0:08
This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family.
0:16
You're younger than my dad.
0:22
My dad's 56.
0:30
Wow, we just got finished.
0:34
That sounds kind of weird.
0:37
Kind of sounds weird.
0:38
It's not like 99.
0:40
And Eric, on the flip side, I bet you just love those defensive games.
0:48
Yeah, if I'm playing, why I was the same as you, if I fell asleep on Saturday.
0:56
Now, here's Jupiter and Vego.
1:04
Good evening and welcome to the GPL Podcast, episode number 248.
1:13
Well, hello, Veegs.
1:14
Hopefully you had a great weekend this past weekend.
1:18
Yeah, it was great.
1:19
I love it when Minnesota plays Minnesota Duluth.
1:22
You know, the Gophers have not had the best record against the Bulldogs the last decade, but the hockey is always pretty good.
1:32
And I thought the Gophers played a great game on Friday, Saturday, that I thought they were the better team.
1:38
And, you know, it kind of erased some of the woes from watching the Gophers, Illinois football game, because that was a disappointment.
1:47
Boy, I was at Old Chicago in Canal Park watching that ending, and we just, you could just see it coming.
1:54
There was, I think I even tweeted it, a big, ugh.
1:58
It was a gut puncher.
1:59
It was a total gut puncher.
2:00
It was one of those games where the football program, I think, finally has a lot of athletes who are at a high level, and they just made some mental mistakes, and it cost them.
2:11
But the Gophers this weekend, I think, had a lot of growth on the hockey rink.
2:17
I would agree.
2:18
I want to discuss kind of a lot of things, you know, with this whole weekend.
2:21
But, you know, I've seen the home and home.
2:25
Cool things happening with that, with the contract coming up.
2:29
But Friday, they came out and looked pretty darn good.
2:35
And players were actually benched for taking penalties.
2:41
It was quite the interesting evening.
2:43
Well, Bob typically has one of the least penalized teams in college hockey.
2:49
And it's not because his teams aren't physical and aggressive.
2:53
I think it's because the coach puts such an emphasis.
2:56
If you take bad penalties, and what a bad penalty is in Moscow's bind is something in the offensive zone, when you're 180 feet away from your own goal, or something where you're just sticking your stick in the wrong spot and getting called for penalties, he does not have a lot of patience for that.
3:15
And he had said, you know, the weekend before, so I'm either gonna bring out the two by four or the tickle feather.
3:23
And he brought out the two by four.
3:25
And now that these penalties are starting to add up, he brought it out again and started stapling people to the bench.
3:32
And he called out a few different people.
3:37
One of them who also got two goals that night.
3:41
Bryce Brudzinski reacted very well to the benching and responding for the coach.
3:46
Although one of them is an empty netter where he must have had the speed jets saved up for that one.
3:52
Yeah, I do even ask, I think you asked, somebody asked Moscow about that always.
3:56
All of a sudden he's just got, he's really fast when it comes to empty net goals.
4:00
Yeah, the coaches staff sure knows that.
4:02
And Mike Hester made the comment.
4:04
He's like, well, he just wants to ice the game for us.
4:06
He just really wants to ice the game.
4:08
It's good for Bryce.
4:11
So it's his 50th career goal with the Gophers.
4:14
You know, he is probably one guy who attracts a lot of negative commentary from the fan base when you're watching a hockey game, but he knows how to put the puck in the net.
4:25
You know, he's up and down during the season, almost every season, Veegs.
4:28
He has spurts where all of a sudden he's scoring.
4:30
He's going, he's got, you know, five goals in six games or something on that.
4:34
And then he's quiet for another six games.
4:38
So I think some of the criticism might be fair.
4:41
I think honestly, we just want to see consistency out of his game.
4:49
Yeah.
4:49
And I think he's a player who recognizes that a little bit and he wants to make himself a more complete player.
4:55
He definitely put in the work this off season to get a little fitter and have a little more jump.
5:01
And when I've noticed plays during the games where I see him have that extra step that he probably hasn't had since he's been at Minnesota, I'll call it out on Twitter because it's there and it shows up in the games.
5:15
And Rhett Pitlick is another player who's starting to show that little bit of extra heaviness and jump on the ice that's creating opportunities for him as well.
5:26
So you've got two players who've been with the program for a while and there's signs that they are becoming more complete players this year.
5:33
Pitlick causes havoc out there.
5:35
I've been saying it the entire season.
5:36
You've been telling me, look at him.
5:38
Look how aggressive he is on the four check.
5:40
The trouble he's causing.
5:42
Doesn't always get the puck, but he slows him down.
5:44
And sometimes he does get the puck.
5:46
But I think the important thing on Friday night is that he got off the schneid and got on the scoreboard.
5:52
Well, he was one of those players that got benched.
5:54
And I was trying to figure out what was happening with the Lions because Bob had said throughout the week, he's warning everybody, hey, I'm gonna be juggling the Lions all year.
6:04
You're probably gonna see more combinations than usual on Friday.
6:07
And I had made the comment after the game, I was like, well, you certainly kept your word.
6:11
You're juggling the Lions.
6:13
And he revealed that he was benching guys because of penalties.
6:15
And Pitlick was one of those guys too who got benched for penalties.
6:19
He came in in the neutral zone with some back pressure.
6:22
He put his stick in the player's hands.
6:26
Tight call, but it's a call.
6:29
And then he's out there with, I think, Jimmy Clark and Charlie Strobel.
6:32
And it's like, wow, those three look pretty good together.
6:35
And it resulted in Pitlick getting a goal.
6:38
So-
6:38
And a nice setup by Strobel too, yes.
