0:07
This is The GPL Podcast from gopherpucklive.com.
0:16
And Eric, on the flip side, I bet you just love those defensive games.
0:21
I mean, yeah, if I'm playing, I was the same as you, Jupe.
0:25
I fell asleep on Saturday.
0:29
Oh, boy, Jupe making mistakes.
0:32
I love it.
0:33
And so I had to train for this marathon.
0:37
Make sure you stay awake for the game to run.
0:42
Really surprised what I saw out of Michigan State, because there's so much hype about them going into that series, and oh, they're back.
0:49
Like they're playing really well.
0:51
And then I see them play Minnesota, and I was like, where's the skill?
0:56
Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe.
1:04
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 230.
1:13
Well, Veegs, fun weekend.
1:18
I picked five points for the Gophers.
1:20
They got three, you picked six.
1:21
They got three.
1:23
Friday night, my prediction was looking great.
1:25
I'm like, Friday night, overtime, Saturday, blow them out.
1:29
Not so much.
1:31
They did not play well.
1:32
And Michigan also upped their game quite a bit this weekend compared to kind of how they played this year.
1:41
Yeah, I think we saw a lot of the flash that makes Michigan a dangerous team.
1:46
They've got high end talent, Fantilly, Brinley, really impressed, I think, over the weekend.
1:54
And in the matchup of maybe the best line in college hockey, Cooley, Nyes, and Stuggerud, maybe the Michigan line played a little more consistent over the two games.
2:05
And it was definitely entertaining hockey.
2:08
I really enjoyed it.
2:10
I think people who are wanting to see Minnesota and Michigan go head to head in the Big Ten got what they wanted this weekend.
2:19
You know, I talked to a couple of stats guys after the game Saturday night.
2:23
They think we're going to be facing Michigan again, maybe even in a championship game.
2:27
I'm I'm not so sure on that.
2:29
It's you know, Michigan has a long way to make up first.
2:33
And they, you know, they would have a tough road to haul to get to Minnesota if Minnesota does finish first, because you're going through either Penn State or Ohio State just to get to that point.
2:46
But I think as Michigan proved this weekend, especially in a one game match, they're going to be a dangerous team to play against.
2:55
And I think the one thing that's holding Michigan back this year is the lack of discipline among the Wolverines.
3:03
We saw a lot of penalties again this weekend for Michigan.
3:07
Brandon Narada was not happy with that situation.
3:11
And I don't know whether he should be putting his blame on his players or the refs.
3:16
Because the players are definitely undisciplined.
3:19
And they're doing things that I don't think Bob Osco would let his team get away with.
3:24
No.
3:24
And it puts them on their heels when they're defending on the penalty kill 15, 20 minutes a night.
3:30
Well, just think of it this way.
3:31
They're number two in minutes.
3:33
At least they were, as of Saturday morning, number two in overall penalty minutes in the country.
3:37
Minnesota is 60th.
3:41
It was seven minutes, seven something.
3:43
And they're at 70.
3:44
I was something really outrageous.
3:47
So, you know, I heard I heard, you know, you saw the fans Friday night, Saturday morning complaining about the refs, complaining about the rest.
3:53
I'm like, you guys were kind of right on par for what you get per game.
4:00
If anything, I think some of the Minnesota fans might have been upset with the calls against the Gophers.
4:05
There were a few maybe phantom calls made during the weekend.
4:09
I know Bob made a reference in his post game with Wally and Frank and Pat, that the refs were buying the diving that was happening out on the ice.
4:20
I know Fantilly took a quick one that drew a penalty, I think from Cooley at one point.
4:26
There were a couple others where maybe some questionable calls that went the Wolverines way.
4:31
Maybe to even up the marbles in the pocket of Barry Puckmara, the referee for the weekend.
4:38
I was noticing Tim Hapke posting in the chat before.
4:41
I'm not sure if he was referring to this as just on the Saturday game or not.
4:46
Snuggie was a minus four, Nye is a minus three, Cooley a minus two.
4:50
Is that the weekend or is that just Saturday?
4:52
It might have just been Saturday.
4:54
I don't have the stat sheet in front of me.
4:56
But that line was getting caught in situations where they were at that 40, 45 second mark of their shift and they were losing a puck at the top of the circles in the offensive zone and they were getting beat back.
5:11
And that is just something that this line needs to address moving forward.
5:17
Maybe they need to listen to the GPL Podcast and listen to you because you've been talking about it the entire season, Veegs.
5:24
Well, Bob talked about it on his radio show on Monday where he said great NFL quarterbacks know how to control the pace of a game.
5:32
You know, when there's a little bit of panic out on the team, they know to slow it down, maybe throw a ball away and reset and get control of the game.
5:42
And I feel like sometimes that line is just out there pushing so hard to continue to score goals that they get caught.
5:50
And when you're playing against some of the players that Michigan was throwing out there, they're going to make you pay as well.
5:56
And we talked with Jackson Lacombe about that a little bit today and he's just like, yeah, that's something that comes with experience.
6:04
Experienced players know how to handle those situations.
6:08
And I just think those guys need to go through a weekend like this to learn those lessons.
