I started thinking about it.
43:35
Let's talk about them now because, no, I, you know, I'm happy to talk about it.
43:40
It's nothing I shy away from, obviously, a big weekend.
43:44
I mentioned Mr.
43:45
Fantilly.
43:49
What's going to happen this weekend, man, I personally, I love the Michigan weekends as much as the North Dakota weekend.
43:57
I love it.
43:58
It's just for some reason, it's always just been huge for me.
44:02
What are your thoughts?
44:05
Me or Eric?
44:06
You, Jess?
44:08
They're going to split.
44:11
Is that the cop-out answer?
44:12
They're going to split.
44:13
They're going to not get to their game right away on Friday night.
44:16
Michigan's going to eke out about a three to one win with an empty net goal.
44:20
And Saturday night, Goavers are going to come out with some renewed vigor and are going to win about five to one.
44:27
I don't know.
44:29
I'm just going on past precedent.
44:31
That seems to be the way things go or have gone this season so far is and hey, you come out of Yoast with a split, God bless you because it's a tough place to play and that's a really good team.
44:46
So anything more than three points this weekend is going to be real gravy.
44:51
But that's just kind of what I expect.
44:54
A lot of these guys have played there.
44:57
A lot of the young guys are out of the National Team Development Program, so they're familiar with that part of Michigan.
45:02
I don't know that they necessarily played at Yoast, but they know the aura of Michigan and all of that and going into that building.
45:09
So yeah, that's just my cop-up prediction.
45:13
They'll split.
45:15
Well, Veegs, how about we think about this day?
45:16
What does Minnesota need to do to get more than three points on the weekend?
45:21
I think to get more than three points, they need to make Luke Hughes defend.
45:25
He is their one defenseman that's an offensive playmaker.
45:30
When he's on the ice, possess the puck, tire him out, make him play defense.
45:36
When he's off the ice, that's when you want to press.
45:39
He'll probably play 25-30 minutes against Minnesota.
45:43
So in that other 30-35 minutes, you need to get on your game and get after them.
45:48
I looked at the odds for the game.
45:50
Michigan's a slight favorite at home, minus 140.
45:54
Gophers are a plus 110 underdog.
45:56
I'm a little surprised it's not a pick-em game.
45:59
Because this is a weekend where I think Minnesota should be able to sweep.
46:02
Because I think Michigan kind of plays into Minnesota's style.
46:06
And because of Minnesota's defensive core, I think they're going to be able to control the game a lot better.
46:10
I think in the Penn State Series, you know, there's the shock of that different structure that kind of got Minnesota off their game.
46:17
It took them a long time to adjust to it.
46:20
When they play against Michigan, it's going to be like practicing against themselves.
46:24
The only thing is the defensemen on the other side of the team aren't nearly as good as yours.
46:29
So I think Minnesota is going to be able to possess the puck a lot.
46:31
I think they're going to be able to shut down Michigan in transition.
46:34
And I think it's a good weekend for the Gophers with the sweep.
46:38
I like the Luke Hughes thought, you know, and I go back to Kale McCarr's last college game where Minnesota Duluth absolutely shut him down.
46:46
And you know how you do it when your best players on the other team is a defenseman?
46:49
You make them play defense because they can't make plays when they're skating backwards.
46:54
It's true.
46:55
And I think that's a key.
46:56
And if Minnesota is able to do that, I think it will be a real growth moment for their team game mindset is that's how you win in college hockey sometimes is when you get your ground game and you just link the chains together and you kind of crush a team that way, it's a real powerful thing that the team like the Gophers with as much skill as they have can execute.
47:19
We don't have the Jack LaFontaine Revenge Factor anymore.
47:22
I missed that, man.
47:23
You know, that was that was always kind of a fun.
47:25
Well, yeah.
47:26
But one little thing going in there when the covid year, his pure emotional out outbursts basically via via Zoom was was one of the highlights of me covering Gopher Hockey because we have just really never seen something like that, Jess.
47:49
Such an outburst that that Jack had and you were you were there weren't you?
47:54
You were kind of way up off and off.
47:56
So yeah, it was the covid year.
47:58
The rinks empty.
48:00
They had us in the suites for some reason.
