0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:16 Now, this is a 10.8% beer, Danker, Opium. 0:22 Lots of local bread. 0:24 Yes, it is, it's good. 0:30 Oh, boy. 0:32 Duke making mistakes, I love it. 0:34 And so, I had to train for this marathon. 0:38 Make sure you stay away from the game tomorrow too. 0:43 Actually, unmute the mic, because I have muted. 0:46 Life sucks. 0:48 I laugh. 0:50 Sad exhibition. 0:52 Live from the Ralph, here we are folks. 0:56 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 1:06 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 247. 1:14 Let's bring in the Veegs here. 1:16 Veegs, let me see if I can click the right button. 1:18 There we go. 1:20 I wanted to start with the badges here, but something happened in the last couple hours. 1:25 You're getting chirped. 1:29 The Italian, Pat Nicoletti, I think, has a few issues with Gopher Puck Live Nation, and he's coming after me tonight about our start time, about my sauce, lots of other things. 1:46 He was telling me before the Badger game on Friday last week, he's like, back in my day, we'd chirp each other out on the ice a little bit. 1:56 People are getting a little friendly, and so I think he's taken a page out of his own book, and he's going after me tonight. 2:02 I got to keep my eyes open tonight. 2:04 Well, we're going to have him on the podcast for Thanksgiving, and we'll still have it scheduled as a late start. 2:12 I don't know, maybe he needs to be replaced if he can't go so late. 2:16 Well, as he gets up there in years, you can't put in the big time on ice like he used to. 2:22 But next time I'm at the rink, I'm going to have my head on a swivel, 26 might slash me in the back of the calves a little bit. 2:29 Yeah, he might see. 2:30 I got to be careful out there. 2:32 Well, Veegs, we have a brand new guest for the podcast night. 2:35 This is twice this season we've had a new guest. 2:38 We're growing the family. 2:40 So glad to have someone new on board here. 2:43 And that new person is Marissa Voss. 2:46 Here she comes, Marissa. 2:48 Hello. 2:51 Thank you guys for having me. 2:53 It's nice to have a female touch. 2:56 It is. 2:57 It's always good to have a female touch. 3:00 Yeah, we tried a long time ago, but that person stood us up. 3:06 Oh, no. 3:08 It was before you're doing video too. 3:11 And the video just adds to it. 3:12 I was watching the intro. 3:13 I was like, this is this is going to be jacked up right now. 3:15 I was like, I was excited. 3:17 Yeah. 3:17 So you might end up on the intro. 3:19 It depends if we say something weird that could add on to it. 3:24 So you just you just never know. 3:29 You're a local. 3:30 Yes. 3:31 I would say more of a Minnesota state person. 3:34 But you feel the love for just college hockey and obviously Minnesota sports all the way around, don't you? 3:41 Yeah. 3:42 Everybody knows me or how I kind of got my start was being the Ice Side Reporter, podcast host, digital content manager for Minnesota State Men's Hockey. 3:51 I did that in college. 3:52 And then I went and did the multimedia journalist thing. 3:56 And then I did one year of being like a team interviewer kind of thing for the Mavericks. 4:00 And that was absolutely amazing. 4:02 But overall, yeah, huge, huge, just a fan of Minnesota Wild Twins. 4:08 I am a fan of Gopher hockey. 4:09 I am wearing Gopher sweatpants and a sweatshirt right now. 4:12 So I just love college hockey. 4:16 I love growing the game. 4:17 And I know my Minnesota state fans will get upset with me. 4:20 But I just, there's nothing better than college hockey. 4:25 Well, beings, you know, just a couple of weeks ago up in Grand Forks, we were cavorting with a lot of Grand Forks people. 4:32 And you know what? 4:33 They're a lot just like us. 4:34 They love college hockey. 4:35 Yes, they love their team, but there's a lot of commonalities with this crazy college hockey thing. 4:41 Yeah, pretty much anytime you walk into a college building, you see familiar faces and you connect over the game. 4:47 It's great. 4:48 And Marissa, I'm sure you were watching the Minnesota, Wisconsin series with Mike Hastings behind the bench there. 4:54 The longtime Minnesota state coach, he's made the move to Madison and he's brought with him one heck of a team, not just on the ice, but you know, he through the portal, you know, his top two center, Silly and Fitzgerald were great for him against Minnesota and he made quite the impression at Mary G. 5:12 Yeah, that I like to call him like the Grinch, how the Grinch stole Christmas except how the Grinch stole an entire college hockey program and team and franchise. 5:26 Love my casetings though, but like what he did and it is, because I've got a lot of comments of people being like, oh, aren't you happy though, like he's having success even if you're a Minnesota state fan, aren't you just happy in general? 5:37 I said yes, but you have to realize he left without a warning. 5:42 He took the assistant coach, he took Todd Knaut. 5:45 He took our strength and conditioning coach. 5:47 He took hockey operations guy. 5:49 He took our top, would probably be captain, our top player, David Cillia. 5:55 He took Simon Tassi and he took Christian Spicherald, which was going to be, he was a CCHA rookie of the year and he was having an amazing year. 6:02 You wipe that program and you take everybody for essentially more money, a bigger program, which Big Ten can offer versus Minnesota State, obviously, which Minnesota State is the D1, only D1 program, it's a D2 college, which makes sense. 6:20 But it's just one of those things where it's like, come on, man, like, I remember what happened. 6:27 We just cleaned a house. 6:30 You sure did. 6:31 And they stole six points from Minnesota last weekend. 6:36 No, that wasn't stealing. 6:37 They earned six points. 6:39 They did. 6:40 Oh, my gosh. 6:40 They definitely took it. 6:41 Yes. 6:42 It was crazy to watch it. 6:44 I have the with the Alex Micheletti is in a group chat we have for MNCAA. 6:48 So I know Pat and I want to say, Eric, I've been chirped by Pat before. 6:53 So I get the feeling. 6:55 I understand. 6:57 But we were talking and we're just like, what is going on? 7:01 Like this. 7:02 I did put out a tweet tweet and I said, hate him if you want my casings, which is here. 7:06 I'm going to redeem it now. 7:07 Hate him if you want. 7:08 He is great at what he does. 7:10 He just he goes in and he makes college hockey program successful. 7:14 And that's the type of thing he does. 7:16 But I honestly think and I don't know if you guys obviously with being Big Ten and arrival, I don't know if anybody saw them being what their number five right now on USHO polls. 7:25 There's seven and one. 7:26 I didn't think anybody saw this coming. 7:29 Nope, not at all. 7:31 Not even Tom Mielewski. 7:32 He was on our show and we asked him to give a prediction. 7:35 He's like, I'm going to be foolishly optimistic and predict a split. 7:39 And we both kind of chuckled and said, oh, that's a cute little team in red. 7:43 I'm sure it'll be a fun weekend. 7:45 Hopefully, the rivalry is back. 7:46 And sure enough, Wisconsin was really solid. 7:51 And I don't think Minnesota came to play on Thursday night. 7:54 There are a lot of issues with them turning over the puck, making the extra pass, not shooting when they had shooting opportunities. 8:02 And they gave away a game basically to Wisconsin on Thursday. 8:06 Friday, much better effort from Minnesota. 8:09 They were much harder to play against. 