0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:16 Oh, boy, Duke making mistakes. 0:20 And so I had to train for this marathon. 0:39 I think Bart must be watching upstairs. 0:47 He's trying to be awake for Thanksgiving tomorrow. 0:53 Now, here's Jupiter and Vego. 1:04 Good evening and welcome to the GPL Podcast. 1:07 Let's go over to me instead of Veegs there real quick. 1:10 Episode number 251 celebrated 250 last week. 1:15 Now, let's bring him in Veegs. 1:17 Wrong button pressed. 1:18 It happens. 1:19 How's it going, Veegs? 1:21 It's going great. 1:23 You know, I think we're getting into the harder college hockey season right now, and then we have to slam on the brakes. 1:28 But two more important weekends for the Gophers coming up. 1:32 Really important, I think, for their season to keep, you know, what's been going as a OK trend lately. 1:38 They got to extend that and finish out strong here. 1:41 Connecting games, not just shifts, huh? 1:44 They got to connect some series together here to end the first half. 1:49 Well, as all of you know, this season, we jumped on the bandwagon of the Pulltab Sports family. 1:55 And when you think of Pulltab, who do you think of, Eags? 1:58 John King, hockey here. 2:00 And he has got some amazing lettuce flowing right now. 2:04 He does. 2:05 As he maybe will be joining us. 2:08 He literally just jumped off right as I was about to click on him. 2:13 We do what we do. 2:14 He'll come back. 2:15 He'll come back, we hope. 2:19 He's the reason why we're here now. 2:20 He's the reason why we've got these lovely sponsors now. 2:22 So it's a fun family now. 2:27 It's a fun family. 2:28 It's good to be a part of it. 2:29 You get some product, to get some structure in your flow. 2:33 I didn't boot him, Motay, so I think we missed you last week, Motay. 2:40 Okay, now I see him there. 2:42 He's got that look of disgust at his face. 2:45 Let's see what happens when we bring him up. 2:48 Dude, what did you do right before I click you to bring you on? 2:51 And you disappeared. 2:54 I couldn't hear you for a minute. 2:56 I had an ETSD from two years ago. 3:02 Hi, man. 3:02 How's it going? 3:04 I'm good, man. 3:05 I'm excited to be back for my annual appearance on the GPL. 3:11 Well, as I was saying after we kind of lost you there for a second, GPL podcast, now part of the Pulltab Sports family, a flyover state of mind is kind of your top definition of Pulltab Sports, wouldn't it be? 3:30 Yeah, I think any place you can get a good Bloody Mary and rip some tab where we want to have fun. 3:39 Yeah, well, we're glad that you brought us on, part of your family. 3:45 It's been very fun for us. 3:48 VEG's fun last weekend, I'm not so sure about that. 3:53 Well, not another split. 3:57 Three points for each team. 3:59 I guess they didn't technically lose, so that undefeated streak is still going with the Michigan State, but the first game had to be a disappointment after having a lead. 4:11 Well, I think it was disappointing for the fans because they wanted to see this program just come out and rip the barn doors off of Michigan State and take control of the Big Ten again. 4:24 And what actually happened is Michigan State made the right additions in the portal. 4:30 They've added some very tough players to their group and Adam Nightingale has recruited some more talented players. 4:37 So this is probably the deepest Sparty team Minnesota has faced in probably a decade. 4:44 And I thought Minnesota rose to the challenge on Friday and controlled the game and actually scored three pretty goals. 4:51 You know, go for hockey goals, nice plays, but Michigan State got some bounces and one nice one. 4:58 And really, that's all it took. 4:59 And then, you know, the shootout stuff that everybody is complaining about, it doesn't mean much for the pairwise. 5:05 It's just for the Big Ten standings. 5:07 Yeah, but I was pretty disappointed. 5:11 I didn't catch all the game. 5:12 I was out and about in Duluth last weekend. 5:15 But every time they got a goal lead, it's almost like the next shift or two. 5:20 There's a letdown. 5:22 And yeah, they may have played well, but they didn't play well after goals last weekend. 5:28 It's just that attention to detail that I think is still happening when you have a young team like this. 5:34 If you look back a couple years when Brock Faber and Jackson LeCom were freshmen, they would go through moments like this. 5:41 And Bob's going to keep throwing those guys out on the ice, and you're going to have to deal with that kind of learning curve. 5:47 You can't throw out Jackson Nelson for every key D-zone draw. 5:50 You've got to get Oliver Moore, Jimmy Clark, that experience taking those draws. 5:55 And I think Jimmy Clark is coming along a lot quicker than everybody anticipated, and he just continues to be one of the most consistent players for Minnesota. 6:05 So what are your thoughts so far this season, Kinger? 6:08 I mean, they lost one time in November. 6:12 A lot of ties, so it's maybe not as bad as people think. 6:18 What are your thoughts? 6:21 I'm still trying to figure out what they are, right? 6:24 We don't have a ton of the top scorers in the country, and I feel like college hockey has kind of become like college basketball, where there's all these superstars, all these kind of diaper dandy with, you know, Celebrini and Boston College has loaded that. 6:45 So I guess my question for you is, if we're kind of cooking these guys in the crockpot, who are the superstars on this roster that are going to start to emerge, or do we need them? 6:56 Is it better to have a team team, not a star team? 7:03 Well, that's a good question, because, you know, everyone thought Snuggerud was going to be the superstar this year so far, Veegs, and I, yes, he's been up and down. 7:13 I'd say Brody Lamb jumping up has been really big. 7:16 Clark, like you mentioned, has been really big as well. 7:20 What do you think? 7:21 I mean, when you look at Jimmy Snuggerud, and he's got eight goals in, what, 14 games so far, it feels like a letdown. 7:29 You know, you were almost expecting him to be like a 30, 40 goal scorer, and he could still get to 30, I think, this year. 7:37 You know, if he starts to find some space on the power play, and he starts to figure out how to generate offensive zone, he could be a 30 goal scorer this year. 7:46 I'm not saying it's not out of the equation, but I don't think he's as dominated in a player as people maybe were hoping for. 7:52 You know, coming into the year, a lot of people are like, what's he going to look like without Logan Cooley and Matthew Nyes? 7:59 And what we're seeing is he can't really take over a game by himself, and when he tries to, he kind of gets himself into trouble, and his shifts are kind of one-and-done type shifts because he can't win back all the pucks that Cooley and Nyes could win back. 8:14 And he doesn't have linemates yet who are doing that for him, so it's going to be a more difficult season for him than I think a lot of people expected. 