6:40
That was a great all-around play.
6:43
Yeah, definitely a great play.
6:45
And it was good to see Pitlick put one in the net because I think that's good for his confidence because he's a player that I think needs confidence to be effective, just so he takes that extra beat to really finish a play and not just be quick and get pucks off.
7:00
Because I think there's a little bit more of a scorers touch to his game because he's got so much skill.
7:07
What did you think of Close?
7:09
Almost got the shutout Friday night.
7:11
I think Mike Kester probably came to his locker after the game and said, sorry about that.
7:17
Minnesota had, I feel like only gave one or two odd man rushes the entire game.
7:24
They went a long time without a long shot.
7:26
Yeah.
7:27
It was late in the game and Kester kind of dove into the slot to try to make a play and just couldn't finish it.
7:34
And UMD came back four on two the other way.
7:37
Minnesota probably didn't play the rush exactly well.
7:40
Sometimes you just want to give Close or a clean look at the rush shooter.
7:45
Like they can sometimes do, but they didn't.
7:47
And UMD took advantage and ruined the shutout, which was kind of disappointing, I think, for Closer, but he's the kind of guy that doesn't care about shutouts.
7:57
I think that's the reason why he has so many of them.
8:02
But overall, a great night for Minnesota.
8:04
You could just tell Scott Sandlin after the game was frustrated with his team, with their effort and discipline.
8:12
I noticed that I shot, I believe, the second period between the benches.
8:16
And I noticed that he was frustrated with his team and what they were doing.
8:22
But part of that was getting Mr.
8:23
Kester back, Veegs.
8:27
My, you know, I just noticed a comment.
8:29
Our guy, Mote, looked rusty.
8:33
Well, I hope so.
8:34
He hadn't played all season, but he still played pretty darn good.
8:39
Well, I think his return to lineup was a calming one, especially on the power play.
8:43
You just look, he knows how to settle the puck and not put it right into pressure.
8:48
He knows how to take that pressure off everybody else and give a little bit of time and space to think and make some skill plays.
8:55
Seems sometimes the Gopher power play has been rushing quite a bit and just kind of get in the motions and static and not moving around and not being dynamic and not creating chaos.
9:09
Kester is the anti-chaos guy.
9:11
He calms things down, has the vision to make plays.
9:15
And I think that helps for Minnesota, especially on the breakout as well.
9:19
And he's a player that can make calm plays.
9:22
But I think the rust when he has to press in traffic with body contact is gonna be something that's gonna come along maybe a little more slowly than he'd like.
9:33
Very Faber-like, cause I've been seeing Faber doing a lot of that calmness type of play for the wild.
9:41
Well, he's just always is on the right side of the puck.
9:43
You know, he knows how to position his body so he doesn't get beat.
9:46
I was talking to somebody, Mike Grimm today after media availability, how the Gophers right now sometimes are taking the cheese to use the football analogy.
9:58
You're getting caught going to the outside like Tyler Newbin was at the end of the Illinois game.
10:03
You know, you do something cause you're trying to make a play and you want to flash your skill.
10:08
Well, really the smart thing is just to let all that stuff go and make the easy play and slow the game down and don't give away chances to the other team.
10:17
You know, Kester is that kind of player.
10:19
He's experienced enough and savvy enough to play the percentage plays and then just calmly transition the other way.
10:27
You know, Brock Faber was so good about that.
10:29
You know, he's obviously a heavier player.
10:31
It can be more physical, but as long as your body position is in the right spot, you can shut down plays and transition quick.
10:39
But a great first weekend back definitely for Mr.
10:42
Kester.
10:43
I think so, too, and it helped everybody's ice time.
10:46
You know, Chesley wasn't out there playing 27, 30 minutes.
10:50
Middlestadt wasn't out there trying to do too much.
10:53
I think Rinzel is learning not to touch the stove.
10:56
You know, it did happen a couple of times during the weekend where he tries to go coast to coast and he ends up below the goal line.
11:03
That's probably not where you want your players to go.
11:05
You want them to do it more like Cal Thomas on his goal, where he sees four opponents in front of him and a chance for a loose puck.
11:11
And he goes, okay, now I can go.
11:12
You know, that's an opportunity where offense is presented to you and you take it and you get your goal.
11:19
When you start chasing plays like Kester did at the end of the game on Friday or Renzella has been doing this season, you know, you're giving the other team some offense that they haven't really earned.
11:30
So five-one win Friday night, well-deserved.
11:34
Saturday night up in Duluth, definitely much more hostile atmosphere.
11:40
Duluth gets a lead, you know, goes back and forth.
11:44
You know, they go up two-one.
11:45
Minnesota ties it at two.
11:47
They got two quick ones to go up three-two at the end of the second.
11:51
And then I think one of the penalty bite, I can't remember.
11:58
At the end of the second period, that ended up with a power play goal to tie the game for Duluth.
12:05
But Minnesota had 50 shots on goal.
12:09
Their goalie did definitely have an excellent game against Minnesota.
12:15
Yeah, it was pretty crazy because the UMD goalie had cramps on Friday night.
12:21
And that was the reason why he left the game.
12:22
It wasn't like a groin or a knee injury.
12:24
It was cramps.
12:25
And so they went with the other guy, Thiessen on Saturday, and he played very, very well.
12:32
I thought the Gophers out-chanced UMD throughout the night.
12:35
I don't know if they were as in control of the game, clearly.
12:40
But they were getting the better of the chances.
12:42
And the only reason that game went to overtime was because UMD's goalie played really, really well.
12:48
He was aggressive.
12:49
He was reading plays.