8:11 Bob shook up the lines quite a bit. 8:13 I liked what we saw from Jimmy Clark and Charlie Strobel being more direct. 8:17 You know, it was center dry with taking Pucks below the goal line. 8:20 But it wasn't enough. 8:22 And Wisconsin still played pretty well. 8:24 And they got scoring from the players that need to score for them. 8:28 And Veegs blessed a dozen or so games against a Hastings coach team. 8:36 I think Hastings has nine wins, two losses or something around that. 8:40 I heard that stat, something like that. 8:44 He has got Minnesota's number. 8:45 He tried to play it off. 8:46 You know, I've got Motzko's number, blah, blah, blah. 8:49 Well, he had me long before I had him. 8:52 But still, he's got something going on here. 8:57 I would love to embed myself with Mike Hastings' team and just hear the messages he gives them during the week. 9:05 I could tell Minnesota is not up for the game. 9:08 Just they're trying to get through the week, trying to get guys back healthy, not really practicing full speed and battle drills to get ready for this week. 9:16 But I think Wisconsin obviously was ready right from the get-go on Thursday. 9:21 And Mike has the right message for Minnesota and he delivers. 9:26 Well, the funny thing is, Marissa, they weren't quite ready for Minnesota because Minnesota scored on their first shot. 9:33 Actually, Wisconsin did score on their first shot, too, but really, really fast into the game. 9:39 Well, the thing about Mike Hastings is why I think it's funny when you're like, I wonder what he says, like all of those things and what he says to Minnesota. 9:46 I've seen it, right? 9:49 That was my life, I think, for five or six years was seeing the Mike Hastings effect. 9:56 The way that he amps the guys up, the way that he gives and the way that he's just so motivational, he just really sets a fire underneath your butt and it's like, you just can't help after that going like, you're going to go to war, right? 10:08 You're going to run through a brick wall for this guy, you're going to go win. 10:11 But at the same time, Minnesota, I don't know if it's the Mike Hastings effect, I don't know what it is, but I feel like a lot of the times whenever they play Mike Hastings, Minnesota is like underestimates a little bit. 10:23 It's happened before with Minnesota State, it's happened before and the guys, obviously when they played these big caliber teams, they were like, we're going in with a chip on our shoulder. 10:31 So I think, I don't know if Minnesota was like, oh, this is going to be not as difficult as we thought. 10:37 Obviously, like you said, they came out and they played, but I think Wisconsin had an answer for them the entire game. 10:44 It just felt like Wisconsin was always on top. 10:47 They always had an answer and every time Minnesota tried to do something, Wisconsin was there or bearing it or anything. 10:54 So I don't know if that's Mike Hastings coaching thing. 10:56 I don't know if that's Minnesota just being like, trying to figure some things out, maybe being a different squad than last year. 11:04 I don't know what, you guys are the experts on everything Gopher Puck. 11:11 Big sigh. 11:14 Nothing after that. 11:15 You guys are the experts. 11:18 Well, yeah, we both picked sweeps as well, Veegs. 11:21 We didn't see that coming. 11:24 But there are some legitimate concerns, Veegs, not being up for a team like Wisconsin, a huge rival. 11:32 Secondary scoring, not really there. 11:36 I mean, we did have a couple of new goal scorers this weekend, but the guys that were expected to step up are not really stepping up offensively. 11:43 And I would say offensive, you know, people talk about the defense, but offensively, our scoring is down right now compared to last season. 11:51 Yes, different season, but it's down probably a full goal at least. 11:56 Yes, scoring is definitely down for Minnesota. 11:58 I think in the past against Mike Hastings, Minnesota state teams, the Gophers tried to get too cute individually with the puck. 12:06 They would try to beat too many guys one on one and almost they wanted to win so badly that they were going to force plays and make stuff happen on their own. 12:14 I think against Wisconsin this last weekend, Minnesota almost was too passive with the puck. 12:22 They were looking for their teammates to make plays or looking to make an extra pass or they weren't anticipating the back pressure that Wisconsin would put on them, which took away their time and space when they did have rush scoring chances. 12:36 And nobody really stepped up to be the alpha player out there. 12:40 One of the things that Pat always chirps about is, you know, player being selfish and shooting the puck and taking charge and being a scorer and telling his line mates, hey, get me the puck. 12:50 I need it. 12:52 Now, Jimmy Snuggert has some of those attributes where he wants the puck and he wants to shoot it. 12:56 But I think they were getting a little too one dimensional trying to to be cute with the puck. 13:01 And it just did not work out for them against Wisconsin. 13:04 And for them to, for Minnesota to take the next step, they are going to need to be more productive. 13:10 And maybe it's the connection between the new D stepping into new ice time rolls and these new forwards trying to figure out who's going to take charge, but it's not happening quite yet. 13:21 A big mistake saying, I feel like Gopher's have always struggled on small ice. 13:25 I think it's going to take some time for them to live the small ice game. 13:29 I don't know about that, Vee, so we've seen them do very well at places like Yost, small ice, very tough place to play and they seem to do well there. 13:39 I don't know if that's really as big a factor as people think it is. 13:43 The last couple of years, Minnesota has actually been a better small ice team than a big ice team. 13:48 Motzko has been trying to build a team to be hard, physical, competitive between the dots for a while. 13:57 This is not a small skating team. 13:59 They're trying to get some bigger, heavier players to play for Minnesota. 14:03 I'm not quite seeing that yet. 14:05 I think the biggest thing to me is the D are not quite ready to connect with the Fords and everything's just a little bit off, especially Thursday. 14:14 There are just so many passes that were off, so many mishandles that instead of getting there deep and getting on the forecheck, they were kind of slow getting there and Wisconsin was ready to be back. 14:25 I was impressed by Wisconsin's defensive core. 14:28 I thought they were really clean getting out and getting in transition and getting in offense and Minnesota's D just weren't out the same. 14:35 One thing we've talked about a lot on this podcast, Marissa, is that a successful Big Ten needs a really successful Wisconsin and yet they came into Marriott G Swep Minnesota. 14:47 That is good for the Big Ten overall. 14:51 Oh, absolutely. 14:53 As much as you want to say anything, I think the biggest thing and I made a tic-tac for her at sports on this, is the MCHC better than the Big Ten, right? 15:01 Especially with hockey and when you just have a stronger teams, when you have stronger teams that develop, I mean, you look at Michigan and then you look at Minnesota and now you look at Wisconsin, it really proves that Big Ten is a really good and turning into a really great hockey conference going up, obviously, against MCHC, which in years have passed, everybody's saying that's the best college hockey conference and all this other things. 