0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:16 Oh, boy. 0:18 You're making mistakes. 0:19 I love it. 0:20 And so I had to train for this marathon. 0:24 Make sure you stay awake for the game tomorrow, too. 0:33 Triple, hey, stomp the same ball. 0:35 Let's go. 0:36 Stomp. 0:37 There we go. 0:40 So how was the flights in and out of Penn State last weekend? 0:44 Pretty good, actually. 0:45 I was home by like. 1:04 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 252. 1:12 Good evening, Veegs. 1:13 How are things with you tonight? 1:17 Things are going great. 1:17 We are in full hockey mode here in my household, which is exciting. 1:22 Fun time of year. 1:23 It's too bad that the Gophers are gonna come to a little bit of a break here. 1:29 I kind of like it, though. 1:31 It's kind of a tradition in college. 1:32 You know, podcast every week, every week, every week. 1:35 And then I kind of like, I kind of like the break that we have coming up. 1:37 So it's a tradition in college hockey. 1:41 I think it's a little weird, but there'll be plenty of hockey for everyone. 1:46 I don't really do it in the other. 1:47 I mean, it makes the sport go even longer because it's the longest damn season ever. 1:51 But but I do think Bob is looking forward to a break. 1:55 I think I think he wants his team to get through this next weekend against Cappy's favorite team and then they'll be ready for the holidays. 2:03 Cappy, Cappy. 2:06 Well, yeah, we got Cappy on this week. 2:08 Ohio State. 2:09 There he is. 2:10 Cappy. 2:11 How's it going, man? 2:12 What? 2:13 Move myself a little bit. 2:14 Yeah. 2:15 Center yourself a little bit there. 2:18 Yeah. 2:18 Fuck, I wish they could just play a non-conference schedule all season and then it'd be set. 2:25 They haven't lost the game all season non-conference. 2:28 They haven't won a game in conference. 2:32 So it's kind of nice. 2:33 This is kind of convenient because, you know, usually we have you on kind of talk about Ohio State. 2:38 It's your alma mater, of course. 2:40 Of course. 2:40 It just so happens you were in Penn State all weekend last weekend. 2:45 Got to see both teams. 2:48 And I still think it's a Jekyll and Hyde team in Minnesota. 2:51 But Penn State started well Friday night, did nothing, but then played much better Saturday. 3:01 I mean, they looked like, I mean, they looked unbeatable the first like 15 minutes or so of that game. 3:10 Twelve shots to nothing. 3:12 Yeah, I mean, there's a lift. 3:15 I thought Minnesota did have one shot. 3:16 I got a good view of it. 3:18 That never shot further than that. 3:20 Suleer got a blocker on it, but they didn't give him credit for it. 3:22 Anyway, they were dominating the game. 3:25 And most teams come in there and Penn State is notorious for doing that early in a game, but it lasted a long time. 3:35 And what you need, Justin Close kept them in the game, kept it a one-shot game, and literally, officially, that one shot was all Minnesota needed. 3:46 And it just completely changed the game. 3:48 Just switch views here so we can get Cappy on the screen a little bit more. 3:52 Veegs, that was a terrible beginning of Friday. 3:57 I mean, just back to the Don and Bob coaching, you got to get past the first 10 minutes, and they certainly did not. 4:08 Well, as we kind of talked about when we previewed the series, Minnesota needed to establish a ground game. 4:14 So what that means is for them to get quick exits out of their zone, come through the neutral zone, get the puck deep, and put some sustained pressure on. 4:23 And I think what happened in Minnesota is they'd get trapped in their zone a little bit. 4:27 They'd come out into the neutral zone a little sloppy. 4:30 They'd enter the blue line, and it'd be one and done. 4:33 And then they're right back in the other end. 4:35 You know, their shift starts out defending, they get tired. 4:39 They're trying to get in the offensive zone. 4:41 They can't quite really pull it together. 4:43 And they were just under pressure shift after shift after shift. 4:46 And they don't have guys to break it right now. 4:49 And they really lucked out, I think, coming out of that first period up to one. 4:54 You know, if Penn State's out of that period, one nothing or two nothing, it might be an entirely different weekend. 