12:50
He was making big pushes.
12:52
And so I think that was the difference on Saturday.
12:56
And didn't start well in the overtime.
12:59
Taking a penalty right at the end of regulation.
13:01
That wasn't good.
13:02
And then Minnesota gets a power play.
13:05
It was hectic.
13:07
Ends up in a tie.
13:09
Both teams had good chances.
13:10
Minnesota had some great chances.
13:13
Then for some reason, I must have been only for the crowd, Veegs.
13:18
They did a shootout.
13:21
I set the text right away to the SID Minnesota, Scott Slarks.
13:25
I go, why are they doing this?
13:27
He's like, literally his response, no clue.
13:32
Well, I think everybody is doing this in the non-conference games.
13:36
It has no meaning.
13:38
No, Barry.
13:39
And pairwise records, anything.
13:41
It's just something for the crowd.
13:44
You know, UMD obviously won it, so they are happy.
13:47
Minnesota lost it, so maybe they're less happy.
13:51
But really, it didn't mean anything in the big picture, because the Gophers won the series overall.
13:57
I had to explain to somebody, a Gopher fan, that shootouts never make a difference when it comes to NCAA or pairwise, especially this past weekend.
14:09
It was essentially, if you call it a two-point weekend, Minnesota got one and a half, and Duluth got a half a point.
14:17
I mean, in that way, you're just thinking straight up math.
14:21
But shootouts don't mean anything.
14:23
The only time they mean something is conference standings, Veegs.
14:26
But after those three on three, five minutes is done, the NCAA does not care, do they?
14:33
I'm just kind of waiting for a road team to just go to their locker room at the end of overtime and not even participate in the shootout and just say, yeah, you won the shootout.
14:49
I kind of would expect a guy like Matsuko to do that if shootouts are still thing in these non-conference games when they don't mean anything.
14:57
Closer did quite the stretch in that first save and ended up, I think he hit the pipe or something with his skate and his whole blade just fell right up.
15:05
Excuse me.
15:09
And then I was talking to somebody, he's like, well, could they just replace putt and put another goalie in?
15:13
Like you cannot put a goalie in switching at that time.
15:17
There's no warmup, there's nothing.
15:19
And that's the time when the goalie's probably the most spry and flexible.
15:23
He might be tired, but he's stretched out.
15:25
You couldn't throw a goalie in for a shootout and expect any good results.
15:30
Yeah, especially Minnesota, Aries not cleared really to play games yet.
15:35
You know, he's working his way back from his injury that held him out of the preseason.
15:40
So he's not quite ready.
15:41
Wees, who knows what would happen there?
15:45
I think the thing going forward is, I'm looking for a coach one day to just take their team to the locker room afterwards.
15:54
They could.
15:57
It's a letdown when you lose the shootout.
15:59
You know, you got a tie on the road.
16:01
You won the series.
16:03
And I think if you lose the shootout and the crowd gets up, you kind of feel upset that, let my team down and let their fans get some energy.
16:11
The kids behind us were screaming that high pitch shreel like they just won the Stanley Cup.
16:19
It was brutal.
16:22
And the crowd was so excited.
16:23
They jumped all over the goalie.
16:24
I'm like, we shouldn't even have one.
16:27
Because the last time Minnesota was in Duluth Beegs, I believe was 2018.
16:34
I think it might have been ice where it was one game thing.
16:39
Duluth had just won a national title.
16:40
They put the banner up, one-one tie over time.
16:45
There was no shootout.
16:46
It was pointless at the time.
16:48
But like you said, some teams are like, let's just do it anyway, just for the crowd.
16:53
I'm like, I couldn't imagine if a goalie got a hamstring or pulled a groin trying to make an acrobatic save in a meaningless non-conference shootout.
17:05
It's an interesting scenario that I don't think people have really put a lot of time and thought into, but maybe something that'll get changed.
17:11
Maybe we'll have to tell Eric Martenson at some point that this should be a rule.
17:15
Because it is a rule change year.
17:17
I know that there was an interesting rule change suggestion about coaches challenge in the Michigan Wisconsin game that cost the Wolverines the other night.
17:31
So, interesting things in college hockey, but overall really good weekend for Minnesota.
17:38
I thought they got good effort from all their lines.
17:41
Now, Bob on Friday was talking about the effective ground game that he had out there throughout the night.
17:47
I didn't quite feel like they had the great ground game.
17:51
There were a lot of missed shots in the second, third period that were feeding transition chances for UMD.
17:57
I feel like if you had a really good ground game, they wouldn't have been messing around with that.
18:02
They would have had more traffic to the net.
18:05
That was something Jimmy Snuggerud talked about from the weekend is the coaches were basically showing all these shots, like on Saturday, 50 shots and probably 40 of them, there was no traffic in front of the goalie.
18:18
You need to create that chaos.
18:20
On one of the goals this weekend, Snuggerud was the player doing the center drive, creating the space for his linemates to get the goal.
18:29
So he's getting it.
18:31
I think his shifts were a little shorter throughout the weekend.
18:34
He wasn't out there seeking offense quite as much as he was maybe early in the season.
18:40
So I think that's a promising thing for Minnesota.
18:42
And of course, having the blue line back together was a big deal.
18:47
Well, I definitely want to get into Snuggerud and more with the UMD contract, but the thing we need to do, we've got sponsors now, VEGS.
18:56
And one of my favorites is the FURTA Fundraisers.
19:00
They're doing a lot for small organizations like your kids' youth hockey.
19:06
Yeah, Wayne from FURTA Fundraisers will set you up.
19:09
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19:19
No one likes buying super overpriced fundraiser stuff and not seeing the value.