15:26 If you have teams, two, three, four, how many teams that are good and can show up, that's just great for the conference overall. 15:33 That's great for, I don't want to say validity, I just want to say something like it's proving a point, right? 15:39 You're proving the point that you're here, you're not messing around, and that you can go and win national championships, even though, sorry Gopher fans to tug at that from last year. 15:49 I was watching the game too and it sucked. 15:52 The national champion, I think I made a TikTok and I was in my tub and I was sad. 15:55 I was so sad because a Minnesota win. 15:57 It doesn't bother me at all. 15:59 It doesn't bother me at all. 16:00 I think the NCAA better conference until the Big Ten can win the national championship. 16:05 And Veegs, it's been a long time. 16:08 I think Michigan State was last team to win it before we were in the conference. 16:12 It's. 16:14 Yeah, I think you're right. 16:15 Wasn't it? 16:15 Right after Wisconsin did. 16:16 Yeah, Wisconsin and Michigan. 16:18 Michigan State were back to back. 16:20 So Veegs, yes, the Big Ten's getting better, but I think until they actually prove it in the national tournaments, they're not there yet. 16:30 Well, I think so many teams in the Big Ten have been getting the first round type talents on their roster. 16:36 But a lot of the coaches have struggled to build a roster over time that can compete in a national tournament. 16:44 And you need to have experience. 16:46 You need to have depth. 16:47 And one of the things with the Big Ten teams is they have not had that experience depth. 16:52 And I think you're starting to see with Wisconsin bringing in some players from Minnesota State in the transfer portal. 16:59 He is putting in some experience depth players who can mesh with the Cruz Lucius type players. 17:06 You know, they've got Mike Verlicke back on defense, who's an experienced Big Ten player now. 17:10 He's ready to contribute. 17:12 And you're seeing Minnesota start to pull in these recruits are going to be 20 years old when they come to campus. 17:18 You know, Leo Gruber, who committed this week, Paulson, who committed this week. 17:23 You know, these are older players that are coming in. 17:25 You know, Bob said, you know, I can't just snap my fingers and make us get older, but we're going to get there eventually. 17:31 And we're starting to see that happen. 17:33 And when Bob was talking about Wisconsin getting some transfers this year, he said, you know, someday Minnesota will get back in the portal. 17:41 Maybe it's going to be next year. 17:43 And I think Bob is realizing you have to have some older players and some depth to overcome losing all this NHL talent, because this is not the same team losing those three defensemen of pro hockey and losing Nice and Cooley. 17:55 They're just not the same yet. 17:57 I have a question for both of you. 17:59 I will start with you, Marissa. 18:01 Does Hastings take the Wisconsin job if there is no portal? 18:08 I mean, he literally took a lot of players with him without that portal, those players would have to sit out a year. 18:15 Yep. 18:16 He knows it's a lot easier to build. 18:18 What do you think? 18:20 Does he take the job? 18:22 I think he does. 18:23 I think taking the players was just an added bonus. 18:27 But I think, I don't want to say this is the only reason, but I really do believe that Monty talks. 18:34 You're talking Big Ten money versus CCHA money, new and you're at Minnesota State and they just can't be like Minnesota. 18:45 So I do believe so, but again, with the transfer portal, that gave him so much because he could take David Cillia and he could take Christian Fitzgerald. 18:54 I think the reason why it was Christian Fitzgerald, Simon Tassi and then it was also David Cillia, it was because David transferred. 19:02 So David transferred, I think he was only there for a couple of years, but he transferred because of Mike Hastings. 19:08 Obviously, Tassi and Fitzgerald were very new, but very heavily heavily recruited by Todd and by Mike. 19:15 So when you get those two guys going, that's why they left. 19:19 A lot of the other boys and the people on Minnesota State stayed because they were like, hey, this is our team, this is our ride or die, we're not going to go. 19:26 But I think because those guys were newer, they were like, we're just not, we came for the coach, we didn't come for the program. 19:34 So if our coach is leaving, we're leaving. 19:37 But I think the transfer portal makes a difference, but I think he would have taken the job either way because you can already see the, it's just money talks, simple as that. 19:47 You do have other things like travel VX. 19:49 Yeah, they might bust Minnesota, but they're flying a lot of places, charters, things like that. 19:57 But the portal, as Marissa said, definitely is making a difference for his job at Wisconsin to go right up the, right straight uphill. 20:08 Yeah, it helps him get better faster. 20:11 But I think the appeal of going from a school like Minnesota State to Wisconsin and being able to recruit the kind of players that will go to Wisconsin is the big difference maker to me. 20:23 You have these guys like Mike Hastings and Bob Motzko who coach the World Junior Team, and they get to see those first-round talents. 20:30 And you just, I got to bet they're thinking in the back of their mind, I wish I had some of these guys at St. 20:36 Cloud or Minnesota State and see what I could do with those guys. 20:40 Because Bob didn't win a national title at St. 20:42 Cloud and Mike didn't win one. 20:44 And Minnesota State and these guys want to win. 20:47 And so sometimes to win at that level, you need these top talents. 20:51 And so Mike Hastings goes to Wisconsin. 20:53 He's got players like Charlie Strammel, who's a first-round pick of the wild. 20:57 He's got a player in the recruiting pipeline, Will Skahan, probably going to be a first-round pick defenseman. 21:03 He's got Logan Hensler, probably going to be a first-round offenseman. 21:07 And so now you have the coaching acumen that Mike Hastings has, and you can have access to those players to coach. 21:14 It's got to make life more fun as a coach. 21:16 You know, Bob's got a much nicer engine in his car when he's got guys like Logan Cooley and Matthew Nye's there. 21:24 It's got to be tempting as a coach to see what it would be like if you have access to that kind of talent. 21:29 But Veegs, this does put them six points behind right away. 21:34 That hurts in the Big Ten League. 21:37 Well, that definitely hurts for Minnesota. 21:38 But I think Bob knew that this year wasn't going to be turnkey. 21:42 You know, he likes the players he has. 21:43 He's talked about this in the past. 21:45 He's like, yes, I could go in the portal, but that would mean pushing back guys I've recruited. 21:50 You know, he's talking about Jimmy Clark. 21:51 Yes, maybe Jimmy Clark is only on this roster because Logan Cooley left. 21:56 But he was still a recruit for Minnesota, and he trusted him. 21:59 Brody Lamb, same thing. 22:01 When he lost Tristan Burroughs to the portal, he's like, yeah, maybe it's a little early for Brody Lamb to come to our program, but we like him. 22:09 So we'd rather have him than go in the portal. 22:11 And so Bob's got these guys right now who are feeling out what it's like to be a big time college hockey player and Minnesota doesn't play a Cupcake schedule. 