6:12
And you have noticed and I've even actually noticed since you told me to watch it, is that Knives has been a little more disciplined in that area.
6:20
He has been the one coming off first more often than not.
6:27
So, you know, maybe he's starting to get it, but maybe the two younger kids need to kind of follow that lead.
6:33
Yeah, it's hard.
6:34
You know, there's that saying where you'd rather have to, you know, tame the tiger than paint the stripes on a cat.
6:42
You know, you want players who want to score goals and pursue those chances, but at the same time, you know, there's a time to go for it when you're behind, but there's also a time to be smart and be cautious.
6:57
And I think that's kind of the biggest fear going forward, Veegs, is when it comes NCAA playoff time, that type of performance by that line is not going to work.
7:10
Games are so much tighter.
7:11
Goals are so much more precious.
7:13
I heard Lou Nani talking about that, you know, the other day on KFN.
7:17
In the NCAA playoffs, it's a different thing.
7:19
And you can't afford those players having that kind of performance when the pressure is on.
7:28
Yeah, and I think we saw that in the St.
7:31
Cloud series.
7:32
I think we saw that in their exhibition games.
7:35
I think we've seen Minnesota able to play a disciplined game when they need to.
7:40
But it's just got to be there when the end of the season comes.
7:45
And you're glad, I guess, at some point, to see it now and have it be correctable, then get to the end of the year and not have gone through that experience.
7:54
I think that's something that comes up with some of the teams that don't get challenged down the stretch, that they're not sharp enough when they need to be.
8:04
And let's just hope that they figure it out.
8:07
I also think on Saturday, losing Snuggerude to the five-minute contact to the head penalty hurt them as they were trying to put Curth in there and Lamb in there, and they lost their continuity a little bit there.
8:22
It definitely did.
8:23
I'm seeing a bunch of people asking about maybe the loss of Middlestead was under the radar, according to Corey V.
8:30
How much did that affect the team?
8:31
And what are his future plans for this weekend, Bigs?
8:34
What did you hear this weekend or week?
8:36
Yeah, he's skating.
8:38
I don't think he's going to be playing this weekend.
8:41
I'd be surprised.
8:43
I think it's better for them to be cautious.
8:46
Michigan State is probably a team where they can get away with rolling their 6D.
8:50
And I almost think putting fish in the lineup was maybe a little bit of putting your toes in the waters of whether or not fish can play a regular shift with this group going forward against good teams.
9:03
And you always need the depth.
9:04
You always need the depth.
9:06
Yep.
9:06
If somebody else gets hurt, you want to see what you have there.
9:09
I don't know if Michigan was a great matchup for fish.
9:13
There are a couple of rushes where he was a little bit on his heels, but who isn't going to be against some of the Michigan's top players.
9:19
What did you think of Schmidt playing?
9:21
I thought he looked great.
9:23
He spoke a lot at availability today about his journey, leaving Union and thinking hockey was done, and enrolling in school and being a student, and getting a call from Motzko just before Christmas asking, hey, maybe you're interested in continuing hockey and playing with the Minnesota hockey team.
9:44
He stepped out on the pond with his buddies over break and said, yeah, let's do this.
9:48
It took him a long time to get his legs back because he had basically hung him up.
9:52
He thought he was done.
9:54
He adds an element to this team that could be important down the stretch.
9:59
If that fourth line isn't scoring goals, contributing offense, they need to contribute momentum somehow.
10:06
And if it's him being physical in a way where he doesn't take penalties.
10:10
Yes, that's what I was thinking.
10:11
He didn't make a penalty all weekend because in those exhibition games, he kind of got in trouble quickly.
10:17
Yeah.
10:17
And last year, I think he got a couple of opportunities to skate in exhibitions and he kept taking penalties too.
10:23
Brodsinski joked about that, that every time he hit someone because he's so big, you know, he can't help but take a penalty.
10:29
But he focused his energy against Michigan and he was a noticeable impact player.
10:35
And I think it brought some energy to the crowd, brought some energy to the bench.
10:38
And I think we're going to see more of him down the stretch here.
10:43
Another part of the weekend is, you know, we actually talked about it with Connor last week is that Portillo showed up.
10:50
He might have kicked off the net a few times Friday night, I think, but he also had 49 shots coming at him.
10:56
And there was a couple of big saves in those shots as well, Vig.
11:00
So Portillo was big.
11:02
Yeah, I thought the Gophers really poured it on Friday.
11:05
I think they hit four or five pipes during the night as well.
11:10
When in overtime too.
11:12
And Portillo was frustrated with his team, I think, on Friday night.
11:16
And I'm sure he had words for his teammates Saturday in the film, talking about what he needed to see from them the next night.
11:24
And he answered the bell on Saturday.
11:26
He played very well, I thought.
11:28
Well, he left without his team.
11:31
While the Gophers were celebrating their overtime goal, Portillo went straight off the ice bigs.
11:37
And I think that's what showing is frustrating.
11:39
Nothing to do with the Gophers.
11:40
It was, you know, his team in front of him, because we had seen him vocal earlier in the night, you know, during a couple of TV timeouts as well.
11:48
And I saw that Saturday night, he was vocal, very vocal with his teammates.