5:02 But Cappy, what happened on the Penn State side? 5:04 I mean, you could not have dominated more and then you let, well, yeah, it was the second shot. 5:11 But, you know, stats wise, you let the first shot in, you let the second shot in. 5:18 That's got to be pretty disheartening. 5:21 Yeah. 5:22 And you know, it's funny that Brian Tripp, the radio announcer for Penn State, he talked to Guy Gadowski prior to Saturday's game, about Friday's start. 5:34 And, you know, he said we didn't handle the emotional kind of let down of, hey, we're dominating this game. 5:43 We got this one, one nothing. 5:45 And then a ridiculously great play by Rhett Pitlick. 5:49 I mean, I don't know how he saw him coming later. 5:52 If it was maybe like an educated guess. 5:54 I do that all the time where you're like, you know, I got two guys coming at me. 5:58 Good chance maybe I got the guy coming or you able to look at his shoulder. 6:01 But they didn't handle like, oh, and then bang, another great, you know, two good rushes by Minnesota is all it took. 6:07 And Penn State was like, what just happened? 6:10 We're losing now? 6:11 And you could feel in the building like that. 6:13 And it was buzzing. 6:14 It went from buzzing to quiet. 6:18 And I think the players, they just didn't handle it well. 6:22 And then Minnesota, you know, kept going from there. 6:25 They found their stride and then were the better team, not like dominated the game, but they were the better team in the second and third periods. 6:34 Veegs, do you think Pitlick just threw the puck out front? 6:40 I sometimes worry when he throws the puck back that he's just throwing it to space. 6:44 But I think when the play is in front of him, he's got pretty good vision for that kind of feel for things in front of him. 6:50 It's when he's all of a sudden thinking, oh, I see a lot of guys in front of me, I bet there's space behind and he kind of carelessly goes back. 6:56 But I think when the plays are ahead, he's got pretty good vision. 7:00 It's always hard to know with Brett. 7:01 I would also hope that if I'm Samaritans out, I am screaming for that pass. 7:07 Like I was a big, you know, I talked a lot. 7:10 I call for the puck. 7:11 I would hope, you know, he's a young guy and scored a goal. 7:15 But I'd imagine he'd wanted that puck and was calling for it, hopefully. 7:19 And when this big 6'5, Rinzl train is going down the tracks, I think teammates see that and know there's a lot of reach to hit with that wingspan. 7:29 Absolutely. 7:31 But I thought Minnesota played a very mature game after that. 7:35 They didn't make mistakes. 7:36 They didn't feed Penn State's offense. 7:38 I thought they played a little bit more under control. 7:41 I didn't think Penn State really was dangerous to them the rest of the game. 7:45 But as we've seen with Minnesota, they get in trouble when they feed the other team's offense. 7:50 When they start forcing things or making mistakes or chasing plays that aren't there and, you know, touching the stove as defensemen dive down from the point. 7:59 You didn't see a lot of that in Friday night. 8:02 And it's just a good sign for Minnesota that they can close out a game like that and get the three points. 8:09 So, Saturday night, they come in, Veegs. 8:14 They pretty much play catch up all night. 8:18 Very disappointing. 8:19 And it's kind of what we've seen from this team this year is they're focused one night and the next night they're not. 8:26 And as much as I've complimented their play on Friday with the lead, Saturday, I thought they gave a lot of chances away. 8:34 You know, you have a weird tip that goes in. 8:37 You have a weird turnover in the neutral zone where the players are there, but they don't get their guy. 8:43 They do 80% of the work, but they don't finish the last 20%. 8:47 Or you have a player make a play as the last guy back handling the puck, turning it over. 8:52 You know, it's just situations like that. 8:54 A goaltender tries to play a puck that he probably shouldn't into a wrong spot. 8:58 Uncharacteristic mistakes that have been costly in Minnesota almost one night every weekend. 9:08 Well, Cappy, you were there Friday night, Saturday night, you were calling on the game. 9:14 Yeah. 9:15 What were your thoughts that maybe people didn't hear on the air? 9:20 I mean, well, it's funny. 