22:20 You know, just look at who they played and who they're coming up with. 22:23 You know, Minnesota Duluth coming up, then Michigan after playing Wisconsin and North Dakota and St. 22:30 Thomas. 22:30 These are all big games. 22:31 So we're seeing what Sam Rinzel have. 22:33 We're seeing what Oliver Moore has. 22:36 They've got to get that experience for them to get better. 22:39 They're not just dipping their toes in. 22:40 These guys are playing big minutes. 22:42 And that's what Bob needs to do to have a team that's successful in April. 22:45 If you're going to stick with your recruits, you have to stick with them on the ice and grow them through the season. 22:51 And that's one of the things I think that makes Bob an attractive coach to recruits, is he can look at his past as a look. 22:58 I've given these guys the keys in the past. 23:00 You come to Minnesota, I'm not going to put training wheels on you. 23:03 I'm going to give you as much ice time and experience as you can handle. 23:09 All right. 23:09 Well, we need to hear from one of our sponsors. 23:12 Chill Boys. 23:16 Hi, I'm Kevin. 23:18 I've been part of the ball crew at numerous tennis events for years. 23:21 They say I'm an excellent ball handler. 23:24 It's my job to get loose balls where they're supposed to be, to make 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we thank Pulltab Sports for putting all that together for us. 25:39 Definitely, it's fun to be a part of the Pulltab family. 25:42 All right, gang. 25:44 Marissa? 25:47 Yes. 25:47 You're not just a college fan, a college hockey fan, but last weekend, you definitely were. 25:51 I saw some video from you. 25:54 You went to Omaha to catch some behind the scenes, all some pregame stuff and all other stuff. 26:00 Tell us what you're doing. 26:03 Yes. 26:04 I was at the Omaha Hockey Game and I've switched a little bit from Minnesota State to Omaha, but at Her.Sports, I do a little bit of everything. 26:13 I do content creation, I manage social media and then I also do some interviews. 26:19 For this weekend, I had today off, I have tomorrow off, but this weekend is going to be really busy. 26:25 Friday night, I'm going covering Crate and Volleyball, or Friday during the day I'm covering Crate and Volleyball, and then I'm covering high school football, and we have state going on right now, and then Crate and Volleyball back at it on Sunday, and then also Omaha Hockey is playing Western Michigan at Baxter Arena, so I will be there on Saturday. 26:43 So, kind of just doing a little bit of everything, trying to get in as many sports in Nebraska as possible, but let me tell you guys, hockey... 26:51 So when did you make the move to Omaha? 26:53 When I made the move was April, last April. 26:55 Okay. 26:56 Yep, so I just got in when UND was playing Omaha. 27:02 It was the... 27:04 It wasn't the Frozen faceoff, but it was to get into the Frozen faceoff. 27:07 I caught a couple of games of that. 27:09 I caught the last however many games, and I just moved here, so that was cool. 27:14 But I've been here basically since the last last of College Hockey, and now I'm going to be here for a full year of College Hockey. 27:20 So I'm really excited. 27:22 I've been meaning to get back to Omaha. 27:24 My daughter and I went through there. 27:27 I want to say it was 2017, right before the big eclipse, and we did the zoo real quick, and but we had to get to Lincoln because that's where we were staying. 27:36 But I've been talking to my girlfriend, Barbara, it's like we need to go down there, check out the zoo, get it, because it is a great zoo if anyone hasn't been there. 27:43 Bring your kids there, bring adults there, it doesn't matter, great place to go. 27:48 I'd love to get down there just for a weekend sometime, maybe next spring or summer or something like that. 27:53 But you covered everything down there. 27:56 Yeah, we covered the College World Series, which was one thing I was going to say is I covered College World Series this year, which was super awesome, but Omaha is amazing during CWS. 28:05 It really does, it brings everything together. 28:07 The town stands on CWS. 28:10 So if you ever are a couple hours away or want to do something, I would definitely recommend that, especially if LSU is in the tournament because it was different this year with them. 28:22 I went to a tailgate and there was a full seafood broil in the tailgate. 28:26 That's just how LSU parties and it was crazy. 28:31 Big Ten, time in Omaha. 28:34 I have not made it down to Omaha yet. 28:36 I like Mike Gabbard as a coach down there and I like seeing all this. 28:39 Where were you when you first got into newspaper stuff? 28:42 Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 28:43 Cedar Rapids, you're on the other side. 28:45 Yeah. 28:46 Not far down. 28:48 That was fun too. 28:49 But yeah, I remember from the College World Series, there's the shooters bar where they were selling the shots for each team. 28:56 So to support your team on the leaderboard, you had to like do a shot and then they tally them up. 29:02 And I'm pretty sure LSU did very, very well in that competition. 29:07 They did so well. 29:08 I think they broke like all the records. 29:10 I can't even remember how many they sold, which I should know it was at Rocco's. 29:13 And I was there literally like every single day. 29:17 And I will be there next summer every single day. 29:20 But yeah, this year, LSU did not mess around and they won. 29:25 And it was like, it kept, I want to say for some reason, I think it was like at least 80,000 Jell-O shots, if not more. 29:32 Like it was something absurd of that nature. 29:35 I'm not even kidding you. 29:37 It was stupidly high. 29:39 Well, hasn't Omaha also become like the home to US swimming for the trials right before the Olympics? 29:45 Because I want to say they've been there the last two times to do the swimming trials. 29:50 I think so, yes. 29:52 I'm not an expert on it. 29:53 I've heard it. 29:55 Yeah. 29:56 They've installed a temporary pool into the big, was it 15,000 seat arena, whatever they're calling it these days. 30:03 Yeah, I'm not an expert on that. 30:05 I've heard of it though. 30:06 So I think you're in the right place. 30:08 Somebody do some research for me. 30:09 I probably should know this. 30:10 I mean, living in Omaha, I should know this. 30:13 You know what? 30:13 You just moved there. 30:15 I find the trials interesting, but the swimming because you watch swimming every four years or at least I do. 30:22 It takes a full year or four years to get really attuned to a place, I think. 30:26 So you're just dipping your toes in right now. 30:28 Exactly. 30:29 I think it's not much warmer. 30:31 It gets hotter in the summer there, but really the winter, you're kind of. 30:36 It's just like it is here. 30:38 It's super windy. 30:40 Yeah, I wasn't expecting it to be this hot, be as hot as it was. 30:43 I remember in College World, the series was like 100 degrees. 30:45 I was like, what is this? 30:47 And the only thing I remember a lot of the time, I would call my dad and go, oh, my gosh, so warm. 30:52 It's different in Minnesota because you have lakes to jump into. 30:54 You don't have any lakes here or anything, you know? 30:57 I was like, this sucks. 30:58 I'm just hot and sweating and it's gross. 31:01 But it does still get cold. 31:03 I mean, today it was 50, so it was really nice. 31:06 But the last couple of days, it's been like 20, 30. 