11:52
Yeah, he's been known as a pretty loud goaltender.
11:54
He's not one of those guys who just sits between the pipes and stops the puck.
11:58
He's after his teammates and he'll, you know, hoot and holler a little bit when he makes big saves.
12:03
And probably a key component for Michigan to move forward.
12:07
And when you're that big, the goalie, pucks seem to hit you when you're on your game and you're playing aggressively.
12:16
And he made some nice saves when he pushed across the crease.
12:19
I thought his movement looked pretty good.
12:21
He was pretty calm.
12:23
Sometimes we've seen Portillo lose his net and scramble a little bit and try to be too athletic at times.
12:30
You know, it's the anti-Justin Close goal-tending where you're just all over the place.
12:34
And he kept missioning in it all weekend.
12:39
Yeah, when I was down shooting down low in the first period and I saw, you know, they all came up with their lineups and I'm like, Portillo is the biggest guy on their team.
12:48
He's six foot six, which puts him about what?
12:51
Six foot seven and a half, close to six foot eight in the goal.
12:57
He's a big boy.
12:58
So it's not just, you know, our goalie is yelling at us.
13:01
We got this big dude who could probably kick our ass.
13:05
And he can kick the nut off too.
13:08
Mmm, boy.
13:11
You know, we were tweeting about it and then Nate was, oh, boy, we had a good time with Nate Friday night too, when he was tweeting about it.
13:20
He was a little better Saturday, but then you also had the University of Michigan and Minnesota Twitter accounts going back and forth.
13:28
And they both have legit things.
13:29
Yes, Mariucci's pegs are screwed up.
13:33
Yes, goalies take advantage of that.
13:35
I mean, they'd be dumb not to because they're not going to get called VEGs unless they literally are seen doing it over and over and over.
13:43
Yeah, and big goalies like Portillo, they have a style where they do push off the post sometimes to get across.
13:49
It's just what they do.
13:50
And the pegs of Mariucci just aren't designed to handle that.
13:54
They'll be fixed next year, folks.
13:56
One more year.
14:01
But it was a fun weekend of hockey VEGs, a couple comebacks, late goals by the Gophers to tie up the games.
14:09
Good crowds.
14:10
I was still disappointed.
14:11
You know, the biggest weekend they'd ever had and sold tickets over 20, 20,400 or 700 or something like that.
14:21
They still had about 1,000.
14:23
I mean, I think the one of the nights they had 1,300 or 1,400 people, no shows, and I still get frustrated with that VEGs.
14:30
You know, I can imagine, you know, Friday night, sometimes it's tough to get to the arena.
14:34
And as you know, as you far you had to walk Friday night because traffic's at a standstill.
14:40
It's not easy getting down there.
14:42
But Saturday traffic getting down there, you don't have you're not fighting traffic of regular Friday.
14:49
I just wish we could have had that full house.
14:52
Yeah, they sold the tickets and the fans who were there were loud.
14:56
They were.
14:57
I think the university still has some issues to figure out with their transportation around the rink on game nights.
15:05
It's just not a great situation.
15:07
I think it's frustrating for the fans who don't show up.
15:11
I know, as you alluded to, I parked over in the Como neighborhood and walked under the train bridge and hoofed it over to the game on Friday night.
15:21
I ran into two listeners on my way in.
15:24
Really?
15:24
There was a father son.
15:26
The father came up from Florida for the weekend.
15:30
He's going to be for the games against Michigan State as well.
15:34
He moved to Florida and he kept his tickets.
15:37
He couldn't give them up.
15:38
So that's a true fan right there.
15:40
Yeah, it is.
15:41
I got to talk to them on the way into the game on Friday night and they were excited for the series, too.
15:48
Yeah, you were a little cold.
15:49
You're a little huff and a puff of trying to get to the game on time.
15:53
Yeah, I'm like, how far did you walk?
15:54
Oh, about 10 miles.
15:57
It's I mean, it's a little over a mile.
15:59
You know, it's a nice 20 minute walk and it was brisk and windy and icy.
16:03
But I made it.
16:05
You know, you got to be an athlete sometimes and get to the game on time.
16:09
So, OK, ramps are a lot of brutal now.
16:12
They want the attendance and cash 40 minute trip from Station 280.
16:18
Looks like you might have walked by Chris, too, Chris Bell.
16:23
So, yeah, there is frustration beings.
16:26
You know, I you know, I went as a fan Saturday, but I went down there earlier because I wanted to get that nice little bag they had going there, which was kind of nice.
16:38
They're nice little tote bags as you see in Minnesota.
16:42
So I want to get there early.
16:43
So I've always tried to get there as early as possible.
16:47
Got there early.
16:47
We went to Cane's for some just quick dinner, got there and it was fine.
16:54
But then I know a lot of people, they don't want to hang around the arena for an hour before a game.
16:58
I don't blame them.
17:01
And I didn't mind the lot because I just did like a tap and pay thing.
17:06
And it went fairly quickly, but I don't know.
17:14
It's just more the streets.
17:17
There's just so many things there.
17:18
And it's the same for football.
17:20
It's got to be worse for football because all those lots end up getting full.
17:24
But it is a prepaid, usually pre-planned thing.