9:21 I thought it looked like Minnesota was concentrating really hard to come out and have a better start. 9:28 And they did. 9:29 I mean, in the first, if you want to look at just the first 10 minutes, it was a kind of a not a lot going on, a lot of tennis back and forth, not a ton of shots, which if you're the road team going for a sweep in a tough, you know, environment, you're like, we'll take that. 9:46 And I know Bob would take that. 9:47 And then it just it took one shot where, you know, it's not a lucky goal. 9:51 But when you get a high tip, you know, you blame losing the face off. 9:57 But, you know, it wasn't a close problem because, I mean, there's a high tip with a screen in front of that, too. 10:03 But that's where this team may be, you know, they concentrate on that ten, but then they give up a goal. 10:10 And then they didn't maybe handle it as well. 10:13 And I said this a couple of times now. 10:19 You were so spoiled last year with the talent you had and the veterans you had on defense last year, where they could see your team is struggling, they would just, Faber would just make that smart play, or Jackson Lecombe would be a one man breakout, or even Ryan Johnson just with that grid first pass. 10:40 You had that, okay, the team's not doing well, but we'll get out of trouble, and then let's figure out when it lasts late. 10:47 Like they did last year in the second game, down late into the third, and then they found a way to tie it, and then won the game in overtime. 10:56 Right now, because they're just a lot younger, and don't have, just not the younger, but the talent to go with it, not just being younger. 11:04 I mean, those three guys are super talented along with the experience. 11:08 Just don't have those guys right now in this time of the season where it's gonna, they can get away with playing not a good game and still win it or be right in it as they weren't late in the game yesterday or last weekend. 11:22 And Veegs, you mentioned that last week. 11:24 You thought it was gonna be a split because you thought that this team just doesn't quite have what they had last year to be able to come back in a game. 11:33 And they showed signs of coming back, but then they'd give up a goal. 11:36 Whereas last year, they could come back and not be giving up those goals and just hurting themselves. 11:41 It's kind of exactly what you were talking about last week. 11:44 Yeah, unfortunately, I prognosticated something that's going to frustrate Gopher fans. 11:49 And that's just the growing pain of this team. 11:51 You know, Bob brought it up today. 11:53 You know, three years ago, Lacombe and Johnson and Faber kind of went through these growing pains where they'd have games like that. 12:01 And they just couldn't minimize their mistakes enough or turn the tide enough in a close game at the end. 12:08 This Gopher team is still learning how to do that. 12:11 You know, their defensemen who are playing these minutes have never played those minutes at this level before. 12:16 And so you have to kind of learn how to change the pace because you can't play the same way every shift. 12:23 Now you have to take advantage of the situations when they present themselves, because if you chase them every shift, you will get in trouble. 12:31 You know, you can't go all in on every hand of Texas Hold'em. 12:35 You've got to know the cards that you're dealt. 12:36 You got to read the board and you got to say, is this a smart time to force a play or is this a bad time? 12:42 And it takes a lot of experience to get to that point. 12:45 And right now you've got too many players thinking, I can outplay my opponent regardless of what I have, and that's not going to be a winning strategy. 12:54 So we had Pat McAleady telling us, you know, all this fall, you know, just wait, they'll be okay. 13:00 Is it starting to be pretty much crunch time for the Gophers or Veegs? 13:06 I think the break is going to be good for them, just to kind of reset. 13:09 I feel like we've had a couple Gopher players. 13:12 I remember Jackson Lacombe going into Christmas of his sophomore year where he had a tough first half because he was trying to force plays, and he went home and he just figured it out. 13:22 He came back that second half, refreshed and making better decisions out there. 13:27 I think some of these guys need to take that break and just kind of refocus. 