8:22 Who stood out for you, Kinger? 8:25 I think Clark's awesome. 8:28 He looks like a player that's every coach's dream. 8:34 He's just in the right spot. 8:36 He's consistent. 8:37 I mean, he's been great. 8:42 Lamb popping in there and scoring, I kind of like that. 8:47 We could end up with a team that has eight different people scoring a lot of points. 8:53 I mean, that could be the recipe. 8:55 You saw Michigan two years ago get bounced. 8:59 We didn't get it all the way there last year. 9:01 So I don't know if the dream team is the right model anyway. 9:05 I mean, they've got eight guys that are almost at double digit points already through 14 games. 9:11 You know, that's a bunch of guys who are all about that.75 points per game that you're looking for in your lineup. 9:18 And that was one of the things at the start of the year I said, you know, this is going to be a team that probably is going to have nine guys score 10 plus goals. 9:26 And I still think for them to be successful, that's what's going to have to happen. 9:30 They just have to tighten things up a little bit more defensively. 9:33 You know, if you looked at some of the games they've given away, I feel like it's because they are just forcing the play and they're giving offense to their opponent. 9:42 And you just can't do that in college hockey. 9:44 You got to make the other team work for offense. 9:47 You can't just hand it over. 9:50 I think Closed has been awesome as well. 9:52 I mean, it's rare that you can watch a game and enjoy watching the goaltender. 9:58 You know, he just makes me feel better. 10:01 He's really good. 10:03 He's really confident. 10:05 And I think he's been an absolute stud for us. 10:10 He's comforting like the Golden Bachelor, right? 10:12 You know, you just feel very comforted when you see him. 10:15 And when the puck goes off his pads, you're not nervous. 10:18 You're like, he knows what he's doing. 10:19 He's been here five years. 10:21 And no hearing aids, which is nice. 10:23 Oh, jeez. 10:26 Is that poly? 10:28 That was probably bad. 10:30 I haven't seen the show. 10:31 I just can't do it. 10:34 I do want to mention one thing, Veegs. 10:35 Now, two and 13 in the shootout, lost another point Friday night after giving up the lead late. 10:45 It's not just that they're not winning. 10:46 They're not even scoring. 10:48 Have they scored a goal yet in the two or three shootouts they've had? 10:54 Well, I mean, they missed the net twice on Friday in the shootout. 10:58 That's not usually a good sign. 11:00 It's frustrating. 11:02 I don't put too much stock in it. 11:05 That's not how the NCAA weighs things. 11:08 It's just for the conference. 11:10 The Gophers won the league by 19 points last year. 11:13 Obviously, that's not going to happen again this year. 11:15 It's going to be a tight race. 11:16 But the focus is on developing players, not working on shootout moves and scouting the other team's goalie. 11:22 I know it's frustrating for fans to see. 11:25 And I think it's frustrating for the players to lose the shootout. 11:27 It's such an emotional letdown because you see, you know, when a team wins the shootout, they clear the bench. 11:33 Like, yeah, it's a win. 11:35 Well, kind of, you know, it's kind of a win. 11:38 And the losing team, the same thing. 11:40 They're just like their heads are down. 11:42 As Bob would like to say, they're daubers down. 11:44 They go locker room. 11:45 They feel like they lost. 11:46 You know, for 65 minutes, they played pretty good hockey. 11:52 They did. 11:52 But yeah, like it is the fan thing. 11:54 It's frustrating, but it's not like I said, it's not just that they're losing, except they're not even scoring. 11:59 They're not even giving good attempts. 12:03 It's almost like, yeah, they're kind of leaving, you know, close hanging out the dry there, Veegs. 12:08 Yeah, I mean, he looks good in the in the practice when they do it. 12:11 And Cal Thomas has been good in the practice when they do it. 12:14 They do it every week. 12:14 They do a shootout competition. 12:16 So it's not like, you know, it's totally foreign to them. 12:19 It's not like they're totally dumping it off. 12:21 So Kinger, Veegs mentioned, you know, they didn't win the league by 19 points last year. 12:26 Get that by. 12:27 I think it hurts them. 12:29 Do you think they should even be have a goal of winning the league the regular season, or should the goal be like two or three? 12:36 We know the coach doesn't like all that dang time off. 12:41 There's only one goal and it's St. 12:43 Paul. 12:45 And if not having a week off helps with that, then I'm all for it. 12:50 I just want there's unfinished business. 12:54 I mean, it's we've been so close. 12:56 We can taste it these last couple years and coming back to Excel. 13:02 So I don't care if we have a week off or not. 13:04 Just get into the postseason and have the team playing their best hockey at that time of year. 13:09 I guess because it kind of depends a little bit on how healthy they are. 13:13 If they've got a couple injuries here and there, maybe at the end of the season, having an extra week off is not a bad thing. 13:21 But if they're healthy, you know Bob would want to keep playing. 13:25 Yeah, Bob has wanted to have the Big Ten change how they do the tournament for years and he's talked about it. 13:30 And they've never really been able to get traction, get it done. 13:34 Maybe it's because the other teams don't think they can win the league. 13:37 And so they want the Gophers to have that bye week going in the playoffs. 13:40 But I think the goal is to have the best team possible at the end of the year. 13:46 And that's obviously what Bob is doing. 13:48 That's why he's playing guys the way he's playing them. 13:52 You looked at the OT on Sunday. 13:54 I think five different defensemen got shifts in the overtime. 13:59 It's not like he's just pumping Chesley and Thomas and Kester back out there. 14:04 He threw Rinzell out there. 14:06 He threw out Middlestadt. 14:07 They just put all five guys out there for the forwards. 14:12 He throws out Nelson and Huglund and Stuggart or couldn't throw out Stuggart on Sunday because he got kicked out for one of the worst major DQ calls I've seen in college hockey. 14:25 It was an even up call. 14:26 That's totally what it was. 14:27 It was totally an even up call, but it was a terrible call. 14:30 But he's getting guys that experience. 