48:01
They didn't have us way up in the press box, but we were in the suites, which was fine.
48:05
And this was so weird about the covid year.
48:08
I mean, one of the many weird things is I'm on the road covering the team.
48:12
And after the game, I can see Bob Mosco sitting 20 feet away, you know, like this on his phone and I'm talking to him via Zoom when I've traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan or Madison, Wisconsin or wherever happens to be.
48:23
But yeah, that night, so Bob, Bob talked to us and he actually went and sat in the Children of Yost section amid the cardboard cutouts they had there, which, you know, I don't know if he meant to do that, but it was it was perfect symbolism that, you know, we just swept Michigan in their own building.
48:40
I'm going to go sit here where it's nice and quiet among the Children of Yost.
48:44
I don't think we get that moment if he's in a scrum either.
48:50
No, but then, you know, Jack came came on the Zoom and he was sitting in the corner of the arena.
48:55
There are seats like right along the glass in the corner.
48:57
He sat in one of those and there's kind of like a desktop there and he's talking on Zoom to us and and got very emotional about, you know, which he thought that was going to be probably his last series in Yost.
49:08
It turned out he played one more, two more games there the following year.
49:12
Didn't didn't finish the second game, by the way, because he got pulled because they were getting beat.
49:16
I think about five to one and Justin Close came in and finished that one.
49:19
But, you know, he had just not only not only swept Michigan, but he gave up one goal that weekend.
49:25
It was that ridiculous top shelf snipe by Kent Johnson, which, you know, maybe got him to be the fourth overall pick in the NHL draft.
49:32
That was the only goal he gave up.
49:36
But you could see it was a very emotional moment for him.
49:38
And the thing that nobody else saw was he got off the Zoom and absolutely buried his head in his arms and was sobbing.
49:47
I mean, just and Ben Gordon came out, you know, like, hey, where's Jack?
49:51
And saw him over there and came over and put his arm around him.
49:54
And they talked for a few minutes and then made his way back to the locker room.
49:57
But it was it was it was one of those moments that you don't forget, like that, that you think these guys are all jaded.
50:04
And I'm just here to find a way to the NHL and all that.
50:06
And this is some meaningful stuff for these guys.
50:09
This is some key moments in their lives.
50:11
Yeah, I'm I'm I post that video up on our YouTube channel.
50:15
I have it up there.
50:16
It's always accessible.
50:17
People want to see it.
50:18
If you haven't seen it, go see it.
50:23
It's just because it was it was a raw moment, Jess.
50:26
And it's just one thing we'd like like like being said, we wouldn't have had that in a scrum.
50:31
It just wouldn't have happened.
50:33
It was because he was by himself.
50:34
It really was.
50:35
Yep, yep, and he was in an empty building where he had started his college career and and looking around at that place.
50:42
What he thought was one last time.
50:44
Yeah, that was quite a moment.
50:47
I did write about this week, by the way, his first game back there with the Gophers, you know, and he's a former Michigan player, so he knew he was going to hear it.
50:54
But his line about the children of Yost, I'll never forget, he said they had ex-girlfriend info, like a lot of info.
51:04
And he wouldn't get into it.
51:05
He was like, right, no, but, you know, and it's years later, so I can say this, you know, so on the record, he talks about how great it was to play there and get a win and, you know, great to be back and, you know, where it all began for him, yada yada.
51:18
And then the cameras turned off and he had gotten a win at Yost, the cameras are off.
51:22
And as he's walking away, he turns around, he goes, karma's a bitch, eh, boys?
51:33
So, good for him.
51:35
Oh, that is good.
51:36
All right, so Jess, you're picking Split.
51:39
Veegs, you're picking a sweep.
51:41
I'm thinking I'm going to stick with Split myself too.
51:44
I just, I still think they need to kind of prove it to me a bit more.
51:52
Jess, what are you working on this week?
51:56
What's coming out on The Rink Live, like tomorrow before the game?
51:59
Well, I've got a series preview story up today, which includes some information about the four guys that signed National Letters of Intent next year.
52:07
That's some exciting time.
52:08
As always, I have the info about where the games are on TV and radio.
52:12
You can see the postgame video on our YouTube channel on The Rink Live afterwards.