13:31 It's not a skill, it's not effort, it's not talent, it's decision making and getting that experience. 13:39 This team has a lot of growth ahead of it, and because of the way Bob plays his players, they're getting there. 13:46 It's just not as consistent as all the fans would like it to be. 13:49 As you look at the USCHO polls, the nation is kind of forgetting about this team a little bit, forgetting how talented they are. 13:57 Maybe this is a good formula for them coming in the second half. 14:02 Well, go ahead. 14:03 Well, just to kind of reiterate, you know, because there are a couple, you know, if you look at, you know, Luke Middlestadt and Ryan Chesley, I think those are guys, you know, they looked, okay, these two are going to go from 10 to 12 minute guys to 20 minute guys, and these sophomore and just go right there. 14:21 And or maybe in their minds, they thought that I go back to, you know, I had a really good freshman year that, you know, when I got to school, you're just trying to make the line up. 14:30 And then, you know, I had a really good freshman year. 14:32 And then I remember the summer and then going into your sophomore year now, I got all these expectations. 14:37 I need to do this and this and this. 14:40 I need to be better. 14:41 And, you know, when you start thinking about that, instead of just playing, you know, just being a little bit better on basic stuff. 14:49 And I remember my first half of my sophomore year was horrible. 14:52 And I went home at Christmas and I had a great second half because the one thing you say about how long Christmas break, it's not like it's a six day break. 15:02 It's roughly about, you know, you probably go home for 10, but you probably have three weeks at least without a game. 15:09 So it'll be good for this team. 15:12 Some of those younger, not freshmen, like those sophomores that are expected, you know, fans and everyone. 15:19 I mean, they see the talent of those guys to be a little better. 15:22 And I think that's something that why you say is it crunch time? 15:26 I don't think it is. 15:27 I think you can wait till, you know, I don't know when. 15:32 But after the break, see how it plays out the first month of the break. 15:37 It just tells us how much, how critical those non-conference games will be in January. 15:43 Well, I think they're going to be critical because of where Robert Morris is in the pairwise and where CC is in the NCHC. 15:52 Those are games you don't really want to lose because it can hurt you if you're going to be on the bubble. 15:56 Now, I don't think Minnesota is a bubble team. 15:58 I don't think they're in crunch time. 16:00 I think they probably could get away with a loss or two. 16:03 But I think if you have a loss there, number one seeds are probably out the window. 16:08 It's going to be really hard to overcome that. 16:09 I think at the end of the year, if you look at the big pairwise, unless they go on just an amazing run in the Big Ten, but they're crucial if you want to be in that top four of the pairwise. 16:22 You know, I'm going to pay devil's advocate with it because I vote on the USCHO. 16:26 And I honestly think there's like a little bit of haterade going on with the Big Ten and what happened last year, what happened in the tournament. 16:41 I think it's like scaring some people a little bit. 16:43 I'm not saying the Big Ten is as good this year. 16:47 I don't, you know, it's still too hard to say, but I think there's a little East Coast, maybe a little East Coast bias going on with them. 16:55 No. 16:56 We got a few fresh teams that used to be great, that are, hey, they're having great starts. 17:02 No disrespect to maine or UNH, but, you know, and I always say this, but the USCHO vote means absolutely nothing. 17:14 It's great for us. 17:15 I love it when we do it, but the pairwise is all that matters when it comes down to that state tournament. 17:20 Essentially, for the first two months of the season, it's kind of all we have to go off of, but after that... 17:24 Look, I love talking about it, but... 17:26 Yeah, but after that, I don't even bother looking at it because it just matters zero. 17:33 It's just an opinion, pairwise is all that matters. 