19:24
FURTA tries to do a nice job with that with their pricing.
19:27
They've got a lot of local premium products like Joe Mama Salsa that we both enjoy, Bon Hanson's Pretzel Snacks, Croy Valley Barbecue Rub & Sausages.
19:37
They've got some new cocktail mixer, things that you can get.
19:41
I just saw they had the freeze dried candy that they added to their mix.
19:49
Yeah, those great stuff.
19:51
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19:59
I definitely love the furtafundraisers, but now we need to hear from our other sponsors, Chill Boys.
20:09
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20:11
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20:14
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20:17
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20:25
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20:32
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20:37
I just love that commercial, Veegs.
20:39
It's funny.
20:40
It's great how they got them to do all that stuff with the tennis stuff.
20:43
I just, that's why I love playing it.
20:45
Had my Chill Boys on Saturday as I went up to Duluth because I knew I'd be doing a lot of walking, a lot of moving around.
20:52
Worked great.
20:53
Of course, everyone can use Pulltab 15 to get that 15% off.
20:58
It's a pretty good deal.
21:00
I know that the stat crew at Mariucci has been excited about Chill Boys because they're under a lot of pressure up there.
21:07
And they get a lot of animosity about their work and they're excited about that bamboo comfort.
21:16
They definitely are.
21:17
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21:21
It's a lot of good stuff there.
21:22
So make sure you take advantage of it.
21:25
All right, Beaks, I was talking about Snuggeroot a little bit there when we went to commercial and you have taught me over the years to look for things.
21:36
I love how you've done that.
21:38
And the first thing I noticed Saturday in Duluth, wait a minute, Snuggeroot's on the right side for the PowerPoint.
21:48
Ooh, he's sometimes moving up to the point.
21:52
Oh, okay, now he's back in position.
21:54
Oh wait, Snuggeroot was moving around quite a bit on the power play Saturday night.
22:00
Not in his normal left side spot.
22:03
When you have a player like Snuggeroot who becomes a focal point for your power play, you don't want to be very predictable.
22:12
And so giving him the freedom in practicing, giving him different routes to go through on the power play to get shooting opportunities is going to be crucial for Minnesota.
22:23
Because I think Bob wants to go with his top guys as much as he can on the power play.
22:28
We've seen that over the years.
22:30
When he gets a unit that gets confident, he's not afraid to let him go out there for 90 seconds if they can maintain the zone, apply pressure, get second chances and tie around a penalty kill.
22:42
So I think Minnesota, when they were just putting Snuggeroot in one spot was getting too predictable and teams were taking that away and the Gophers were trying to force the puck to him.
22:52
So by having him move around a little bit should create some different opportunities for him.
22:58
And I think also get Snuggeroot into the mix of being creative.
23:02
Because when you're creative, you create chaos, you're unpredictable and you can really surprise people.
23:08
So I think to get Snuggeroot going on the power play, that's gonna be important.
23:11
Well, like one thing I noticed Mike, he's on the right side.
23:14
Oh, wait, now he's up to point and then him and Kester were switching.
23:19
It kind of went back and forth a couple of times.
23:21
And I liked that wasn't successful yet, but it's definitely the variety that they need.
23:31
Well, I think in having a guy like Kester out there who's experienced and calm allows that to happen as well.
23:38
Because he has enough experience on the power play that he can play different spots and is comfortable adjusting.
23:46
You get some guys that are like, this is my spot.
23:48
This is where I line up.
23:48
This is what I do.
23:50
You can't do that and be successful all the time.
23:53
So I think as the season goes on, that is definitely something to watch for.
23:57
I usually like my shooters to shoot and be on the flanks and be ready for that one timer, but they have to be able to move around a little bit.
24:06
Sometimes with that QB up top, sometimes with that bumper in the middle, depending on what hand they are, to create those chances.
24:15
So that was one thing I noticed.
24:16
Thanks to your teachings, Zakes.
24:18
Thanks to your teachings.
24:20
But one thing I did hear this weekend when I was actually talking with our guy, Bruce Disky, and he told us this Friday night that a new four-year contract's gonna be, and it's gonna be home all weekend the next four years.
24:39
So you've got in Duluth next year, in Minneapolis the year after, in Duluth.
24:44
So full two-game series.
24:47
And then I think it got let out on Saturday at some point.
24:51
But for you and I who love that Duluth trip and have done it many times, prefer the long weekend, it's coming back next season.
25:02
And I think it's great.
25:03
You know, you talk to the players, they got to Duluth at about 1 a.m.
25:08
Actually, I didn't even realize they left.
25:10
I figured they'd sleep in and maybe go up in the morning.
25:12
I didn't even know that.
25:14
Yeah, I mean, Siskel, the goalie for UMD got left behind on Friday night because Sandalyn wanted to get his team back to Duluth so quickly.
25:24
And so I think that turnaround is tough for everybody.
25:28
It doesn't create the best hockey.
25:29
Not saying that's why the Gophers weren't able to finish on all their opportunities they had Saturday.
25:34
But you might have seen a better game from both teams.
25:37
Had they gotten a normal weekend of hockey in.
25:41
And I think it's great for the town.
25:42
You know, the bars and restaurants and hotels when people go up.
25:46
I think it's great for the crowd to be the same Friday and Saturday.
25:50
You know, I think Minnesota had a great crowd Friday night.
25:54
It was the second biggest crowd in Mariucci Arena history with the attendance.
26:01
We'll find out later what the actual attendance was.
26:04
I don't, there are a lot of empty seats, but they sold a lot of tickets.
26:07
They sold a lot of tickets for it.