17:27
But you still have the people coming in and still have the volume.
17:32
So what can they do?
17:35
Yeah, I feel like they're just going to have to be some improvements to the area in terms of how the lights and traffic flow is planned out.
17:44
I would highly recommend the university investing in some drones to fly over campus on these game days and identify where the traffic is coming from, how it's moving through, where the backups are, and what possible things.
18:03
I'm obviously not an expert in game day experience.
18:06
I know that the Athletic Department wants to encourage people to come early to alleviate these problems.
18:13
Yes.
18:13
But sometimes life gets in the way and you just got to try to figure it out and get there.
18:18
And sometimes you have to to hoof it to make it on time.
18:21
You know, I can see, you know, having the traffic lights and stuff after a game, having cops out there directing, you could do that sometimes or like you said, maybe someone's monitoring.
18:31
I mean, all it takes is like, hey, somebody down at MnDOT, somebody start monitoring, oh, looks like the game's over.
18:39
Let's change the lights on some of these to get things moving.
18:43
But coming in is different.
18:44
I mean, like I said, everyone's coming out, coming in at different times.
18:51
I don't know.
18:52
You got to think that 45 minutes before a game, there's some improvements they can make.
18:57
I know that the area is not great for traffic flow, and it can be complicated.
19:02
But I do think it's something to address sometime at the university.
19:07
I know, you know, the parking, they've tried to do the valet parking for people.
19:11
It's kind of a pricey option for the other ritzy people.
19:15
But for us commoners, you know, we sometimes have to park over by Van Cleave and whatnot to get over the game.
19:24
All right, enough of that.
19:26
Got some Hobey candidates, Veegs.
19:29
Again, Lacombe, Faber and a late ad.
19:32
Mr.
19:32
Nice.
19:34
Yeah, I was a little surprised to see two Gophers on the initial list.
19:41
People aren't familiar with how the Hobey nomination process works.
19:46
Every coach gets to nominate three of their own players, and they can nominate three other players, not on their team.
19:54
And so most coaches are not going to be nominating players for other schools.
19:59
It's just not what they do.
20:01
But the coaches can nominate up to three.
20:04
And I think what Bob was doing initially was, okay, Faber, Lacombe could have signed and left early.
20:13
They're kind of program guys who have passed up that NHL Pro Pipeline for at least one more year to come back.
20:23
And I think Bob maybe didn't want to just single out somebody from the Nice, Cooley, Stungaroo line.
20:31
I mean, they are among the nation's leading scorers, those three, and he didn't want to single one out.
20:36
And then after the nomination list got out there, he's like, okay, we should put Maddie Nice on there.
20:43
He could be playing for Toronto as well.
20:45
And so they made that late adjustment.
20:47
So those are your three candidates.
20:49
And to be honest, I feel like if I was handicapping who I would vote for from the Gophers, I would have Lacombe 1, Nice 2, Faber 3, just because of the way their point production is and the impact they have on the game.
21:04
Now, if I was drafting a college hockey team, Brock Faber might be my number one overall pick just because I know how steady he is.
21:13
But awards in team building are two different things.
21:19
How much does Brock Faber come into the Matt Dumba decision for the wild?
21:25
I see people like to get rid of them.
21:27
I mean, this and this and this.
21:28
I'm like thinking that might be a big deal come spring.
21:36
Well, here's my take on the Dumba situation.
21:40
I don't know if there's a big market for him out there in the NHL for another team to take him on and to give anything of value that really helps your team right now.
21:54
Maybe he could get some sort of pick down the line.
21:57
But I think there's a risk there for the wild if they move on from Dumba and they count on favor making an impact right away.
22:06
I feel like he's going to make an impact.
22:08
A lot of scouts feel like he's going to be making an impact.
22:11
But you don't really know until you get him on the ice and a regular shift in the NHL how it's going to go.
22:17
And it's going to be a big adjustment for him.
22:20
I think he can make it.
22:21
But can you make it after playing in a Frozen 4?
22:25
There's not a lot of time to ramp up.
22:28
So I think that's the risk.
22:30
And we'll see what ends up happening.
22:33
I think Brock Faber is going to have a long pro career.
22:36
But I think it would be a lot to expect him to go right from Frozen 4 to NHL playoffs.
22:44
I would agree with you there.
22:46
I think they do have some big expectations and it might weigh in with what they decide to do with Dumba.
22:53
Yeah, I feel like Kaelan Addison and Brock Faber would be a great third pair for the Wild.
23:00
And I think that gives you Brock Faber who can kill penalties and gives you Kaelan Addison who can go on the power play.
23:06
So from what I've seen of those two players, that's just perfect role playing for them.
23:13
Very interesting.
23:14
But as for finalists, you know, someone was commenting, I might have scrolled up already, but you know, they're all three really good, but maybe not one of them is going to be able to stand out to be one of the final three.
23:27
The Hobey.
23:27
Jackson Lacombe keeps getting these late third period tying goals.
23:31
You know, he's going to be right up there.
23:35
I haven't looked at the stats to see just where Lacombe is ranking among defensemen for points, but usually with these awards, I tend to think those points are a big deal.