31:09 We haven't got snow yet, which makes me very happy. 31:12 So I think that will be coming soon. 31:15 I don't mind the snow since I work from home, so it's not so bad. 31:18 Yeah, that's perfect. 31:21 Have you been educated yet on the proper response to the cold Omaha where you can insult two cities at once? 31:28 No. 31:30 Someone, I believe, called Iowa City a cold Omaha at one point and got outraged from both people in Omaha and Iowa City. 31:39 That's literally so funny. 31:42 I feel like there's going to be some research on this at some point as well. 31:46 I'm not super familiar with the phrase, but I know that's a good way to piss off a lot of people. 31:50 So just keep riding that one. 31:52 I love pissing off people too. 31:53 I didn't do that. 31:54 I should do that to my coworker, a cold Omaha. 32:00 I love that. 32:01 Veegs, sounds like we're getting a significant player back this weekend. 32:07 Yeah, Mike Kester has been skating for a while and he looked pretty good last week. 32:13 I was not going to be surprised if they put him in the lineup against Wisconsin, but I think just precautionary wise, they held him out, you know, he felt like he was ready. 32:23 You know, we talked to him in Grand Forks and he was feeling really good about his comeback from his lower body injury. 32:29 And he's already working with the power play. 32:32 And boy, could the Gophers use his vision and skill and patience and poise on the blue line, because that's been lacking for the Gophers so far in the power play. 32:42 I think they went two power plays to end last weekend without a shot. 32:47 And just were not executing, you know, they were shooting when they shouldn't shoot, not shooting when they should shoot, losing the zone when they should get the puck below the goal line. 32:57 It was just a terrible performance for something that Minnesota needs to be successful. 33:04 And I think we're going to see some other shakeups on the power play now that Kester is back too. 33:08 You know, Ryan Chesley has been playing so many minutes. 33:10 I think Brad Schlossman said he was averaging like 25, 26 minutes a game. 33:16 That's probably too many for him. 33:18 So getting Mike Kester back in the lineup probably allows Bob to roll six defensemen quite a bit more and not, you know, put out. 33:27 Well, I think they'll still dress seven. 33:29 I think they still want to get the experience with Max Rudd and Carl Fish out there. 33:33 But I think, you know, you'll see Rudd and Fish alternate in that six spot as opposed to what they were doing before where they were basically rotating five and putting Fish or Begley with somebody else in the top four, which I think tired out the defense quite a bit. 33:50 Does that leave Begley out though? 33:51 Does he not dress? 33:53 They kind of have that one extra guy now? 33:55 Yeah, I think they're going to have one extra guy. 33:57 And Rudd and Begley are probably going to be rotating in and out as that seventh D. 34:01 We'll see what happens this weekend with Minnesota Duluth. 34:05 You know, it might be easier to play younger guy more at home than you do on the road. 34:12 But we'll see how it works out. 34:13 But it's going to be huge to have Kester back. 34:15 He's one of their assistant captains. 34:17 He's a big voice in the room, provides a lot of calm to the blue line back there. 34:22 And also, you know, you mentioned as part of your quotes today, Matzko's like, you know, we'll have to be careful about how much we play him. 34:28 He's just coming back. 34:30 Nevers was in that situation last weekend, Veegs, I'm guessing another weekend back will help him as well. 34:38 Yeah, it takes a while to get up to game speed, especially for Nevers when, you know, with a head injury like he had, you've got to be cautious and raise that heart rate and coming back to activity. 34:49 So they're cautious there. 34:50 You know, same thing with Kester when you're coming back from a lower body injury, it's really hard to work out and have your skating legs when that's the thing you're trying to protect. 34:59 So it'll be slow. 35:00 He'll probably get some power play time. 35:02 He'll probably get a regular shift, but he won't likely play penalty kill. 35:07 And we'll see what happens with the ice time. 35:08 But hopefully it gets a little more evenly distributed because Middlestadt and Chesley are just not performing at the level you'd like because they're playing so many minutes. 35:19 What do you think so far Minnesota this year, Marissa? 35:22 I mean, started out, now there are 500, lost three in a row. 35:28 It's hard because with who you lost, obviously last year to go and be undisputed, one of the best teams obviously in the country, make it all the way to the National Championship and then lose to Quinnipiac. 35:40 Again, I wasn't expecting, and I don't think a lot of people were expecting that. 35:44 But then to lose Faber and to lose Nice and to lose Cooley, who unfortunately guys just got his first NHL goal tonight versus the Ducks. 35:55 It's one of those things where it's- 35:56 Was Lecombe on the ice, I wonder? 35:59 You wonder too, right? 36:02 But I wasn't expecting the Gophers to be as amazing as they were last year. 36:09 But I wasn't expecting them to be in the middle of the road, three game losing streak, you know. 36:14 I think this team has just got to figure some stuff out. 36:16 Maybe they're just a little bit younger. 36:17 You've got some players who came back, but you also have Jimmy who is a sophomore. 36:23 He's a sophomore, right? 36:25 Jimmy Snuggerood? 36:26 Yep. 36:26 That's what I thought. 36:27 He's still a sophomore. 36:29 It's like the whole Connor Bernard thing. 36:31 It's like the whole thing. 36:32 You're a young kid, and a lot of people are looking towards you, and you have a lot of eyes on you, but you're still finding your group that mentality. 36:40 I didn't expect them to be great. 36:42 I don't think I expected this. 36:44 I don't think anybody did. 36:45 But what I have to say to Gopher fans is, it's going to be okay. 36:50 You know, you have some guys in the IR right now. 36:53 You have some things you have to work out. 36:54 Nobody saw Badgers were going to be as good as they were. 36:57 That's a kink, but I think you'll be fine. 37:01 Okay, Corey V is just saying he blew past Lacombe. 37:05 Did he really? 37:06 Can anyone confirm that? 37:07 Someone go to the interwebs right now. 37:10 I trust Corey V. 37:11 He's usually pretty good on our comment thread for accuracy, so I'm going to believe him on that one. 37:17 There we go. 37:17 That's why we have, I love the show doing live stuff, because people could just tell us what's going on right away. 37:26 He did. 37:27 I did hear a chirp today at the rink that if he had stayed another year, probably wouldn't have taken him to so many NHL games to get his first goal. 37:37 I was surprised to see that low. 37:39 I was surprised to see low. 37:41 Cory is right. 37:42 Yeah. 37:42 He went fast to the cone. 37:45 We're going to have to find that video and play it during overtime, Vigz. 37:48 It'll be on Twitter somewhere. 37:50 It's on BNRI, sits everywhere. 37:52 I even tweeted it out. 37:56 Yeah, he skated it right by us. 37:57 We'll play it during overtime. 38:02 Well, one thing we do need to talk about, Vigz, our more sponsors here, Duke Cannon. 38:06 Let me bring up some things here. 38:09 Oh, look at that. 38:12 Got a little styling putty in the hair. 38:14 Are you wearing it? 38:14 I'm not wearing it today. 