26:08
Correct.
26:09
But I think it's going to be great for them to do that.
26:12
Two games in the same city going forward.
26:15
And I just think when I look at non-conference schedules for Minnesota, it's so critical for them to play Minnesota, Duluth and North Dakota as often as they can, because I think these three fan bases probably travel the best out of the schools in the state.
26:30
St.
26:30
Thomas looks like they could travel pretty well to Excel in Marriouche.
26:35
And Bob says that's his favorite road trip already, because he's in bed pretty quick.
26:42
But I think having Minnesota, Duluth and North Dakota in these four year cycles where they play two games at each place are going to be great for both programs and the fans.
26:52
Well, I'm definitely going to love it, because I did notice after the game Saturday night, the whole park seemed a little quiet.
26:59
But I think some of that had to do with Grandma's Sports Garden is no longer the place to go pre and post game.
27:07
And it's always your weekend like up in Duluth because you were there Saturday.
27:11
What was the crowd like?
27:13
The crowd was the crowd was good.
27:20
I know there's a lot of knowledgeable Duluth fans, but the ones that were around us were just dumb as rocks.
27:25
It was almost as if I went to Madison and then we just had some really, ooh, maybe it's just because that's the damn seats I buy and I buy in the dumb section.
27:37
I don't know.
27:40
Got up there, did the walk of the River of the Lake Walk is now built up now.
27:45
They've really rebuilt it.
27:48
Very robust, huge boulders.
27:52
That's a good thing because you always got to walk around, go down to the pier and see the bridge or whatever.
28:01
We did go into, is it Vicra?
28:03
Vicra, yeah.
28:04
Yeah.
28:05
It was a little busy, so we just stopped in real quick.
28:08
I just looked around real quick and there's a little busy.
28:12
We went down to Old Chicago, got into Old Chicago and then we could watch the end of the Gopher football game.
28:17
That was fun.
28:19
And then I just went back to the hotel room.
28:22
You know, I switched out my jacket and walked to the game.
28:26
So it really wasn't that big pregame thing.
28:29
Like we're kind of used to people kind of end up at the sports garden right before you go over.
28:35
Afterwards, we went to the curling club for a little bit.
28:40
They kicked us out.
28:42
Obviously no gardens.
28:43
So we went to, I think we went to an Angela's, Angie's, something kind of Mexican place.
28:50
Yeah, little Angie's.
28:51
Because they were, yeah, yeah, that's the place.
28:54
We went there and just because they were still open, they're like, well, the food's gone.
28:56
We're like, we just want some big ass margaritas.
29:01
So we did.
29:02
But it was different.
29:05
I said, I didn't even walking back, you know, it's just after a minute, there's been times in the past, but there's just there's people all around.
29:13
There was not many people in Canal Park at midnight when there would usually be a lot of people.
29:21
So that part was a little disappointing for me.
29:25
Well, maybe with the two games next year, there'll be more Minnesota fans on vacation for the weekend and making a big event out of it.
29:33
You know, when we were up in Grand Forks, you know, people were out pretty late every night for that weekend.
29:40
It was a big deal.
29:40
So I hope that returns.
29:43
Yeah.
29:44
And I actually, you know, some people say I will go to Grand Forks anymore.
29:47
I think we just got a good experience because we were there as media.
29:52
So we get the good parking spot.
29:54
You know, we talked to the more normal hockey people.
29:57
We didn't have to go sit with the crazies, some people might say.
30:01
So I would say that was one of the best Grand Forks trips I ever had, Veegs.
30:06
Yeah, I think the people out, though, were all pretty even handed with everything.
30:11
So that was fine, I thought.
30:13
You know, don't be a jerk and you won't get treated like one for the most part.
30:18
Kind of how it is.
30:19
Good lesson in my 20s.
30:23
I saw that photo of you in Duluth going, just doing this as you won.
30:27
You won a jersey.
30:28
You won the Molson Canada jersey, didn't you?
30:31
Yeah, they had like a floor hockey shootout.
30:34
We had to pick the corners.
30:35
I gotta tell you, when I can set my feet and pick a corner with all the time in the world, I can handle that.
30:42
So I came through under pressure in the garden and the big crowd in the Gopher year.
30:49
Veegs, a couple new recruits.
30:52
I can't remember if we talked about one last week.
30:55
Most of them are all previous.
30:59
I would say, had previously said they were going somewhere else and it's getting a little tricky.
31:08
I'm not sure how all that works.
31:10
I would say 10 years ago, a verbal was usually pretty good.
31:15
We didn't see Kid going back on it.
31:17
We're seeing it a lot more often now.
31:22
Which is interesting because we were supposed to back up recruiting so that kids weren't committing until they were older, so that they maybe had a better idea of where they're going to go.
31:34
But what we're seeing right now is we're seeing some late movement.
31:38
Minnesota had Leo Grubo sign his National Letter of Intent today as part of the Fargo Force Kids who announced that he was with St.
31:46
Cloud.
31:47
We talked about that a lot last week.
31:49
You know, he'll be a 20 year old freshman for the Gophers next year.
31:52
I think we're expecting Paulson to sign his NLI here pretty soon, or it's probably in process just so everyone knows today is the day that players can first sign their National Letters of Intent because of junior hockey and the way it works.
32:09
They have to get signatures from the player and the parents and then it has to be processed by the school.
32:14
So typically like signing day for basketball or football, those things all happen very, very quickly so they can announce it almost the same day, same morning.
32:25
You know, for football, they start announcing them at like six in the morning.
32:28
And usually the classes are all announced by noon.
32:31
Hockey is totally different because of the way the signature train has to work.