14:32 And, you know, the OT goal was a nice play by all three guys out there to recognize that a Michigan State player broke his stick slashing Huglund earlier. 14:41 He didn't notice he had a broken stick. 14:43 And then when he went to play it, he leaned on it. 14:46 It was gone. 14:47 And it was gone. 14:48 And all of a sudden all the players like, OK, let's do tic tac toe. 14:51 And they did it from Renzell or Brudzinski to Renzell to Clark on the back door. 14:56 It's a great play. 14:57 It's a great mature play for those guys to get under their belt. 15:00 A super senior to a freshman to a freshman. 15:04 And like you said, he's putting those guys, put Clark and Renzell out there in overtime. 15:09 Yes, they put them with an experienced guy, but I wouldn't say Brudzinski is a guy that, you know, gets up and down the ice easily, a three on three. 15:16 So maybe you're right. 15:19 He's leading the team in scoring with 16 points and 14 games. 15:22 I mean, people give Brudzinski a hard time. 15:26 He looks faster to me this year. 15:28 He does put in the work. 15:29 You know, the coaching staff noticed his body fats down, his speeds up, and he's got the space now to make plays. 15:37 I think if you look at his history, a lot of times he gets caught by a back checker or he doesn't scan the ice very well. 15:43 This is a player who's played here five years now. 15:46 He's got a sense of when he has time to shoot or when he has time to make a play, and he's executing so far. 15:52 And so for him and Jackson to be leading this team in scoring, I think is significant. 15:58 You know, we've always been one of the youngest teams in college hockey. 16:01 Now they've got two fifth-year guys and look what they're doing out there. 16:04 And Kinger, you know, I like that Nelson and Brudzinski are playing great. 16:09 It's just, you know, previously these other four years, they both disappeared for five or six games at a time. 16:15 So if they could be this consistent all year, this is definitely a good thing for this team. 16:21 Yeah, and I agree. 16:22 Brudzinski, he's like the type of player Minnesota hockey fans just love to be frustrated by, right? 16:31 And actually Nelson's kind of the same way because he's so big that people don't understand how well he's doing everything. 16:38 So I think that's more our problem than those guys, and I don't expect them to disappear. 16:44 And I think, you know, it's like even Vanik, people used to rag on constantly just because body language, and, you know, how he looked at something, but they're performing and they're leaders and they're older, and if that allows these young guys to have time to cook, let's go. 17:05 Well, we need to talk about some of our sponsors here, and I'm going to play this Chill Boys ad, Kinger, and then afterwards I want you to tell us about it. 17:16 Hi, I'm Kevin. 17:19 As a decorated member of the ball crew, it's my job to make sure every ball is in good hands. 17:24 With Chill Boys Anti-Friction Glide Zone, the boys stay cool and dry, which is why I recommend Chill Boys Life-Changing Bamboo Boxers and Boxer Briefs. 17:36 With Chill Boys, the score is always love, love. 17:41 Chill Boys, come from the heart, where it counts. 17:44 Okay, I just got to say that you guys must have had a lot of fun putting that together. 17:49 He's your intern, wasn't he, this past summer? 17:54 Is that Frank? 17:56 Frank, your intern? 17:58 That's Kevin Silverman. 18:00 He's TikTok famous. 18:02 He's the TikTok teacher. 18:04 But I think the best part about that was we shot it at a lifetime. 18:09 The head person at Lifetime just came over and was like what are you guys doing? 18:16 I wasn't going to be like, well, we're filming an underwear commercial in the corner here. 18:21 But I think she eventually saw it when it was out there. 18:25 But Chill Boys are great. 18:26 Minnesota Company. 18:27 People don't know that a lot of times. 18:29 They even got a new purple bamboo boxer brief that they call the Viking. 18:35 Really? 18:37 It's like Tommy Kramer purple, like the old stuff. 18:43 I'm a fan. 18:45 And of course, because of Pulltab, if you go get yourself some Chill Boys, use the promo code pulltab15 to get 15% off your order. 18:54 So that's definitely a good thing. 18:57 I'm going to request, I'm going to a wedding in January. 19:01 If they could get some white ones, that'd be great. 19:03 I've got my brakes worn, white pants. 19:04 And I don't think I'd wear my bright green or black ones. 19:09 I think we're at the age where we don't wear white underwear anymore at our age, do we? 19:13 I don't know. 19:15 I've got my black ones on right now. 19:17 They're very comfy, but you know, I'm just saying. 19:20 I think if you're wearing white pants, you really need to go with the regal purple and make a statement and just let everybody know. 19:26 It's just like, rock it confidently. 19:29 Just be like, yeah, I know you're looking. 19:32 That's bamboo. 19:33 That's not a bad idea, actually. 19:35 I'm going to be cool and comfortable with these things. 19:38 You can rest your eyes. 19:40 I'll be in the Dominican Republic, so I definitely need the Chill Boys because it's going to be hot. 19:44 It's going to be uncomfortable. 19:48 I'll check on them for you. 19:52 Well, tell us about Unreal then. 19:55 I mean, Unreal is, we've been talking about them up a lot. 20:04 I just went to their 10th anniversary down in Mankato. 20:08 They sponsor this studio rink down there. 20:11 It's unbelievable if you haven't been. 20:13 You're going to see great, strong programs coming out of Mankato in about 10 years because every 8- 20:21 to 12-year-old is probably having their birthday at this rink down in Mankato. 20:26 I just love it. 20:27 It's homemade. 20:30 I met Michael Jordan, the CEO, because I spoke to his high school class at some point about God knows what. 20:37 Now he's basically the Minnesota Phil Knight making sweet hoodies and golf clothes. 20:44 They're working on a new line right now. 20:47 I just love their stuff. 20:48 They did a wild drop finally. 20:51 So some of you probably got the new Black on Black wild drop. 20:56 Minnesota company and just great products. 20:59 Really creative. 21:01 He invents products. 21:02 This crossover hoodie, he made it up and now everybody knocks it off, but he actually made it up. 21:08 You know, I saw their Black Friday thing with Shooter McGavin. 21:14 I saw Marnie Gellner on that video. 21:17 I saw some other people that people might know. 21:19 It was a good bit that they put out last week. 21:25 It makes it exciting to have that kind of brand around here. 21:29 Yeah, it's cool. 21:31 As Baltimore has Under Armour, Oregon's got Nike, Minnesota's proud to have Unreal. 