23:46
And I think for Lacombe to be scoring these goals helps his candidacy.
23:51
Because I think Minnesota is clearly going to be a number one seed type team.
23:55
And he is their leader, I think, offensively right now.
23:59
And you can get hot too, because you look at Myers last year, he was like 15th or 16th in scoring overall.
24:07
But it was the kind of goals he was scoring when he was scoring.
24:11
And the type of play he had the last two months of the season.
24:17
Yeah, how you finish is a big part of these.
24:20
And I mean, LeCom, I'm just looking, he's got 25 points in 26 games.
24:26
That puts him in, I think, the top 25 or top 30 of all scores in college hockey.
24:35
There's only one defenseman ahead of him in scoring right now in the country.
24:40
And that's Lane Hudson from BU.
24:42
So I think he's putting himself right in the argument.
24:47
But as we know, points and goals are not everything.
24:51
Just look at Ryan Patolny.
24:54
No one has scored 38 goals since he did.
24:59
And no one had scored that many goals in 10 years before he did, wasn't a finalist.
25:04
Even after the famous Wuger, he gets that fourth goal in that crazy St.
25:09
Cloud, you know, semifinal, the WCHF Final Five, and Wuger's just going, Hobey.
25:17
So it's it's definitely some other things that happen with it.
25:20
It's not just scoring because otherwise, Ryan Patolny would have had probably a Hobey Baker, so.
25:27
And I kind of feel like we're getting to the point in college hockey where the Hobey also has some of that pro potential piece to it.
25:35
Like, is this player going to make it as a pro and be a successful one?
25:39
You know, I think, you know, Mr.
25:40
Hockey kind of has that thing for Minnesota high schools, too.
25:44
Is that senior going to go on and be a potential pro type player?
25:49
You know, there's some of that bias that goes into the voting as well.
25:53
So we'll have to see how that progresses, folks.
25:56
People get excited about the vote.
25:57
Don't it's like 1% and it really means literally nothing in the long run.
26:03
So it's all about how good you are, what you do outside of hockey, what you do in the classroom.
26:10
A lot of things kind of go into the Hobey selections.
26:16
More news today, Veegs, more troubles with Sinclair and Bally Sports.
26:22
They're heading towards bankruptcy.
26:25
They they owe billions and billions of dollars.
26:31
It's just they can't get good news.
26:34
Apparently, they're not making much with their $20 a month subscription because I certainly wasn't going to pay that to see Bally's.
26:40
Do you pay that to see Bally's or you just you're on YouTube?
26:44
Do you get Bally's?
26:45
No, I do not.
26:46
So I've been doing some of the ESPN plus streaming of NHL games and then the Big Ten plus for Gopher Hockey games.
26:56
And I've been able to kind of figure it out with those two things.
26:59
Exactly what I've done yet.
27:00
But I think it's challenging.
27:02
They kind of push their chips into the wrong spot and at the wrong time too.
27:07
And at the wrong time.
27:08
I think if they would have pushed those chips in on streaming quicker, they might have saved themselves.
27:14
They might have established a foothold in people's streaming packages.
27:19
Because I think over the last three years, people have had to choose which packages they want to get.
27:25
And I think Bally's just came out with that app and that service recently.
27:29
It was too late.
27:30
And it's late.
27:33
And they don't even have to end baseball either.
27:38
I don't think they ever figured that out, so.
27:43
But we are having to make choices, as Jess Myers likes to point out, with what we pay for and what we're willing to watch and how we do that.
27:52
So there's never been a time when there's been more sports available for us to watch.
27:58
Exactly.
27:59
We get to choose what we want to pay for.
28:02
I mean, you put me on to the BTN Plus last year or at the end in April.
28:08
So I'm like, OK, I'm done with TV.
28:10
I'm doing YouTube TV.
28:12
And then I do the BTN Plus, just the men and women's hockey package.
28:16
So like I said, I get all the men's games on Bally Sports.
28:21
I get all the Wisconsin games on Bally Sports, too, if I want.
28:26
And the only games we don't get are the ones that are on the actual Big Ten Network broadcast TV.
28:34
Those are streamed on like the Fox Sports app.
28:38
But and I can get those with my YouTube TV.
28:40
So, yeah, yeah, so that's it.
28:42
It works out.
28:43
You put me down the right path, Veegs.
28:45
I have learned.
28:48
But it's going to be interesting to see what happens because, you know, they're paying these teams a lot of money.
28:53
You know, the baseball, the basketball, the hockey.
28:56
They aren't getting it back.
28:58
People are dropping them because they don't want to charge so much.
29:00
They still have some of the big net.
29:02
They still have DirecTV because DirecTV pays for everything.
29:04
But I think even DirecTV is going to get an interesting area because, excuse me, losing the NFL package for next season to YouTube TV.
29:15
A lot of people buy DirecTV just for fantasy football so they can see all those games.
29:21
And that's like the first big hit in DirecTV and their kind of sports dominance.
29:28
Yeah, and I think we're going to start to see things on Paramount Plus and more things on Peacock.
29:35
These networks try to make their streaming service part of your package that you rotate in and rotate out.
29:42
HBO just got the USA Soccer package for some of their games.