32:35
I don't know why they can't just use DocuSign and do it electronically, but that's just not the way the college hockey world works.
32:41
But Gruba is one who's been announced by Fargo.
32:44
Minnesota won't be able to announce it until probably tomorrow.
32:47
Hit from Minnetonka, I think, signed today too, didn't he?
32:51
Well, Javon Moore is at Minnetonka and he just had a recognition ceremony at Minnetonka.
32:58
Oh, okay.
32:58
So it wasn't an official thing.
32:59
He didn't officially sign his NLI because when you sign that paper, it means that you are intending to go to campus the next season and the team is ready to have you come to campus the next season.
33:13
So every once in a while, like with Mason Nevers or Becca Hendrickson, we've seen players sign and then delay their enrollment.
33:23
That's the player choosing, you know, I think I want to come a year later.
33:27
I just want to get this signed now.
33:30
So I'm not continually being recruited by other teams because once you sign that NLI, they can't recruit you legally.
33:37
So it can quiet things down for them.
33:40
But I'm expecting Paulson to sign pretty soon for Duke.
33:45
He's the European player.
33:47
I think we'll see this August Faloon, who is a three-year player who is committed Arizona State, decommitted yesterday.
33:57
Announces commitment to Minnesota today.
34:00
He'll be a 20-year-old freshman next year for Minnesota.
34:04
So it's really interesting to have those older players flipping to Minnesota.
34:11
That's what you were kind of talking about.
34:13
That's kind of what Bob's been wanting to do for a long time.
34:17
That was one of your kind of big tweets today, I thought, was saying, Minnesota might actually be getting older.
34:24
Yeah.
34:24
Finally, Bob on his first day said, I want to get older, but it's not going to happen today.
34:28
And he brought in a bunch of players early.
34:31
And we've seen it with Brody Lamb and Jimmy Clark come to campus, maybe a little bit before they're ready.
34:37
I think it probably affected Brody Lamb last year quite a bit, you know, he was still coming up to speed with the pace of college hockey.
34:46
I don't think Jimmy Clark has had as big of an adjustment period.
34:49
I think he just gets it a little bit better.
34:51
And so he's smoothly transitioned.
34:54
But when you're a program like Minnesota, you shouldn't have to do that.
34:58
You should be able to, you know, pick some kids late from other programs if you want them.
35:03
You know, I've heard coaches say, you know, it's not me calling the kids.
35:08
It's the kids advisors calling me, saying, hey, this kid's thinking he maybe wants to change up where he's going.
35:15
Are you interested?
35:16
And then it goes from there.
35:18
And Faloon's not Pat's kid.
35:19
He's a St.
35:20
Cloud guy.
35:21
He went to school, high school there, and now he's played three years in Tri-City.
35:26
No relation to the San Jose Shark.
35:29
He's a Max Rude guy.
35:32
Yep, they're buddies growing up.
35:34
St.
35:34
Cloud.
35:34
I saw those photos today.
35:38
Interesting.
35:39
But then I think we'll see a couple of kids from the development program sign after the U-17 or the U-18 stuff gets wrapped up.
35:46
The US NDP almost never announces those kids signing their NLIs during the tournaments.
35:52
They wait till after.
35:54
So you'll see these two or three being announced here pretty soon and then another two probably later next week announced.
36:01
And then we're still expecting Bartosz Kiewicz to come in next year as well.
36:08
All right, Veegs, we need to talk about Unreal and I'm pretty excited about them because I've been seeing they've been putting out a lot of great stuff lately.
36:16
More a lot of great Viking stuff, but just great stuff all around.
36:22
Yeah.
36:22
I mean, I love it that we kind of have our own Under Armour here in Minnesota.
36:27
Michael Jordan's from here.
36:29
He wanted to build a legacy here.
36:31
And you see some of the partnerships he's having with Adam Thielen and Roll the Boat and the Vikings.
36:37
And it's just cool stuff.
36:39
He did a lot of stuff with the NCHC early on.
36:42
Maybe we'll start seeing some Gopher here at some point.
36:45
But as an independent local culling company, they're able to craft everything around the athlete, release fresh looks, hottest drops.
36:53
They donate 10% of all profits to organizations and worthy causes in the community.
36:57
I love that aspect about them.
36:59
Is it unreal.co?
37:01
That's a co.com and use the promo code pulltab15 for 15% off your order.
37:07
And if you're a Vikings guy, sign up for their alerts for their drops.
37:12
They do these special release things for the Vikings.
37:15
And if you sign up for that, you get a text and you'll know when to buy it as soon as it gets released.
37:21
The Viking stuff's pretty good.
37:23
I'm not as big as a fan of Vikings as they used to be.
37:26
But man, I've been liking really kind of yellow gold stuff they had come out just late last week or something like that.
37:34
Just love it.
37:34
They did three different colors last week.
37:36
Yeah, that's cool stuff.
37:38
Definitely some cool stuff.
37:40
And I gotta say, Duke Cannon last week, they got me all set up for the weekend up in Duluth.
37:47
I got all my hair up and ready, smelled good, felt good.
37:53
I'm glad that you showed me the way with Duke Cannon.
37:59
Just like that.
38:00
Mr.
38:00
Miyagi, that Mr.
38:01
Miyagi going, get that putty hot.
38:06
Definitely love how you did that for me.
38:08
I'm glad they're on board with us because it definitely fits me pretty well.
38:13
Well, if you're into hockey and you have hockey hair, you got to make it a weapon.
38:17
So look for Duke Cannon.
38:18
But that's just it.
38:19
I don't have the hockey hair, but it gives me my.