38:16 I like to wear when I go out because it smells so good. 38:18 Yeah, I've got to say one thing about Duke Cannon. 38:22 I mix it in a little hair product in the routine. 38:26 And my wife the other day did notice I had a different scent about me. 38:29 I was like, is this a good thing or a bad thing? 38:32 She's like, it's a good thing. 38:34 So Duke Cannon, not just the guys like it, women like it too. 38:38 And if you want to make your hair a weapon, Duke Cannon Men's Grooming Products are for you. 38:45 They're a Minnesota company that makes hardware to gain products for hardworking men. 38:49 And whether it's the serious little styling putty that I've got in there right now, or some news anchor thick hair which my wife enjoyed the scent of, visit dukecannon.com, Target or even your local hardware store for products to make your hair a weapon. 39:04 And news anchor is what I wear when I wear it. 39:07 And it does, it smells good, Bigs. 39:10 Yeah, it's good. 39:11 You can't ask for more than that. 39:12 And then of course, we've got another one of our favorites, FURTA and fundraisers. 39:18 And this is the fundraising season, Bees, there's no doubt about it. 39:23 Yeah, I mean, the holidays are coming up, people are looking for gifts and you want gifts that people enjoy. 39:29 And if you can support local products, I always think that's the best way to go. 39:33 And FURTA fundraisers totally does that. 39:36 Joe Mama Salsa, which we both like and enjoy. 39:40 Von Hansen's Pretzel Snacks, good thing to have around at the holidays. 39:44 Cory Valley, Barbecue Rubs and Sauces, always great. 39:48 And FURTA fundraisers, they'll give you some staff to plan around your needs, support you from start to finish and help you to maximize your return while staying close to retail prices. 39:58 Visit furtafundraisers.com to ignite your fundraising for the boys, for the girls, for the community, for the fundraisers. 40:07 And it's just it's so crucial right now because everyone needs money for their hockey team, their basketball team, all kinds of things for raising money. 40:17 Yep. 40:17 Get in touch with Wayne over there at FURTA fundraisers. 40:19 He's a great guy. 40:21 He's got the right attitude and he'll be really helpful to get you to your goals. 40:26 Definitely would be. 40:27 All right. 40:27 Let's bring Marissa back in and let's talk this weekend, Home and Home Vigz with the Bulldogs of Minnesota Duluth. 40:38 I always look forward to the series. 40:40 I'm still not fond of the Home and Home Vigz. 40:45 But the girlfriend and I are going up Saturday to see the game as a fan up at Amsoil Arena. 40:53 So I do get to have a little fun, though grandma's is no longer around, but initial thoughts on the weekend? 41:01 I think it's the right weekend for Minnesota going up to Duluth to play them with the Home and Home. 41:06 You know, I think Minnesota getting healthy and playing arrival really can get them back on the same page with each other. 41:14 And the one thing about Duluth, if you don't play disciplined, you're going to be in for a tough weekend. 41:21 And so it's going to be a good point of emphasis from the coaching staff to be smart with the puck, to grind, to work, and to really stay disciplined as well. 41:31 Duluth has been dynamite on the power play so far this season. 41:36 And Minnesota has been a little careless with their sticks. 41:40 And while their penalty kill has been pretty good up until a couple moments against Wisconsin, you know, it's going to have to be sharp for this weekend. 41:50 Marissa, what do you know about Minnesota Duluth? 41:52 Do you know much about them? 41:53 You've seen a lot of them over the last... 41:56 A few years I'm guessing. 41:58 I know a lot because Max Veach talks about them all the time. 42:01 So he just is raving about them. 42:04 That's how I know. 42:05 I won't shut up. 42:06 And I see the banner there every time the NCHC when I go to Baxter, I'm like, So we'll make sure this is part of a social clip tomorrow. 42:13 I make sure you're saying that. 42:16 Oh, yeah, absolutely. 42:17 Anytime I get to rough up Veach a little bit and his UMD Bulldogs, I'm always down for it. 42:24 But I mean, it's not the squad of old, right? 42:29 This UMD Bulldog squad has struggled, right? 42:31 They're not the national championship we've seen. 42:33 They're not the high caliber. 42:34 They're just they're not bad. 42:36 They're not great. 42:37 They're in the middle of the road that I would call, but they are sneaky. 42:40 I would I will agree with, you know, what Eric said. 42:42 And if you aren't really on your top game, they can catch up with you from time to time. 42:47 So they're not a team that should be underestimated with the home and home, especially in having that. 42:54 It is weird because I agree with the home and home. 42:56 It's I don't know why. 42:58 I mean, when you especially with like, it's like you're so far away, especially when we had in Mankato with UMD. 43:02 I was like, why are we doing a home and home? 43:04 Why don't we just like do a series, you know, at UMD or at Minnesota? 43:08 But I get it because you're both in state. 43:11 I understand. 43:12 But at the same time, it's like, but I mean, the city of Duluth used to love that weekend because all of us drunk Gopher fans would come up there and spend a lot of money in Canal Park. 43:23 Well, it's the best. 43:24 Just do a series. 43:25 I mean, and if you're good, I know it's out of non-conference, but still, it's just don't do the home and home. 43:30 It stretches out a lot of people. 43:31 I know it's potentially the best of both worlds. 43:34 At the same time, you got to think about the players, the coaching staff. 43:37 It just, those don't necessarily make any sense to me. 43:39 When you're doing like University St. 43:41 Thomas in Mankato, that makes sense. 43:43 You're an hour away, of course. 43:45 But I feel like it's a little different. 43:47 But Gopher fans, just play the game. 43:51 And I think you can come out with this sweep. 43:54 But at the same time, we said that. 43:56 And you guys said that about the Badgers. 43:58 And look what happened. 43:59 So you just got to play the game that you know played your identity. 44:02 And hopefully you get the sweep over the bad, over the Bulldogs. 44:06 But they are sneaky. 44:08 What is the key this weekend? 44:10 You know, I've heard a lot of people mention secondary scoring. 44:13 Obviously, we're going to get a boost on the defense this weekend, Veegs. 44:16 But I do agree, somebody like Pitlick, who is... 44:21 He is awesome out there. 44:23 He's causing havoc. 44:24 He's forechecking like crazy. 44:26 He just can't put it behind the goalie yet. 44:31 And I feel like he's hit a couple pipes too. 44:33 So it's not like he's missing the net and just not taking advantage of his scoring chances. 44:38 They're there. 44:39 Goalies are making save. 44:41 He's putting the puck on net. 44:42 He's just got to stick to it. 44:44 And I'm not worried so much about him. 44:47 What I'm worried about a little bit is Jimmy Snuggerud, Oliver Moore, you know, as they chase offense, Brody Lamb. 44:55 You know, these players just need to say sometimes it's okay to just win your shift and keep the momentum going because against Wisconsin, too many times the shifts were disconnected. 45:06 And when you have a shift where you spend 40 seconds in your defensive zone, and there's maybe an opportunity to go on offense, it's so tempting at this point of the year. 45:16 And a lot of the guys said, you can do that in summer hockey because you can just get off after that chance. 