29:48
You're just going to see more and more diversions here to figure it out.
29:53
Like these services, like you said, YouTube and Peacock and Paramount.
29:58
Start upping your thing.
30:00
Say, we've got 4K on these.
30:06
I haven't really watched much of 4K yet though.
30:10
So, I'll get there.
30:11
I had some 4K when I had some Dish Network for the Olympics back, the Olympics like in 2018.
30:20
And wow, was it good?
30:24
4K is going to be great for hockey, I bet.
30:26
It was, it was fabulous.
30:28
I mean, obviously we're not going to get Gopher Hockey in 4K, but I'd love to see some of those in it.
30:33
Pardon?
30:33
A Frozen 4 in 4K?
30:36
That would be nice.
30:37
Like we don't get, I don't think they would have that.
30:39
I mean, I know YouTube TV's got some 4K stuff, but I don't know.
30:44
I mean, my streaming, my internet connection is more than good enough for this stuff.
30:49
So let's see these packages.
30:51
If you're going to go to Paramount, you're going to go to Peacock.
30:53
Give us the choices.
30:55
Give us the TV angles.
30:56
We've discussed this before.
30:59
Make it worth our while.
31:01
It's a tougher sell each year as it goes along, because, like I said, there's been...
31:05
I mean, it's not like we were growing up, Veegs, and there's four broadcast networks and 36 channels on your cable dial.
31:15
It's just...
31:16
I mean, you've got hundreds of channels now, and you've got hundreds of, you know, all these streaming services.
31:22
So it's...
31:25
It'll be interesting.
31:26
That's all I want to say.
31:27
It'll be interesting to see where all that goes.
31:30
All right, Veegs, we've got Michigan State coming in this, this weekend.
31:36
They were doing really well before we played them in the early first part of the season.
31:43
And like you said, I had on the intro video, you were surprised.
31:45
There was just no skill there.
31:48
When Minnesota pay, you're kind of like, what's the deal here?
31:51
They've been had their ups and downs since then, but they're still hanging tough right, right in that middle section.
31:59
24 and 26 points here with Ohio State and Penn State, they're still there.
32:05
I believe they might sell some games at hand, but they haven't folded.
32:10
And I think this is still, it's a really good sign for their program for the future.
32:16
And they're 13th in the pairwise right now, which is amazing to me that the Big Ten right now has six teams in the top 15 for the pairwise.
32:30
And based on the way the strength, the schedule works out for the Big Ten, I don't know if we're going to see any bad losses unless you lose to Wisconsin.
32:41
And Wisconsin is not even that bad a loss.
32:43
They're in the 20s, I think high 20s for pairwise.
32:48
So Big Ten is in a good situation.
32:51
Michigan State did have a nice weekend with Penn State coming into this series, which surprised me a little bit.
32:59
Penn State has a very veteran team and usually plays a really hard game to play against.
33:05
And you have to make smart skill plays to be successful against the Nittany Lions because you're under so much pressure and they were able to get away with that and take I think five of the six points this last weekend.
33:18
So they're, you know, probably feeling pretty good about their game.
33:23
But we all know it's very different to play against Minnesota on the Olympic ice.
33:29
Yeah, they're in fourth place.
33:30
Just three points back of Ohio State and Penn State.
33:32
So yeah, it looks like they have made up their game.
33:35
So they're 16 and now all the other teams like Michigan, Wisconsin are behind.
33:40
So, and then Minnesota will catch up in a couple of weeks, you know, next week when they're off.
33:45
So, but Minnesota did hold on to their, you know, 10 point lead, even though they split this weekend.
33:51
So actually they might, I think they might have gained a couple of points.
33:54
No, they started the weekend with 10.
33:56
So it's still in Minnesota's own control completely right now.
34:04
And Minnesota can win another series against an opponent by just, you know, getting one win or tying out the weekend.
34:13
And I think they're looking for a little bit more than that.
34:16
I thought that they still had rust in their game against Michigan.
34:20
It should be having rusty more though.
34:22
It's just Minnesota has enough skill right now where they have players who can make the plays when they present themselves.
34:30
But I don't think we saw a very complete game by them either.
34:34
They need the will to go with the skill.
34:37
Well, it's more disciplined, I think.
34:40
Minnesota has to have that discipline.
34:42
You know, the one line that has it is the Nevers Nelson Brudzinski line.
34:49
Those three make smart puck possession plays.
34:52
They have poised in the puck.
34:53
They hold on the puck.
34:55
Every once in a while, we see Brudzinski take these shots that really aren't dangerous and result in one-and-done possessions.
35:02
But I've noticed over the season, he's doing that less often.
35:06
He is more often taking it into the corner, making a possession play, and looking for those opportunities when Nelson and Nevers can make plays below the goal line, and Brudzinski can find space up high in the zone.
35:20
And when he gets those chances, like he did this last weekend on Saturday, he can put those away.
35:26
He is a very talented shooter when he's got Nelson edition pucks out to him, and he can one-touch it up top.
35:32
That's his skill set.
35:33
And that's how he's going to be a consistent goal scorer.
35:36
By the way, that was a very cool play with Lacombe, Cooley and Brodzinski in the third period last Saturday.