21:38 And of course, if you go to unreal.co, thats.co, not.com, and use the promo code pulltab15 to get 15% off your order. 21:47 So make sure you guys do that. 21:48 That would be stupendous. 21:52 I love companies there in the state of Minnesota. 21:55 I love companies that give back. 21:56 And Unreal is one of those companies that does that, as John could say by visiting that studio rink. 22:03 I hear some good stuff's coming out of Mankato Youth Hockey. 22:05 They've got a lot of good people there putting in the time. 22:08 It's sweet, man. 22:10 And it's a mini rink too, so it's like perfect. 22:12 So where did they put that? 22:15 I don't know where I was because I don't know Mankato very well, but you've been to this rink. 22:23 So Michael, everything's got to be kind of perfect. 22:28 It's like an Instagram rink. 22:31 It's like it's clean. 22:33 Everything's black with their logo. 22:36 It smells good. 22:37 I mean, it's insane. 22:38 It's the most unreal rink ever. 22:42 You know what? 22:42 I would like Veegs if Unreal would take over the contract with University of Minnesota from Nike because then we could actually get some decent stuff for hockey. 22:51 Yeah, it's a little while for that Fanatics deal. 22:54 They still got I think five or six years. 22:57 I was talking to some people at Dinkytown Athletes about that a couple of weeks ago and Fanatics has locked up stuff for a while. 23:04 But you can see collaborations like they did the row the boat stuff and we'll see stuff down the road. 23:12 Andrew Carlson, it's up by the River Hills Mall. 23:15 God, that mall is still there. 23:16 Wow. 23:18 There you go, folks. 23:23 Nice going. 23:24 So Veegs, you talked about last week how these next set of series are really important. 23:32 Three points this past weekend. 23:36 We got Penn State, we got Ohio State, when we got that long break. 23:40 We don't need to get into specifically the series, but what would you like to see in these next two weeks before the long break? 23:50 I'd like to see one, Minnesota Stay Healthy. 23:52 We saw the impact of losing Mike Kester for a couple of weeks, the impact of losing Mason Nevers, the impact of Angolis that had to have their workload monitor. 24:02 So it's really important for them to stay healthy even with the break coming up. 24:06 And the other thing is, don't give away points. 24:10 I don't feel like Minnesota has really been outplayed in any game this year. 24:15 Even the Notre Dame game where they were beaten pretty handily, I thought Minnesota controlled a lot of play there. 24:22 It's just that they make these young mistakes where they force plays. 24:28 Stop doing that. 24:30 You know, if you're a defender playing a one-on-one rush down the dots, don't go outside the dots just because you think you see you can make a play. 24:37 That's got to be a 100% sure decision before you leave that and give away the middle. 24:43 And too many times you see Minnesota doing that against Michigan State. 24:47 We saw, I think, Rinzell or and Middelstad both go play a two-on-three rush and give way the middle of the ice. 24:56 You can't make mistakes like that. 24:59 So I'd like to see Minnesota be able to do that. 25:01 Back checkers come back, pick up guys all the way to the net. 25:05 Because I think the offense is going to be there for Minnesota. 25:08 You know, their power play started off at like 10%. 25:11 It's all up to about 23, 24. 25:14 It's coming around. 25:15 You know, they had three power play goals on Sunday. 25:18 That's going to be there. 25:19 The offense looks like it's there. 25:20 They just got to stop giving away points and goals. 25:26 What's been your frustration so far, Kinger? 25:30 Did you think the state would be better or are you okay with everything? 25:34 I don't. 25:35 I think my frustration is I don't know how good we are. 25:41 When you're a fan, I remember even with bands, I would listen to the new album from my favorite band, and I would always think it was good. 25:49 Then a year later, I'd look back and go, yeah, that one wasn't good. 25:54 I'm still learning what we are. 25:57 Remember when North Dakota would always slow cook, and then they would get really strong at the end of the year and go on a run? 26:07 I guess that's what I'm hoping is happening here. 26:10 He's getting depth. 26:11 He's got a bunch of guys that can score. 26:13 He's got a good goalie. 26:16 So even this next two series, let's get like six points. 26:19 Let's win a game and get one point in the next game in both series, and just keep going forward and keep building. 26:28 That's what it feels like. 26:29 It feels like we're building, which is different than the last couple years. 26:36 But maybe this will work. 26:38 I don't really care. 26:39 I just want a national championship. 26:42 The fact that we have as many as we have, and we're as famous a program as we are, I want more stars on the back of the jerseys. 26:51 That's all I care about. 26:53 Or stars, period. 26:54 Let's get some stars in those jerseys if they win another one, Biggs. 26:57 It's a cool look when they do it. 26:59 I do think Minnesota is building for the end of the year, but I think people need to recognize college hockey is pretty balanced this year in the top 15, probably. 27:09 There isn't a huge separation between one and 15. 27:13 That's why you see the number one ranked team in the USCHA poll almost always lose a game the next weekend. 27:19 Yeah. 27:20 The one thing I think Minnesota has going for it is they've got young players, but they've got experienced players. 27:27 That's something they haven't had before. 27:29 I think it's just figuring out how these guys can fill their roles and be okay with that. 27:36 You know, you don't have to win every shift. 27:38 Bob and I have been talking about this the last couple of weeks. 27:41 You know, this team, if they go out and have a shift and they don't get a goal, they come back and their heads are down. 27:48 Sometimes that's okay. 27:50 You don't need to score points every shift. 27:52 You don't need to have a grade A scoring chance every shift. 27:55 You know, you have to win your shift or tie your shift. 27:58 The key is don't lose them and figure out how to connect them from shift to shift to get some momentum. 28:05 And if the Gophers can figure that out by the end of the year, they're going to be right there. 28:08 And I think they're going to be a deeper team than any Gopher team we've seen make one of these runs. 28:14 Because of the balance, they roll out the lines. 28:18 I did notice it a little bit again this weekend. 