45:22 In college hockey, you can't do that. 45:24 You have to gain the red line. 45:26 You have to gain possession. 45:27 You have to have a smooth change. 45:29 And then it's up to the next line to take advantage of that. 45:32 And I think that's something that's been missing with Minnesota. 45:35 So as much as they want to get their big players going and they want depth scoring, you can't look at it that way. 45:41 You have to look at the process and putting together what's winning hockey for you to be successful. 45:48 Are you making the trip this weekend, Veegs? 45:50 I am not. 45:52 I am committed to a lot of youth hockey this weekend. 45:55 As I get my teams ready, we've got association hockey. 45:58 We've got games coming up this month. 46:00 So we're going to be dedicating some time to that. 46:03 I will be at 3M Arena at Mariucci for one of the games, but I will not be making the trip to Duluth, as much as I love that city. 46:12 I agree that we have had a lot of fun up there, Veegs. 46:15 I have a lot of trouble too. 46:17 Yeah, we've got in trouble, but we stayed out of the penalty box, which is always key when you go up there. 46:21 But I think one of the things with these programs is they like having each other on their home schedule every year. 46:28 That's been the thing that's held this back from being just a home series or road series for the teams. 46:34 I've heard rumblings that they might return to two games at home or two games on the road in their next contract, but we'll see. 46:44 Everybody wants to play Minnesota, and everybody wants Minnesota in their barn every single year. 46:48 So we'll see what happens, and hopefully I can break it as being official at some point when I get that contract for my Freedom of Information Act request with the university. 47:00 It's been a little more quiet in these contracts because COVID really messed a lot of things up, didn't it, Veegs? 47:04 Yeah, there's a lot of promises to play other teams that got messed up because of COVID. 47:09 I know Arizona State now switching conferences is throwing things up in the air for how they're going to fulfill all their scheduling agreements. 47:16 Luckily, Minnesota already fulfilled that, so that's good. 47:19 Yeah. 47:20 So things are still up in the air for scheduling, and Minnesota is going to play all the Minnesota teams. 47:27 They're just going to figure it out. 47:29 Yeah. 47:30 And like they said, they've been doing some exhibitions with Bemidji. 47:33 They were there last year. 47:34 They were here this year. 47:35 They're still playing them. 47:38 Kind of hinted, a lot of stuff on Twitter today, Marissa, I was just putting out there. 47:44 St. 47:45 Cloud's in trouble. 47:46 I still think they are. 47:49 Declining enrollments. 47:53 Advisors telling players not to go there. 47:55 And then, Veegs, we just saw a switch this week of a recruit. 48:01 Who knows if his advisor told him not to do this. 48:03 But either one of you, I'm still concerned about St. 48:07 Cloud. 48:10 Marissa, ladies first. 48:12 Oh, sure. 48:13 I'll go for it. 48:14 It's hard because St. 48:15 Cloud State, a lot of people, when they think obviously of hockey, St. 48:19 Cloud State is up there. 48:21 They're a program you think of, they're a barn you think of, they're a team you think of. 48:24 But at the same time, when you're not getting the necessary recruits in, when you're not getting the talent and when you're not making the headlines, when you get swept by Minnesota State and everybody's going, what's going on? 48:38 That shouldn't happen. 48:39 It starts to make people wonder, is it going to be a thing? 48:44 Is it going to keep happening? 48:47 When you have Brett Larson though as your coach, that's how I know that it's going to be okay. 48:52 If Brett Larson ever leaves and goes somewhere else, I think that's when a lot of Husky fans, a lot of people go, yeah, this could be the end because he is the heart and soul of that team, of that franchise program, whatever you want to call it. 49:08 So if he ever does decide to leave, that's going to be the nail in the coffin, I think. 49:13 And Veegs, I had some people tweeting back that the smaller schools, liberal arts schools, things like that, they're expecting a low between 2028 and 2035 or something like that, like really a low in students coming to school. 49:32 So it's not just a sports thing, it's an entirety of college education that, a school like a big school like Minnesota, well, they would be fine, and a lot of schools out east, but those smaller schools like St. 49:47 Cloud, I fear for it after we've just grown college hockey so much the last 10 years. 49:55 Well, every institution in higher education right now is struggling for enrollment. 50:00 We're just seeing a decline in 18 to 24-year-old students. 50:05 It's a thing that's affecting the entire country. 50:08 So schools need to be really creative with how they're going to attract students over the next decade or two. 50:16 We talk about this with hockey coaches all the time. 50:18 It's like you've got to find what your program is, what kind of play you're going to have on the ice, what kind of recruits you're going to bring in to fit that style. 50:26 Schools like St. 50:27 Cloud have to do the same thing. 50:29 You think of North Dakota, if you like to fly planes, that's a great place for you to go. 50:34 If you want to be an engineer, Michigan Tech, a great spot to go. 50:38 If you want to be in business or medicine, Minnesota is a great place to go. 50:42 You want to be in TV? 50:43 St. 50:44 Cloud is a great place to go. 50:45 Exactly. 50:47 You have to figure out what's your market, what's your niche. 50:50 I think that's something that's going to affect all institutions going forward. 50:54 As many advisors say, maybe don't go there, there are some advisors who still do because Brett Larson is a great hockey coach. 51:01 They do have a strong alumni supporting them. 51:03 They do have a pretty good fan base. 51:05 It's just that health of the institution overall, they grew pretty quick and they went to that liberal arts model and they probably expanded their programs too quickly. 51:13 They've got to circle the wagons and figure out, what are we going to do really well at St. 51:18 Cloud State for us to be successful long-term and get through these next two decades. 51:25 Marissa, we're no fans of St. 51:28 Cloud hockey, but we're fans of college hockey. 51:31 Yep. 51:32 And if that school academically has issues that affects St. 51:37 Cloud hockey, it affects us all. 51:39 We want college hockey to succeed, and that's definitely not a good thing if something happens to St. 51:45 Cloud. 51:47 Yeah, and I think that's what is making a lot of people with just the enrollment with everything. 51:51 And with the town overall, with St. 51:53 Cloud, I think there's just some bad stuff going on. 51:55 I mean, you had one of the big bars and a couple of other restaurants and all these things for the economy, you know, that one, that burned down and everything else. 52:04 That took a hit on the town itself. 52:07 And now a lot of college kids are going, do I want to go to St. 52:10 Cloud? 52:10 Well, I want to go to St. 52:11 Cloud because of the school. 