35:45
All right, Cooley's got some speed.
35:47
Let's ice it.
35:47
He's going to beat the puck down there.
35:50
Everyone follows him just like Lacombe.
35:52
He says, well, not Lacombe, he's got what a Brodzinski set.
35:55
They're all going to follow him.
35:58
And then who'd lose wide open out in front?
36:00
I mean, Portilla had no chance there.
36:03
So that was kind of almost like a set play, Veegs.
36:06
Well, that's what Nelson said.
36:08
It's like I knew he'd beat him to the puck.
36:11
So it was just like, I'm just going to pass it off the end wall to him and he'll win the race.
36:16
And it wasn't just like a luck play.
36:18
You know, when they saw that situation, they're like, OK, that's what we're doing.
36:23
Yeah, because awesome fit by Brodzinski.
36:25
Because I was watching the game like, why are you icing it?
36:27
Because it was a clear throw it up the ice.
36:30
Nobody close to the pass.
36:32
And I'm like, all of a sudden, oh, OK, he's going to beat him.
36:35
And also, whoa, it's in the back of the net.
36:37
That happened real quickly.
36:38
So it was a cool play.
36:40
But when you first see like.
36:42
What are you icing it for?
36:45
But like that play and like nice driving the net, you know, for his goals.
36:49
You know, that's the skill that this team has, you know, snuggered.
36:52
When he got his goal, that's a skill play.
36:55
Those weren't like domination type situations.
36:58
Those are the players that play for Minnesota, making great skill plays at the right time.
37:04
Gopher Social Media wants to name that that line, Nelson Nevers and Brodsinski.
37:10
They're taking suggestions.
37:11
Do you have any suggestions for that name?
37:15
I do not right now.
37:16
It's a tough one.
37:20
Yeah.
37:21
But that's why they have a contest for it.
37:27
So what happens this weekend, Veegs?
37:31
How many points did it come away with?
37:34
We've been a little positive lately and it hasn't come through for us.
37:38
It has not come through for us.
37:39
And I get worried a little bit with that four o'clock game on Saturday.
37:44
Just knowing that this team, I don't think that they're necessarily focused on this weekend as a must perform at an elite level weekend.
37:57
And that always worries me.
37:59
And maybe the atmosphere, a four o'clock game on Saturday could be a little tricky.
38:03
It's going to be sold out.
38:05
It's going to be sold out.
38:06
And when's the last time you can say Minnesota sold out a weekend against Michigan State?
38:12
Ever.
38:13
I mean, maybe the college hockey show came back in the 90s.
38:18
Maybe the college hockey show.
38:19
And that was only one game, too.
38:21
It wasn't a two game series.
38:23
So that's pretty amazing.
38:23
That's a good question.
38:24
I don't know.
38:25
Yeah.
38:26
So that's pretty exciting.
38:28
But will they all show up?
38:31
I think this is a weekend where we're going to see another OT game.
38:35
And I think you're going to get four or five of the six points.
38:40
I'll go with five.
38:42
They've looked pretty good in OT lately.
38:45
They have.
38:46
Well, until Saturday.
38:48
I don't think they touched the puck, did they?
38:49
They did not touch the puck.
38:51
And that was kind of the story of that whole game on Saturday.
38:53
I thought they did not have a lot of puck possession.
38:57
Okay.
38:57
Okay.
38:58
So Steve, wait, wait, where is it?
39:00
Steve, you're going back to the NCAA Total Goals Series at the Old Mary Uchee.
39:07
Wow.
39:08
That's the one we've all seen the video of Frank and Wally calling at their voices so much higher because they're so much younger.
39:16
That's some good stuff.
39:18
Don't you have the announcers with the hockey helmets on?
39:20
They did because they're up behind the goal.
39:22
Behind the goal.
39:24
Safety first.
39:26
Sully says, Brooms, get out the Brooms.
39:28
It's going to be a sweep.
39:29
I'm kind of with you, Sully, and thank you for the tickets Saturday.
39:32
I enjoyed them.
39:33
Nice to see your boy get married.
39:36
Congrats on that.
39:37
Not so sure on the picking of the time on that, but yeah.
39:42
Yeah.
39:44
He'll just have to deal with it.
39:45
Young Eagle, congrats on him.
39:47
Yeah.
39:48
Maybe someday he'll get that cabin.
39:53
It's already in his name, isn't it?
39:55
Right.
39:55
Right.
39:58
So I'm thinking, I'm just going to go sweep.
40:01
I need to be positive.
40:02
We need to put some more positivity in this.
40:06
And I'd like to see some more goals scored, Veegs.
40:09
You know, that we got a little better last week because of the style of play.
40:11
But man, let's get some, let's get some Culver's going.
40:16
Culver's would be nice.
40:17
I really took away from the last weekend, how well Justin Close played.
40:24
We've been hard on him at times.
40:26
I think the fan base has been hard on him.
40:29
He played really, really well this last weekend.
40:32
He made some post to post type saves, athletic saves where he has big pushes to get there.
40:39
That we've seen him be vulnerable against.
40:41
That we've seen him be vulnerable.
40:42
He was able to make saves on those.
40:44
He was very good on breakaways.