28:21 They did get stuck in their own end for quite a long time. 28:25 A few times it wasn't as bad as the previous weekend. 28:28 But I think they did better. 28:31 But man, you're just setting yourself up for those mistakes when you cannot get the puck out. 28:37 And again, like we've seen, we've had chances to get that puck out. 28:40 It just relieves the pressure. 28:42 They just can't always quite get that extra play to do it. 28:47 I think it's because you have to pick that right spot to make your play. 28:50 And when you had guys like Faber, Lacoma and Johnson out there, they were very aggressive at identifying when they could win a battle and clear the zone. 29:01 This year's team, I don't think they quite have that figured out yet. 29:05 You know, the one guy I feel really confident with on the defense, Cal Thomas. 29:10 I don't know if I've seen him make a mistake this year. 29:12 He just makes the right play almost every time. 29:16 And he's not one of the guys that gets caught out there. 29:18 It's usually like Rinzel, it's Chesley, it's Kester, you know, it's Fish. 29:24 You know, it's one of those guys, you know, they can't quite make the right play. 29:29 And then their forwards don't support them in the right way. 29:33 And so they get caught. 29:35 You know, Kinger, a lot of people have been ripping on Fish and ripping on Fish. 29:39 I think he's plus six right now or plus eight. 29:43 I think people just want to find somebody to pick on. 29:46 You can't pick on anybody from the east side. 29:49 And his work, because you'll get your ass kicked, by the way. 29:53 But also his NCAA Frozen Four interview videos. 29:58 I mean, I just, I don't care what he does on the ice. 30:01 This guy is a legend. 30:04 He was so funny. 30:05 And I don't know if Bob was just like, Fish, you do it. 30:08 And he was just, that's a great tradition. 30:12 If you've been to the Frozen Four, they just do almost like skits between teams. 30:18 It's really great. 30:20 It's better for some reason than when the teams try to do them themselves. 30:24 But yeah, I just love, he's from Johnson, East Sider. 30:29 That's like Pony Boy Curtis, man. 30:31 Like Layoff Fish. 30:34 Stay golden, Pony Boy, stay golden. 30:37 I agree. 30:37 I think he's getting better. 30:38 He's getting more comfortable the more minutes he's playing. 30:42 I feel like last year when he got in there, he had to make an impact in his mind. 30:48 I think this year he's realizing, hey, I'm really big and long. 30:53 I can just let people come to me and then I can break up the play. 30:56 I don't need to go chase it. 30:58 And for some guys at that size, they have a hard time learning that you know, lesson. 31:07 He's picking it up and the more he plays, the better he's going to be. 31:10 And I think he's someone they're going to be able to rely on down the stretch because he brings a physical skill set that not everybody quite has on this group. 31:19 You know, but I did notice one thing that people were like, why was rude out there or whoever? 31:25 And he got burned on a goal. 31:27 It's still early weeks. 31:29 We know Bob wants to get people in there. 31:32 You only get experience when you're out there playing and when you fail or mess up at times. 31:38 Yeah, Bob has often said, he's like, I'm going to give these guys a lot of rope until Christmas. 31:44 And then when we come back from break, once we get back in the conference play, that's when we start to enforce the rules a little bit more. 31:52 If you don't play by the book with us after January 10th, you're not going to see as much ice time. 31:59 But until then, he wants to get that book of business to evaluate from guys. 32:04 He's like, let's get some film. 32:06 Let's teach you how you're doing things in game with game video because you can practice it all you want, but it's such a different experience when you're out there in front of the 10,000 fans at Mariucci and you're trying to make a play. 32:20 So I wanted to switch topics just a little bit here. 32:23 Kinger, you had Minnesota's now new favorite son, Brock Faber, on your podcast a couple of weeks ago. 32:32 I think the audio was out quicker. 32:34 The video came out later. 32:36 Tell us about that. 32:37 How was he? 32:38 I mean, he seems likable. 32:42 I mean, everyone in the state, if they're playing Mari-F-Kill, everybody's getting married to Brock Faber on the Minnesota, including my wife watches him pet dogs on Instagram all day for like four minutes a day. 32:58 He's an awesome kid. 33:01 I wanted to ask you guys, how shocking is it to watch how he's playing in the NHL from a style standpoint? 33:09 Because he was a stud in college, but it's a different player. 33:12 He didn't run around like that in college almost ever. 33:16 Not that I remember. 33:17 He was more like a Brady Shaves, just a stud, reliable defenseman. 33:24 And now he's engaging, he's activating, he's going to the net. 33:30 But I guess the best way to say this, he's the guy you'd want to pick up your daughter. 33:34 I mean, that's what it seems like anyway. 33:37 Who knows? 33:38 Well, I kind of like the explanation that he gave himself. 33:43 He knows he's got guys back there that are going to cover for him when he does that. 33:48 College? 33:48 A lot of guys aren't thinking like that. 33:52 I mean, when they do, I think more teams are more successful. 33:56 But, you know, I think he was more concerned about that in college leagues, you know, like, oh, geez, if I do this, I'm leaving some guy back there by himself. 34:06 And I don't know if a forward is going to cover for him. 34:08 It's like, I got to trust Sammy Walker to cover me if I come down for the blue line. 34:12 Are you kidding me? 34:15 He doesn't even use butter on his bread. 34:20 He had that great line too. 34:21 He goes, when I was in college, I was just, I would get so mad when I got scored on because some college kids scored on me, even though he was in college. 34:30 But yeah, in the NHL, he trusts everyone and he's just playing free. 34:35 But he's a lot of fun, does a lot with the Hendrickson Foundation, with his sister and had his mom in a commercial. 34:43 So any NHLer, when you pitch that his mother is going to be in a commercial and he's like, OK, I mean, he's a pretty laid back dude. 34:53 I think it's fair, though, because he did do a commercial for his mother at the mortgage place that she's been running for a while. 35:00 So I think it's fair game, Biggs. 35:02 Is it trade back? 35:04 I think it is. 35:05 They're even now. 35:08 No, I think it's interesting with Brock because he's so mature. 35:12 I think all the NHL writers are surprised as well. 35:15 You know, his coach gets fired. 