17:36 It's great for chatter, and people are giving their opinions, but I mean, I haven't seen 60% of the teams play, even on television, because we just don't have access to that much video, really, or it's hard to get it. 17:54 So, yeah, we'll see. 17:56 I mean, I think every year, I think Deegs is always seeing where they are, if they're a little lower in the pairwise, and people panic. 18:02 Like, you know what? 18:02 They generally end up in the top six. 18:05 Generally. 18:07 And their schedule is insanely hard, which always helps. 18:11 You look at the pairwise right now, North Dakota is number one in the pairwise. 18:14 Minnesota is at 11. 18:15 I thought Minnesota played North Dakota very, very strongly in the forks. 18:20 They were the better team in the games, I thought, for most of about maybe five of the six periods. 18:26 So if that's your measuring stick, Minnesota is going to be all right when they're on top of their game. 18:30 They just have to get there. 18:32 And I think sometimes after you win on Friday night, it's sometimes hard to get up for it on Saturday, you know, at a five o'clock game. 18:39 And you know what? 18:40 The Big Ten is pretty good. 18:41 And Penn State is better, I think, than I thought. 18:44 And a lot of people thought because they've got like three freshmen that are doing some things that, you know, you don't know. 18:51 So when you look at their roster before the season, like, OK, they've got really good D, they've got a veteran goalie who's he's not the one actually playing well. 18:59 And then you've got, you know, the forwards like who's going to score? 19:02 It's the same problem with Ohio State. 19:04 But Penn State's got three freshmen, including one of them, who's maybe a first team all Big Ten in the first half of the season now with over 22 points. 19:14 So you just sometimes don't know if this team is going to be that good. 19:17 And I think Penn State, in my mind, has a higher ceiling now because of some of these younger guys. 19:23 You didn't know what we're going to be like the way they are. 19:27 All right, well, I know, Veegs, you kind of want to talk about what could be on Bob and Steve Miller's Christmas list. 19:34 Before we get to that, we need to hear from our sponsors. 19:39 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? 19:52 Introducing FURTA fundraisers, a fundraising company with as much personality as the people who play the game. 20:00 That's big. 20:00 Throw gas. 20:02 Big 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were leaving a little message there that what could possibly be on the coaches' Christmas list this year? 21:22 And what do you think should be on there? 21:27 Well, I think for Bob, he's hoping his team has good health in the second half of the year. 21:33 I know a lot of people might say Bob's making excuses, but when you lose Mike Kester, Aaron Huglund, for significant amounts of time, when you don't have your backup goalie healthy, it changes the way you can prepare for a season. 21:48 And I think it's really had a big impact on the Gophers so far. 21:52 You know, without Mike Kester in the lineup, you know, Chesley was playing 26-27 minutes a night and trying to do too much. 21:59 And I think that is probably part of the reason why it's taken him a little while to find his stride, is because he was forcing those expectations right away. 22:08 And then up front, you know, missing Aaron Huglund for periods of time and having other injuries for Fords, it impacts the chemistry that Bob's trying to find. 22:17 And so I think if this team is healthy in the second half, they're going to be able to grow a little bit quicker and find that chemistry that they need so badly. 22:26 Cappy, let's bring in more of a Big Ten Christmas wish list. 22:31 It looks like the Christmas wish list has already been fulfilled for the Wisconsin Badgers. 22:35 They are definitely back. 22:38 Like you would not believe. 22:40 So that's kind of an obvious one. 22:42 Hastings is getting a lot, he's getting everything early. 22:45 Hanukkah, he's getting everything to him this year. 22:49 Who else out there needs some Christmas gifts? 22:54 I would say probably, and this kind of hurt. 22:57 I mean, it hurts me to say, but Michigan, they've got as many injuries, I think now as anybody. 23:06 I mean, I don't even know if they have 12 forwards. 23:11 I think the whole Big Ten needs a Christmas gift of being healthy. 