38:21
You get some structure to it.
38:22
You get some flow.
38:23
I do.
38:24
I do get some.
38:25
Well, I don't have the length like you have had in the past, but yeah.
38:28
I mean, it's slowly coming in, slowly coming in.
38:31
It's early November.
38:32
You know, we're just getting through that first part of the non-conference schedule.
38:36
And you know, the flow will come in by the time we get to the World Junior time.
38:42
It definitely will, and thanks to Duke Cannon, as one of our sponsors, I'm really glad we have them on board.
38:48
And I'm really glad that I learned how to use that stuff, Veegs, because that's some powerful stuff.
38:53
I use the news anchor stuff, as you can see from one of my tweets late last week.
38:59
All right, Veegs, is Michigan gonna be mad because Wisconsin, obviously, Wisconsin's cleaning up so far.
39:11
They're way ahead in the league.
39:14
They're gonna be, they're gonna be number one in the country real quick here.
39:18
Got two late wins against Michigan last weekend in Madison.
39:26
Michigan did lose a player for the whole, the rest of the season, which is, I just hate to see that.
39:30
Local kid too, from Minnesota, yeah, Jackson.
39:35
But Michigan's always one of my favorite weekends of the year, home or away.
39:44
Well, it should be a fun series because usually Michigan and Minnesota want to run and gun with each other a little bit.
39:50
And you're gonna see more transition hockey.
39:54
The Gophers, I don't think have been able to do that as much against Duluth and Wisconsin and North Dakota because those teams play such structure.
40:05
So when you go play Michigan, these teams just can't help themselves.
40:10
You know, they want to show off the kill, they want to show off the flash, they want to get in transition.
40:15
And all these players on these teams are usually a little bit younger, but high talent.
40:21
And Michigan, while they've lost some big names over the last couple of years, you know, McGroarty is pretty good.
40:28
Brindley is pretty good.
40:30
And Nizar is pretty good.
40:31
We didn't see Nizar really much last year.
40:34
So they've got some good talent there.
40:36
I think their goaltending could be a little suspect this season.
40:41
I don't know, I wouldn't call it a strong point for them.
40:44
And so I think this is a weekend where there's going to be quite a few goals.
40:49
Was it you that I saw, maybe you were talking on Twitter, how Michigan might try to see what Wisconsin did against Minnesota and actually what did against themselves as kind of the way to beat Minnesota?
41:05
I mean, it could be if you can play that disciplined.
41:07
That wasn't me bringing that up.
41:09
But I mean, that is a way to take care of Minnesota.
41:14
But I feel like Minnesota has enough experience where they're not going to fall for that.
41:19
You know, I think the first couple of years of the Matzko era, there were still too many players who were trying to do too much at the blue lines.
41:27
You're not seeing that out of the Gophers this year at all.
41:31
You're not seeing bad plays at the blue line.
41:33
Sometimes maybe on the rush, they're trying to score off the rush every single time.
41:37
You know, that can still happen with this team, but you're not seeing the bad turnovers that have gotten Minnesota in trouble, maybe five, six years ago.
41:46
So I don't think that's necessarily the easy way to play against Minnesota anymore, is just wait for those and hope those come.
41:53
You know, you're going to have to get in transition fast when you get those opportunities, but I don't think you need to sit back.
42:02
So it's going to be a run and gun weekend.
42:03
Let's go, Veegs.
42:05
Let's go.
42:05
Well, I think the big thing for Minnesota, I'll be watching for this weekend and you won't be able to watch it on Big Ten Network or Bally's or anything.
42:16
You're going to have to get the Big Ten Plus streaming network, which you and I both have because we got that 50% off discount code earlier in the year.
42:24
But you're going to be watching for folks.
42:26
We had that great 50%.
42:28
It was awesome.
42:30
But you need to be watching for traffic around the net and which players can get to the net and create chaos.
42:35
Jackson Nelson has been Minnesota's probably best player at creating that traffic and tipping shots.
42:42
I think there's potential for more players from Minnesota to do that.
42:45
Jimmy Stuggerood sacrificed himself every once in a while to drive the net and be that guy.
42:51
Charlie Strobel has been doing that a little bit.
42:53
So I just think Minnesota needs to have a few more guys to just recognize when they're that F2 player.
42:59
They're not the F1 with the puck.
43:01
They're that second player in the zone.
43:03
Sometimes it's OK just to drive the net, push back the defense and create some chaos in front of the goalkeepers.
43:09
Because when you've got goalies like Michigan who maybe aren't as comfortable as they've been over the last couple of years, chaos is good for Minnesota.
43:19
OK, I like the sound of that.
43:23
As you like you said, you mentioned the only TV this weekend is going to be the BTN or B1G Plus package.
43:32
It will be a Michigan feed.
43:33
Don't complain about it.
43:34
That's just how it is.
43:37
Um, I see with the expansion of the Big Ten and all other sports next season as a sign that we might be getting more of this VEGS.
43:48
I know we've spoken with Cappy and Cappy's like, you know, I don't mind it.
43:52
I just hope that the production goes up with it because that's one thing that has been lacking.
43:59
One thing I don't mind about it is that there's a lot of times there's no commercials.
44:03
They just freeze on the ice.
44:05
They'll just show a generic center-eye shot during what would be their breaks.
44:10
And we just get to sit back and not hear some kind of drug being thrown at us or whatever condition you may have.
44:18
So I do like that part.
44:19
It's going to be the future VEGS.
44:24
It's going to be the future.
44:25
If you don't like the commentators, you can always pull up the Varsity Networks podcast.
44:30
You have to listen to Frank and Wally.