35:17 Who gets interviewed? 35:19 Brock Faber. 35:20 Brock Faber is coming out. 35:22 The Wild lose a game. 35:23 Who is talking to the media about falling on the sword? 35:26 It's Brock Faber. 35:27 You know, this guy is just letter C material. 35:32 I was going to say, Captain Material. 35:35 He's going to be wearing letters for a long time in his career. 35:39 And you know, you got the sense of that when he was at Minnesota, that he was that kind of mature guy. 35:44 And I think Minnesota was missing that at the start of this year. 35:48 You know, they lost some pretty big alpha players with Faber and Nyes leaving. 35:53 You know, those guys, you know, ran the ship. 35:56 And when guys like that leave, it's a bit of a vacuum to try to recover from. 36:00 Mason Nevers talked about that today. 36:02 He's just like, it's taken us a while to figure out our identity, our mentality, and we're starting to figure it out now. 36:09 But no surprise how well Brock Faber is playing the NHL with me. 36:16 All right, before we get into this weekend stuff, Veegs, Duke Cannon. 36:21 Well, you guys both have got the good flow going today, but Duke Cannon jumped on board as one of our sponsors this year. 36:30 I wore the product all weekend in Duluth, and I know Barb loved it. 36:33 My hair smelled great. 36:34 I smelled great. 36:35 Of course, I look great too, but that's besides the point. 36:39 Tell us more about Duke Cannon, Veegs. 36:42 Yeah, you know, being part of Pulltab Sports, our hair has got to be elite, and you know, that Sirius Flow styling putty does some work. 36:49 Get that Mr. 36:50 Miyagi going, warm it up, put it in the wet hair, put some structure in there. 36:56 It's going to help your game. 36:57 You know, I think everyone will be impressed with it and you'll feel confident. 37:01 And if you need some volume, get that News Anchor thick hair, you know, pump it up a little bit and look for it at dukecanon.com, Target, hardware store. 37:10 If you're looking for a gift for someone who's been a little naughty, look for that big ass brick of coal that they have out there. 37:17 It's a good little stocking stuffer for people or even just to bring to a party. 37:21 You know, you can bring your bottle of wine or beer and then give them a big ass brick of soap. 37:27 You know, why not? 37:29 So King, are you rocking the Duke Cannon flow? 37:32 Does your hair need that kind of product? 37:38 You can reach a point where you don't use a lot of product because you've been doing the same thing with your hair for like 30 years. 37:46 But I'm big into their, actually their deodorant, the Midnight Swim. 37:52 And we did just do some stuff with Jake Middleton that's pretty funny. 37:58 It'll come out real soon here that I think you'll get a kick out of. 38:01 But I love Duke Cannon, another Minnesota company. 38:04 And they got a beer that smells like bush light, so you'll have to check that out. 38:09 I believe they also have some Buffalo Trace that did soaps as well. 38:16 Which could be foreshadowing for overtime tonight. 38:20 Yes, it is. 38:22 Why isn't the break show just overtime? 38:25 You should do it backwards. 38:26 We put this at the end and then overtime. 38:29 Because we need to be sober for the main part of the show. 38:35 By the end of last week, I was pretty lit up. 38:41 Alright, the next one. 38:42 I love this new commercial you just did for FURTA. 38:45 I'm going to play it here. 38:46 This is some great stuff, John. 38:48 Are you tired of the same old fundraisers paying $15 for a stale bag of popcorn, chocolate candy bars melting in your car, and more frozen pizzas than you have freezer space? 39:02 Introducing FURTA Fundraisers, a fundraising company with as much personality as the people who play the game. 39:13 Choose from great products made by local companies, flexible plans built around your needs. 39:19 Sell how you want and be supported from start to finish. 39:23 Deliver max return without charging people a fortune. 39:27 It's never been easier to support your community. 39:30 Ignite your fundraising, FURTA Fundraisers. 39:33 FURTA boys, FURTA girls, FURTA community, FURTA Fundraisers. 39:41 And Veegs, we've talked about this a lot. 39:43 This is so right up the alley for hockey dads and hockey moms and hockey programs. 39:51 Yeah, connect with Wayne over at FURTA Fundraisers. 39:53 He's a super nice guy. 39:55 He'll make everything as easy as possible for you from building websites, setting up store cells. 40:01 And the products are great. 40:03 I love Minnesota products and they get a bunch of them from the Von Hansen stuff to the Joe Mama's salsa to the Croy Valley rubs and stuff. 40:12 You know, it's just great stuff. 40:14 I'm excited about this freeze dried candy that they have out now that the kids love. 40:18 So I can't wait to get my hands on some. 40:22 A little part of this is that I'm hopeful we get to an overtime as a story you we have witnessed. 40:29 This is kind of a teaser, Kinger. 40:31 Will you tell us the Joe Mama story in overtime that happened on a certain day in back in August? 40:38 Oh, my God, I don't even know what you're. 40:42 It's a teaser. 40:43 It has something to do with a Jeep and driving people around. 40:47 This is a pull tabs story in general. 40:50 This is a great overtime story. 40:52 So I will have to. 40:54 Will you share that with us during overtime? 40:57 I will. 40:58 I will. 40:59 That would be excellent. 41:00 It's a great story. 41:04 Big's heading to Penn State used to be a house of horrors for Minnesota. 41:10 Recently, they have really picked it up and played well there, but still expect 40 shots to 50 shots against. 41:19 Yes. 41:20 So apparently playing Michigan State was a good warm up for close on the defense because the Gophers gave up plenty of shots to Sparty this last two games. 41:28 So heading to Penn State, expecting more of the same. 41:31 The one thing Bob said today to availability is this is not the same Penn State team of being ultra aggressive all the time. 41:40 This year, Penn State's doing some of that one one three neutral zone trap stuff that Quinnipiac succeeded with last year. 41:47 And I think it's something that Guy Gadousi is trying to implement with his team so that they can be a little bit more steady as a program. 41:55 You know, they've been such a high volume, high pressure team that I think they give away too many opportunities because of that when they play better teams. 42:04 So this is a way for them to change gears a little bit. 42:07 So that'll be a new thing for Minnesota experience when playing Penn State, but it'll be quite the test for Minnesota's decor. 