23:15 Penn State was down to 11 forwards, the game we did in order to aim in November, and they had their extra defensemen dressed to be a 12 forward. 23:25 Ohio State is still missing. 23:28 They're dying for scoring. 23:30 Joe Dunlap had 13 goals last year. 23:32 He's out till after the break, so that didn't help them. 23:35 So I just think all around the league, aside from Wisconsin, maybe, ironically, who's had a nice first half in Michigan State, I think, has played, stayed away from injuries. 23:47 But how about as healthy as we can get, so we can see where this conference is when everyone's kind of, you know, nobody's ever going to be fully healthy. 23:59 You know, Minnesota was pretty lucky last year, to be honest. 24:03 But that's luck. 24:05 I mean, you can't control that kind of stuff. 24:08 But yeah, I'd say get everyone as healthy as possible. 24:12 Let's see some fun from the second half. 24:15 Bobby Baumann's saying we need a College Hockey Red Zone with Cappy hosting. 24:20 No, no, no, no. 24:21 Pizzo hosting and I'll sit there with him. 24:23 There's no way I'm hosting that. 24:25 You know, Pizzo was back on Twitter for a little while, now he's off it again. 24:29 I'll ask him Friday when I see him what the hell's going on there, because I'll be with him. 24:34 No, because he was back for a couple of months, like a month or two. 24:37 Yeah, because I was making the comments. 24:39 All of a sudden, he just out of nowhere responded on a thing. 24:41 Because obviously, we've been doing the fun stuff with him. 24:44 But everything's late. 24:45 Blame Pizzo. 24:46 He's been such a great sport about that. 24:48 I think it's just the rest of Twitter and how people are just. 24:52 I don't know, man. 24:52 I love I'm sitting at the desk with him and he's punching those keys. 24:55 I'm like, what are you doing? 24:57 Like they used to do a Twitter a lot. 24:59 Now, I think he follows and there's rumor that he maybe has like a, you know. 25:06 He probably does have another account, but he came back as BTN. 25:09 Yeah. 25:10 I remember that. 25:11 Yeah. 25:12 I'm going to ask him Friday and then I'll maybe say something on air. 25:15 I don't know. 25:15 We'll see. 25:16 Well, Veegs, we've had people saying that old Air Force and Bemidji State coaches should get together in the Frozen Four and do it. 25:26 A Peyton type cast, Peyton and Eli type cast, because people would love to see those two guys talk about the game. 25:35 Sure. 25:36 I got to sit with the Serratory during the Frozen Four in Tampa. 25:39 And let me tell you, I was entertained. 25:41 And I would watch that broadcast every year just to get the insights that they have from the styles that the teams are playing, the adjustments that the coaches are making, kind of assessing big picture stuff of different conferences, different programs during breaks. 26:00 It was just awesome. 26:01 And I think that would be great for college hockey. 26:04 There's got to be a market for it somewhere, right? 26:06 Yeah. 26:11 I don't know. 26:11 Where are we going to put it? 26:13 I'm fighting to get more games on air just in general. 26:18 True. 26:20 I think we could do a BTN Plus stream and we could get some special sponsors. 26:28 I mean, you know, town was just in town. 26:31 I mean, Aaron, if you say that, but I mean, and you've talked about it, Jupe, about what's kind of come down the road with, and you're adding all these teams and other sports, talk about basketball and men's and women's basketball and you're going to have four or more teams on each side. 26:47 Like the amount more games are going to be needed on TV and whatnot. 26:52 Like what I, and you've seen it a couple of times. 26:55 I think Dan Kelly broadcast called a game on Big Ten Plus. 26:59 I think it was a Wisconsin game. 27:02 Can't remember, but like, you know, it got produced as like a TV game, but it was on Big Ten Plus. 27:07 And I see that kind of maybe happening. 27:10 Like maybe they do a game of the week on Plus or something. 27:13 I don't know. 27:14 But there's so many sports now and so many teams in the Big Ten, aside from our sport, it's, it's, I don't know, fully where it's going to be in a couple of years. 27:23 Streaming is the future because, you know, obviously volleyball too and men's volleyball out on the West Coast is, you look at UCLA men's volleyball. 