44:32
You can get the High Heart app and get the talk 1130.
44:38
And if you tune in right, you know, half an hour before puck drop, you'll get the coaches show.
44:43
I heard Paul Martin was on the pregame show for the Duluth game on Saturday, talking about his player development role with Minnesota and how he's been helping the defense especially and kind of help them transition this year with all that extra ice time and try to settle him down a little bit.
45:03
He had some interesting things when he's talking about Chesley and Rinzel, just trying to have them pick their spots a little bit better, which was interesting to hear from Martin, because he's obviously a guy who did it for a long time in the NHL and not always as the play driver, but as a supporting player.
45:19
And you have to learn that role as well as you go up levels.
45:24
It's going to be a fun weekend, Veegs.
45:26
Minnesota needs points.
45:29
Right now, they obviously played less games than everyone else, but they are in last place in the Big Ten.
45:36
Yeah, that Big Ten standing looks crazy.
45:39
I was just thinking about that.
45:42
Brad Schlossman this week was posting inter-conference records, and the Big Ten is the top dog right now in college hockey in terms of performing outside their conference.
45:53
So I think that's 700 winning percentage.
45:55
Yep.
45:56
That's really good for Minnesota.
46:03
So that all determines how many bids your conference can get.
46:07
If you're at the top of this, like the Big Ten, you have a chance for four or five teams to get in the tournament.
46:13
We looked last year as it came down, we're like everyone had a chance to get in the NCAA tournament.
46:21
That could be the situation this year as well.
46:25
You know, on the flip side, you look at the CCHA, they're towards the bottom there.
46:30
It's going to be hard for them to get an at-large team.
46:33
So they're probably going to get their auto bid.
46:35
And that might be it.
46:39
ECAC, kind of the same boat.
46:41
You know, they might just have their auto bid, maybe two, depending on who wins their conference tournament.
46:47
And that's kind of a surprise as well, because it looks like Cornell is going to be pretty decent this year.
46:51
You know, they swept Minnesota Duluth the other day.
46:54
And they could be good.
46:58
Quinnipiac, they're doing all right.
47:00
So it'll be interesting to see.
47:03
What are your thoughts on this weekend?
47:05
How many points?
47:07
What's your prediction?
47:10
I think we're going to see five points for Minnesota this weekend.
47:15
I feel like one of these games probably can go to overtime.
47:20
As Minnesota kind of goes to the growing pains of their power play, finding that consistency and trying to get players to get that traffic to the net.
47:29
I think Michigan is going to be a hungry team this weekend after getting handled by the Badgers last weekend.
47:35
They've got to get their season back on track.
47:37
So one of those games could be real motivational for them.
47:41
But I still see Minnesota as the deeper, more talented, more consistent team between these two.
47:52
They've been doing real well in Michigan lately, even when they've had other players out.
47:57
I think, well, last year was a sweep there.
48:01
I'm going with it, Veegs.
48:02
I just gotta sweep in Yost.
48:08
Now, back in Mariucci would be different, because for some reason, Michigan just plays super well at Mariucci.
48:14
But I'm thinking this weekend in Yost, it's gonna be a good one for the Gophers.
48:21
Yeah, this is always an interesting matchup.
48:23
Yeah.
48:27
Always so fun.
48:29
I need to get out there sometime.
48:31
One of these days, we road trip the Yost, Veegs.
48:35
Well, we did the road trip to North Dakota this year.
48:38
Maybe it's Yost next year.
48:41
It's a historic building.
48:42
It's a cool campus.
48:44
Or maybe Duluth next year.
48:47
I mean, Duluth is definitely happening next year.
48:51
I mean, that's a no-brainer.
48:52
Two games in Duluth, I'm up there.
48:59
I've been loving your, what is your six-point stuff?
49:03
Yeah, Six Thoughts is the Gopher Chase, that sixth championship.
49:07
Now, they've been stuck on five here for a while and they've had a lot of chances.
49:11
This program, I think, is building towards that.
49:15
It's not as turnkey as the program was in shape last year.
49:19
So, it's gonna take a while for this team to kind of find their stride.
49:22
Bob always says, you know, he wants to have this team playing well coming out of Christmas break.
49:29
And you're gonna go through growing pains until you get there.
49:33
We should have a Six Thoughts probably posted next week.
49:36
We're taking a week off with the team on the road here.
49:40
But next week, you'll see some Six Thoughts.
49:43
And I've got a little something coming up.
49:46
Who are the Blue Bloods of college hockey right now?
49:49
And if you look at their performance over the last decade, who's really the best?
49:56
Has there been any change in the last couple of years?
49:58
So look for that.
50:02
Interesting.
50:03
That's kind of a, obviously Duluth was in the last decade.
50:08
Denver's always been solid.
50:10
BC and BU are coming back right now.
50:12
Wisconsin's coming back.
50:15
Minnesota's coming back.
50:17
Michigan's coming back.
50:22
Interesting thought.
50:23
Interesting thoughts.
50:24
All right.
50:26
Yeah, anything else first?
50:27
And of course I'm digging into schedules for Minnesota.
50:30
Hopefully I'll have some of them by next week talking about scheduling agreements and what things are looking like for Minnesota.
50:36
Bob's starting to get those contracts finalized.
50:39
Now it's about the time of year where they start to get those things ironed out.
50:44
All right, sounds good, Veegs.
50:46
And that's gonna do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast.
50:50
We'll be back next week to recap the series against Michigan and preview the series with Notre Dame.
50:56
For those of you watching live, stay tuned for a bit of overtime.
51:00
For the rest of you, we will catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.
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