52:17
I'm always watching if I'm not there.
52:19
Yeah, and I will be there.
52:21
Then kind of looking ahead, and this is kind of an obvious story, but next weekend, they're going to Arizona State.
52:28
They're going to be there for Thanksgiving.
52:29
Matthew and I is going back to his hometown.
52:33
I'm going to get details from Matthew.
52:34
We're going to sit down and talk next week, but I've heard that there might be a big Thanksgiving celebration at the Nyes House with all the team invited, which would be really cool.
52:44
Yeah.
52:44
Just remember they have fish in the Nyes family for Thanksgiving, not turkey.
52:50
Well, I'd be an adjustment for some of them.
52:51
I'm thinking if there's 35 guys there or whatever from the team, they're going to need more than one fish.
52:57
Different kinds, different kinds of fish.
53:00
That's one thing I'm looking ahead for.
53:02
Just to give a plug, I wrote a story last week, Murray Williamson.
53:06
Gopher great from the 50s has a book out.
53:08
Murray's almost 90 now.
53:11
But you talk to him and you wouldn't know that because just still super sharp mind and quick wit and a guy who tells just some fantastic stories.
53:19
He came from Winnipeg, he played for the Gophers, made his home and his life here in the Twin Cities, but he coached the 68 US Olympic team, he goes to 72 US Olympic team, he coached the first ever world junior team from the United States, and he was very involved in American Hockey.
53:35
The funny story is, so 1960, they win the gold medal in Squaw Valley, and everybody thinks American Hockey has arrived, all that.
53:42
Two years later, they get beat something like 17-2 by Sweden in an international game.
53:49
The President of the United States at the time, John F.
53:51
Kennedy, who was an East Coast guy, he knew some hockey, he went to Harvard.
53:54
Somebody told him 17-2, you lost to Sweden.
53:56
He said, are we sending girls over there?
53:58
What is going on?
54:00
It was this moment that, hey, American Hockey needs to do something different than what it's doing, because this is not sustainable.
54:07
That's about the era that Murray Williamson got involved.
54:10
Anyway, he's got a new book called The Road to Respectability, and it's just some of his best stories about that era in American Hockey, which was a defining time for the sport in this country.
54:22
So I want to give Murray a plug if anybody's looking for a Christmas gift for a hockey fan.
54:27
The Road to Respectability is his book, and I just enjoyed reading it to no end.
54:34
Forward by Lou Nani, by the way.
54:36
Nice.
54:37
And Murray joked that he asked Lou to write the forward, and Lou wrote a forward, and it was all about Lou.
54:42
So anyway.
54:45
But Lou tells great stories, too, so it's absolutely worth it.
54:49
He does.
54:51
All right, Veegs, what have you been working on this week?
54:55
I'm working on getting healthy.
54:57
I don't blame you.
55:00
We'll see.
55:00
I'm working on getting healthy and keeping my youth hockey teams going.
55:04
Here's the book.
55:04
There you go.
55:09
It's on Amazon.
55:10
Yeah, whatever.
55:10
There you go.
55:11
Anyway, sorry.
55:13
So one thing I'll be watching this weekend, Michigan has probably the top power play in the country.
55:18
I know they're technically behind UMass for percentage right now.
55:21
But that's something that Gophers have to watch out for.
55:24
Their penalty kill is clean against Penn State.
55:27
But I think it'll be a tougher challenge against Michigan this weekend.
55:32
Gotcha.
55:34
Jess, thanks for coming on with us again.
55:36
Always good to talk.
55:37
I can't feel better, V, because I hope things work out.
55:41
It'll be fine.
55:42
It's not COVID.
55:43
Oh, you candy ass.
55:47
I'll let you know if I have to have surgery.
55:50
That's good.
55:53
As I've said, it's not cancer.
55:56
And I'm not joking about cancer, right?
56:01
That's going to do it for this episode of the GPL Podcast.
56:05
Want to thank Jess again for coming on the show with us once again.
56:09
We'll be back next week for our Thanksgiving episode where Jack Ramsey is going to join us.
56:15
So that would be fun.
56:17
For those of you currently watching live, stay tuned for a bit of overtime.
56:21
For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on the GPL Podcast.
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