42:14 I think that was always the problem when they played Penn State. 42:17 There are so many pucks below their goal line that the U of M decor always struggled. 42:22 When you've got all the NHLers that the Gophers recently had with Faber, Johnson, Lacombe, you know, that wasn't a problem anymore. 42:30 This year could be a big test. 42:31 You know, a lot of new players back there that will be under a lot of pressure. 42:36 One thing I would say as a fan Kinger is with what happens in these games against Michigan and Penn State, a lot of scoring. 42:45 There seem to be a lot of back and forth fun type games. 42:49 Well, I always like this. 42:51 I think it's kind of cool that Penn State has this identity. 42:55 Like if you can see the goalie shoot. 42:59 Yeah, I wonder how is our D, is that going to end up being, if you kind of play out this strategy of growing towards the playoffs, is our D going to, is it going to be there? 43:12 Because close is there. 43:15 Seems like the forwards are coming. 43:17 Are we going to be okay on D? 43:19 Like what you just said scared the hell out of me for this weekend. 43:25 And we don't use the Q word. 43:27 We don't use it. 43:29 I know. 43:29 I'm just putting a lot of trauma in everyone's mind who's watching and listening, but I think it's a real test this weekend for where they're at. 43:37 I felt like they answered the fight against Notre Dame in the second game and they played the way that you have to play when you play Notre Dame against Penn State. 43:47 Are they going to go through that same growing pain where they turn over some bad pucks and give away offense or are they going to come ready to play? 43:55 I know during practice, you're trying to simulate that kind of pressure and that decision making, but it's going to be a lot harder when someone's trying to tattoo you on the end boards. 44:05 Because I think the hardest play in hockey is a puck retrieval in your own end with hard pressure, and that's something that Penn State does a lot. 44:14 So it's going to be a real test for Minnesota. 44:16 I know that they have the physical attributes to take care of it. 44:19 You know, Renzel's big and long. 44:21 He should be able to get there, protect himself and make a play. 44:25 Carl Fish, big and long, should be able to get there, protect himself, make a play. 44:29 You know, Kester, not the biggest guy, but as shown, he can take heavy hits and still make plays. 44:34 He's got the hockey IQ to handle that. 44:37 I think it's going to be a real test to see how they all respond. 44:41 They almost play playoff hockey all the time. 44:45 It's like that, just pace guys on the glass. 44:48 So, your preamble, now I'm really interested in watching this weekend because I think it's kind of a foreshadow maybe towards the spring. 44:58 So, I hope our blue liners are ready to go. 45:03 That would be good. 45:04 That would be good. 45:06 So, Friday night folks, BTN Plus only stream. 45:10 So, either watch that or listen to Wally and Frank on the radio. 45:15 6 p.m. 45:16 starts Saturday. 45:17 It's a 5 p.m. 45:18 start on Big Ten Network. 45:20 And our guest next week, Paul Capnigri is going to be on that call for that game. 45:24 So, that's the TV this weekend. 45:28 I keep telling people get used to more streaming like this, folks, because it's the future. 45:34 I personally like it, Veegs, because I have BTN Plus and it's not a big deal. 45:39 So, I'm enjoying all this. 45:43 Certainly an adjustment for everybody. 45:44 I do like the BTN Plus, the condensed game options that you can go to and rewatch. 45:51 I watched Penn State play Lindenwood in about 40 minutes. 45:55 And I saw all the goals that they scored. 45:57 Penn State is the fifth highest scoring team in the country right now. 46:00 They probably padded their stats with their series against Lindenwood, but they liked it. 46:06 Like, go on offense and who doesn't? 46:08 Yeah, but Kinger, they're playing Lindenwood. 46:10 I mean, the speed limit and the quality is going way up for them next weekend. 46:17 I would like to see Minnesota, like, put up a pretty good fight and take care of them. 46:24 Yeah, maybe we'll get Snuggie really going here. 46:28 You know, I'm curious who our superstars are, right? 46:31 Because sometimes you don't see them, and when you look back at the roster, you realize how good you were because they're so young. 46:38 But maybe Jimmy will just light it up, and maybe both Jimmy's get to do some damage this weekend. 46:46 That'd be nice. 46:47 That would be nice. 46:49 But really, I don't have a problem with the other Jimmy, Jimmy2, showing up because, like you said, more balance, the better off we are. 47:00 Well, I think the team is trying to keep that balance. 47:04 You know, you could very easily start putting SnuggieRood with the guys who are playing best and really help them. 47:10 But I think they're trying to get these guys to fight through these struggles and grow from it. 47:16 They're not just trying to put a life preserver on them and say, hey, don't worry, we'll take care of you. 47:20 It's like, it's good to struggle a little bit, you know, and figure out a way to get out of it. 47:25 You know, you look at The Wild right now, Matt Boldy, Correll, you know, they're going through probably the worst experience of their career right now. 47:32 You know, not scoring goals, not winning games, having their coach fired. 47:37 It's hard. 47:38 And they're doing it at the NHL when the media are asking them after every game, what's going on? 47:42 Why can't you score? 47:44 It's good for these players to go through this once or twice and figure out how to change their game and improve and get to that next level. 47:53 Yeah, because, I mean, if Jimmy Snugger figures it out, Veegs, and we have all that other scoring balance throughout the lineup, it would be tough, really tough to stop him if everyone else is contributing as much as they are. 48:08 Yeah, because he gets a lot of attention. 48:10 He's getting the team's best checking players. 48:13 You know, he's seen the best defenders. 48:15 They're trying to take away time and space from him. 48:17 I think one thing he needs to figure out is how can I win more pucks and be a distributor? 48:23 And then once people back off, now my shots back. 48:27 It seems like every time he gets the puck right now, he wants to shoot as quick as he can. 48:32 You know, he's not looking to make that second play yet. 48:34 He's looking to just, I got to get my offense. 48:36 You know, I got to get my shot off. 48:38 That's what I'm good at. 48:39 He's got to figure out a few more tricks to add to the bag right now. 48:43 Avice, I did want to comment. 