52:13 But what is the town or the city offered me? 52:16 Not much. 52:16 I've been there to visit a friend who went to school and I was kind of like, okay, like, there's not much to do in this city or town. 52:24 I don't really, I've been there once and that was it. 52:26 That was done, right? 52:27 That's like, that's what I think you're finding with a lot of people is, you know, especially with college kids, there's like, yeah, I want to go to the college, but I also want to do stuff outside of the college, right? 52:36 I just don't want to stick to solely athletics and is there, is there going to be a bigger population? 52:40 Is there things to do? 52:41 Restaurants? 52:42 Can you go to museums or do stuff? 52:44 Probably nobody, college kids go into museum. 52:46 But do you know what I mean? 52:48 There's just needs to be more to do than just go and get an education and go play college hockey or see college hockey and that's going to take a hit overall because if you don't have, let's say a day comes where unfortunately that does happen and now all of a sudden you don't have SCSU and the NCHC or in college hockey, that's going to take a huge hit on just the NCHC and conference overall. 53:11 Now you're missing a huge big component in that and you're missing a huge big component just in college hockey overall and for Minnesota. 53:19 It's something that nobody wants to see as much as we don't like St. 53:23 Cloud State University just because if you don't play them and they're not there, that's going to hurt everybody because we need as much college hockey and we want to grow it as we can. 53:35 We don't want to lose it. 53:37 All right. 53:38 Back to the hockey this weekend, Veegs. 53:40 What does Minnesota need to do to get more than a split either or maybe? 53:48 Well, we're not doing points, so either a five or six point weekend, four or five, six point weekend. 53:54 I think for Minnesota to get more than just a split this weekend, they're going to need Mikey Kester to smoothly jump back into the lineup and get their power play going. 54:05 This power play for Minnesota has to be a weapon for them, just like you can in products, making your hair a weapon for us. 54:13 The Gophers have to figure out how to score at more than 25% in the power play. 54:18 A big part of that is having a defenseman back there who's calm and poised and moving the puck. 54:23 I think Minnesota has been a little static in their position on the power play trying to get the puck to Snuggerud and that just is not going to be effective long-term. 54:32 Teams are too good for that. 54:34 Snuggerud can go from the bottom of the circle to the top of the circle to try to get open for that one-timer, but you have to have other options. 54:41 And we'll see what's going to happen with Minnesota there. 54:44 We're going to see some different players on the power play this weekend. 54:47 We're going to see some different lines, but they've got to develop a little more cohesiveness throughout their lineup for them to be effective. 54:54 Well, what's your pick then? 54:56 I've got a split. 54:57 I've got the home teams winning each game this weekend. 55:01 I was talking to Jess Myers this week and, you know, who's the more desperate team? 55:05 You know, both teams are coming off sweeps. 55:07 Cornell took care of UMD this last weekend. 55:09 Wisconsin took Minnesota. 55:11 I think teams, when they're at home, they're more desperate and they're more bought in. 55:15 They're more comfortable. 55:16 And so I see the home teams winning each game. 55:19 What do you think, Marissa? 55:22 I got to agree with Eric and not just because he makes an excellent, excellent point just because it's just smart, right? 55:29 Whenever we do this on MNCAA, half the time Alex McAleady is going, I'm going to sweep and I'm like, I'm going to split because it's one of those things where it is the safe option. 55:41 Both teams win. 55:42 But if you call a sweep and they get swept or vice versa, it could be bad. 55:47 But I agree with everything Eric said. 55:49 When you're in your own home barn, you're going to want to win. 55:51 You're in front of your home fans. 55:53 You have everything and that amps you up more. 55:56 So I think you see more with home and homes. 55:59 They're usually a split. 56:04 By the way, we're going to have Alex on one of these Overtimes coming. 56:08 Bet you you can guess which overtime it'll be. 56:11 But coming up, Alex is going to be on. 56:13 Probably. 56:15 I will also pick a split, but I'm just going to be goofy. 56:20 The road teams are going to win. 56:24 I just got to be different there. 56:26 Road teams are going to win. 56:28 There you go. 56:30 I mean, this is definitely a weekend. 56:31 Duluth's going to surprise them on Friday night. 56:35 Minnesota's going to go up there all pissed off and they're going to win Saturday night. 56:40 This is definitely a weekend where we could see some overtime games. 56:43 Just Minnesota, UMD have a history of having low scoring, tight games because Sandlin will lock down his team. 56:51 Sandlin had his hip surgery last season and he didn't have his team dialed in as much as he could have been during the year. 56:59 This year, he's back and so I think he's going to get this team prepped for Minnesota and have them motivated so we could see some low scoring games that get to OT and, you know, and it turns into a skills competition. 57:11 Minnesota is pretty good at three on three. 57:13 They've got some guys who can get open in that open ice. 57:18 So we'll see what happens. 57:20 Marissa, can you hang with us for overtime? 57:22 Oh, of course I can. 57:25 Well, then thanks for being on the show. 57:27 We appreciate you coming on. 57:29 Oh, it was a blast. 57:30 Thank you guys for having me. 57:32 Well, we appreciate you coming on. 57:34 It's like I said, it's nice to get some different perspectives. 57:37 And we've been trying to do that this year. 57:39 You know, we had Derek Burns on from Dinky Town Athletes. 57:42 He's more of a football guy. 57:43 Well, he played for the football team, but it's nice to get some different perspectives and especially out of you this week. 57:48 So it's been nice to have you on. 57:51 Beautiful. 57:51 I'm glad to add that different perspective. 57:54 It's always good. 57:55 Bigs, are you working on anything right now? 57:58 We've got some six thoughts coming to Gopher Puck Live this week to get you ready for the series. 58:02 And don't forget to check out Dinky Town Athletes. 58:05 They dropped some Pat McAleady merch and some Mike Crowley merch this week. 58:13 So as you can tell, it's a little bit of attention. 58:16 Yeah, look for those things out there on social. 58:19 Jimmy Snuggert is also going to be doing a radio ad for Dinky Town Athletes this weekend during the game. 58:24 So if you're listening to Frank and Wally on the air, also listen for Jimmy. 58:31 I'm loving the Crowley stuff. 58:33 Obviously everyone knows he was my favorite all time. 58:36 Nothing against you, Pat. 58:37 Nothing against you. 58:39 But he went to my high school and he's a legend in my eyes. 58:44 Too young for people like Marissa, but you know, you're young. 58:49 I am young. 58:53 Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 58:56 Of course, we want to thank Marissa for coming on the show again this week. 59:00 And we'll be back next week to recap the Home and Home series with UMD and then preview the big series of Michigan coming up after that. 59:09 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for overtime for the rest of you. 59:12 We'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.