40:46
He's been good on breakaways the last two weekends.
40:49
And he's really starting to become a little bit above average goalie.
40:55
Maybe even an all big ten goalie.
40:57
What did Sheerhorn say?
40:59
He might end up, you know, the guy we need.
41:04
And we guy who becomes the hero for this season.
41:09
So he could be.
41:11
Although we also saw some times where we saw passes across the zone where he got beat because he's, you know, a small goal.
41:17
So there is still that.
41:19
That does happen.
41:20
But I saw a higher ceiling for him than we've seen in the past.
41:25
And I don't think Minnesota splits against Michigan if close played a bad weekend.
41:31
You're probably right.
41:32
Probably right.
41:33
Because, you know, Friday, Friday night, I felt like killing Nice in the first period with some of his stupid passes in the defensive zone.
41:42
And that happened a couple, it wasn't just him.
41:43
It happened a couple other times this past weekend.
41:45
I'm going, what are you doing?
41:49
I mean, there's, that's not the time to be a fancy little, I'm going to flick this out to the middle.
41:56
No, they didn't score on those opportunities things, but you're playing with fire.
42:04
It was playing with fire.
42:05
And I also got that same feeling when I saw those kinds of plays being made, and those were not the plays they were making against St.
42:13
Cloud.
42:14
And I think that's just the mindset of playing Michigan.
42:17
As we talked about it in the availabilities that week, it's going to be fun, up and down hockey, lots of goal scoring chances.
42:23
Well, that's what we got.
42:25
And it was fun to watch, but it's got to be hard on the coaching staff.
42:30
It's got to be.
42:31
All right, Beegs, anything else going on for the live listeners here and the people listening on recording?
42:39
Number one seed still in play right now for Minnesota.
42:42
You know, with what happened out east with Quinnipiac losing to Cornell, with St.
42:51
Cloud taking care of Denver.
42:52
I think that kind of widened the gap between Minnesota and these other teams in the pairwise.
42:58
So as long as Minnesota keeps doing what they can do.
43:02
And I look at their schedule, it's Michigan State, Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, down the stretch here.
43:09
I don't think you would be worried about any of those weekends.
43:13
You know, maybe at Pegula, which is kind of like the house of whores for the Gophers.
43:19
Come up with a split there and I'd be happy.
43:21
But they might already have the number one seed, they might already have the Big Ten locked up.
43:25
That would only basically be a pairwise type weekend, which could be silver lining that it would be motivation for them.
43:32
It could be, but it could also be, like you said, if they have something wrapped up by then, obviously that's very positive, but it also might give them a chance to kind of relax and have some fun.
43:44
Yeah, I'll be posting some quotes from Colin Schmidt this week.
43:48
Look forward to those tomorrow.
43:50
He was a bright-eyed bushy-tailed, six foot four Ford at availability today.
43:57
I think he's pretty pleased to be there.
43:59
He had some good answers to questions that the media was peppering him with.
44:03
You can tell he's a smart guy.
44:05
Well, he was at Union.
44:06
Not a bad school.
44:08
Yeah.
44:10
So he's a he's a pretty smart guy.
44:12
And he did well for himself in his media debut today.
44:15
And it was it was fun to get to chat with him a little bit.
44:19
All right.
44:20
Sounds good, Vs.
44:22
Sounds good.
44:24
That's how we got folks.
44:27
No guests this week.
44:28
Kind of nice to be able to relax and not have a guest.
44:31
And take it all for ourselves.
44:34
It's all good.
44:35
I do encourage everyone to if you're listening on like iTunes or their podcast, give us a review.
44:44
Give us a rating.
44:46
I always forget to mention that because I'm not even thinking about it.
44:49
But, you know, we got all these people watching live.
44:52
If you do watch live.
44:55
Give us give us a thumbs up on YouTube.
44:58
Pop on over there.
44:58
It helps people find us.
45:00
It does help people find us when people give us a thumbs up and approve what we're doing.
45:05
We hope we're giving you good content.
45:06
We're doing our best here.
45:07
So it is all good.
45:09
But, you know, we will be off next week.
45:13
There will be a bye week for the team and they're off.
45:15
And that's where they'll catch a couple of the teams.
45:17
You know, we'll get with the other teams that are missing and we'll get down lower on the games played, which is good.
45:25
But then we're right back at it.
45:27
A couple three roads, two road series and the final home series against Ohio State VEG.
45:31
So it's coming down to the wire here.
45:33
It's going to be fun.
45:35
I mean, this is a great Gopher team.
45:37
This is a tournament team that they're building right now.
45:41
Moscow talked about Schmidt being that playoff kind of player that they're looking for to maybe put in the lineup.
45:46
I think we'll see him going forward until until he plays himself out of it.
45:51
All right.
45:52
Sounds great.
45:53
Well, that's going to do it for this GPL podcast.
45:56
Like I said, we'll be back in two weeks to preview the series with The Badgers.
46:01
Maybe have a guest too.
46:02
I'm not sure yet.
46:04
Those of you listening live, stay tuned for some overtime for the rest of you.
46:07
We'll catch you next time on The GPL Podcast.
Search Transcript
No matching lines.