48:45 You know, we were trying to get Oliver Moore, hopefully to pick up his game a little bit, but he did really perform very well on faceoffs the past weekend. 48:55 One of those areas that he had been struggling a little bit on, but he actually helped the team out quite a bit. 49:02 Well, it's funny. 49:03 It's almost like he's been listening to GPL Podcasts because I asked him the other day, like, how do you evaluate yourself other than points? 49:08 He's like, well, I got to be a better battle player. 49:11 I got to win more pucks. 49:12 I got to win faceoffs and I got to connect shifts. 49:15 I was just like, thanks for listening. 49:18 I appreciate that. 49:20 And of course, he does it against Michigan State and that's growth. 49:23 And that's what you want to see out of these players. 49:25 You know, that speed will always be there for him. 49:28 You know, continue to work on it. 49:29 Yes, be one of the fastest players, but figure out other ways to contribute to the game because you can't just always win with speed. 49:36 And I think going back to your superstar thing, Kinger, if all these other guys are kind of contributing right now and you may be Snuggeroot and Oliver Moore kind of figuring out, improving other areas of their game, they're going to all of a sudden figure out and all of a sudden you are going to have the superstar Jimmy and Oliver lighting it up. 50:00 And we've already got Pitlick starting to light it up now too. 50:03 So maybe Pitlick could be on your list as well. 50:08 Yeah, I love watching him play. 50:11 He flashes. 50:13 You see him. 50:14 He's fun to watch. 50:16 I think Vegoe was saying this team is a grower, not a shower. 50:25 There you go. 50:25 Yeah, definitely a grower team. 50:28 Rhett's growing a lot this year. 50:31 I noticed on Friday, he probably had about five or six of those turnovers south. 50:36 Sunday, he had like one. 50:38 And I thought he was a much more consistent, mature player. 50:43 And he's on the precipice of just going off. 50:46 I mean, that first power play unit is starting to look dangerous. 50:50 I know it took him a while to get going on one of those five-minute majors, but Bryce took advantage of a situation and got the goal on the major penalty on Sunday. 50:58 They're starting to look dangerous. 51:00 If they can maybe gain the zone a little bit cleaner and get into their set and figure out how to go low high a little bit more like they did against Notre Dame, they're going to be a legitimate weapon for this team. 51:14 And I was texting a little bit about my frustrations with Pitlick and some of his passing when he enters the zone. 51:20 Some of them definitely were not good Friday night bigs. 51:23 And I'm like, your frustration. 51:26 Maybe Oliver and Rhett can listen to the podcast together and Oliver can give Rhett some show notes. 51:34 So, Kinger, what do you think about this weekend? 51:37 Heading to Penn State, important games. 51:42 How many points do they come away with? 51:43 You predict it right now. 51:45 I think there's one straight up win and then one of these shootout nonsense. 51:51 I think we get three points. 51:55 Just because I think we're doing this, right? 51:59 We don't need to get greedy. 52:01 We've got a tough schedule. 52:03 And it seems appropriate. 52:06 If you do that both weekends, you're not going backwards. 52:11 All right, Beegs, what do you think? 52:14 You know, I just think this Penn State team, as I've talked about all podcasts, will really test Minnesota. 52:21 And I have a hard time seeing Minnesota get through two games without getting in a bad spot. 52:27 And we saw how Minnesota played having to be down a goal at the end of the game a couple of weeks ago. 52:33 I think they're going to be in a similar situation for one of the games where they're down one and they're trying to tie it up. 52:40 And that's good experience for them to get, but I just don't feel confident enough yet that they're going to be able to tie it up, send it OT and win it an OT kind of situation. 52:48 So I think they're going to get one flat out win, one flat out loss. 52:54 All right. 52:55 I'm going with five points. 52:56 I think it's going to be a win. 52:58 And then one of those comeback wins over time victories where we've got a player going to the student section like Knives did last year, try to get them going. 53:10 That was enjoyable because he went right in the student section after Cooley set him up for that overtime winner. 53:19 Moate likes it. 53:20 He likes it. 53:21 Two plus one. 53:22 So you guys get negative ones. 53:24 I get plus one tonight. 53:27 Of course, we had Pat give you a hard time last week, but who was right? 53:31 You were vexed. 53:33 I mean, Pat is a hockey legend, but he's got the burning gold glasses on all the time. 53:39 I'm hopeful if this team is going to be in the right spot at the end of the year. 53:43 They're just not there yet. 53:45 I think having a game where they're down a goal at the last minute or two is going to be important for them. 53:51 They need to experience that. 53:53 Last year's team, they seem to pull out every single one of those. 53:59 Like the Penn State game on the road. 54:02 They were down to get that late goal tie and then win in overtime. 54:06 So I think this team needs to go through a game like that. 54:08 And I think at Penn State, it's a perfect spot for it. 54:13 Kinger, thanks for joining us on the podcast, man. 54:16 I know you're going to stick with us for all time, but thanks for being back on. 54:22 I know. 54:22 I love overtime. 54:23 It's almost like playing beer. 54:25 You just go so you can go to the bar. 54:28 This is like, I do the, if I can go to overtime. 54:31 I remember that from the first show. 54:32 You're like, come on, let's come on. 54:34 We need to get to overtime. 54:34 We've got to get to overtime. 54:37 But thanks for coming on our regularly scheduled show. 54:41 And thanks for Pulltab bringing GPL Podcast into the family this year. 54:46 It's been a very fun experience for us. 54:50 We love what you've been doing, like, what, two decades or however long it's been. 54:55 So thanks for being here for Gopher fans. 54:58 And we hope to keep being here. 55:00 So that will do it for this episode of the GPL Podcast. 55:04 Like we mentioned earlier, we'll be back next week to recap Penn State and preview Ohio State before long break. 55:11 We'll have Paul Caponegri on with the show that week, as he always is when Ohio State comes to town. 55:20 Or actually we go to Ohio State, so that's a little different. 55:22 So for those of you watching live, stay tuned for overtime. 55:26 For those of you who would not, we will catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.