27:34 It's pretty, pretty darn big there. 27:37 And we have been talking about it for a while. 27:39 People just get used to it. 27:40 It's going to be more streaming. 27:42 It's coming and you add more teams. 27:43 It's just going to be the way of the world. 27:46 I mean, it's pretty cheap too. 27:48 Like there's been some deals where it's like $12.99 for the year or something. 27:52 Something crazy. 27:53 I was like, that's all? 27:54 I'm like, OK. 27:56 And you can, I think you can do it for specific sports too. 27:59 You don't have to do like. 28:00 Yep, that's what I do. 28:01 The whole thing too. 28:02 So that, you know, that helps keep the cost down. 28:06 Yeah, I do the hockey only package. 28:09 So I get the WCHA Women's and then the Big Ten Men's all in one. 28:14 And a couple of months ago, they had a code you could put in where they took 50% off if you're renewing. 28:21 But I think I saw that. 28:22 Yeah, and then when I, I had already, mine had already renewed. 28:25 So it's going to renew for that price, you know, next fall. 28:28 So I'm like, beautiful. 28:30 You can't ask for more than that. 28:32 Veegs, it's just the future Veegs. 28:34 People are just going to have to embrace. 28:36 Sorry, if I had to bring that up and now we're going to talk. 28:38 No, no, no, it's just fine. 28:40 Well, I do think if the games go streaming, the schools really need to pay attention to the quality of the broadcast because Minnesota invests in making a good quality production at Merriachi. 28:51 You hope that the other schools take that seriously and continue to put out a good quality product. 28:57 I just saw our good friend Goon going back and forth with the Duke Hockey Blog about the production quality at Denver being pretty subpar. 29:05 It looks like one of those high school games where it's the automatic camera with a student announcer is not prepared. 29:11 So you just hope that Big Ten with all that Big Ten money continues to have their schools put out a good product for this conference. 29:20 Because it matters, I think, to families, to players, to recruits, to fans. 29:25 Sure. 29:25 Well, Minnesota has got a little different because generally all their games are at home are on TV. 29:31 So you're picking up a TV feed on Big Ten plus. 29:35 But when you're going to watch them play, who was it? 29:39 I mean, even at Michigan, I think was the first game. 29:43 Look, I want students to get the opportunity to do this stuff. 29:46 I didn't get to do it because it didn't exist yet. 29:50 But also I couldn't have done it. 29:51 I was playing. 29:52 I couldn't have done hockey unless I was injured. 29:56 But you don't want people making fun of it or turning it off because some of it is just not very good. 30:07 Well, you mentioned though, like Michigan, I think that's what they did this year. 30:12 They're trying to make it better. 30:13 They're trying to get some students in there. 30:15 It wasn't as good, but before, they were essentially were punching in the radio. 30:19 They were listening to the radio, Al Randall and Fred if Fred wasn't doing a Big Ten. 30:24 Yeah, and Fred Fletch. 30:25 And it's like, those guys have been doing it forever. 30:29 Doesn't matter if it's TV or not. 30:30 They've been doing broadcasting forever. 30:32 It's going to be a much better, polished broadcast. 30:36 But people are complaining so much. 30:38 I'm like, just give them some time. 30:42 You got to learn. 30:45 You also got to put more money into it, right, Beegs? 30:48 Well, it's not just the broadcast. 30:52 It's the production. 30:54 Like, using the cameras, having replays. 30:58 A lot of them, it's just one camera. 31:01 And there they go. 31:02 And you don't get a replay or you might get a replay. 31:05 You know what I mean? 31:06 It's just if people are going to pay extra money, I think they're going to want to see a good product. 31:13 So if you're pushing it that way, then people are going to spend their money. 31:17 That means you're making money. 31:18 You got to raise the level of the product. 31:22 You got to have someone in charge teaching the students how to do it. 31:26 Like St. 31:27 Cloud does a pretty good job and they have a lot of students who work on the broadcast. 31:31 But they also have faculty that are helping them and they have pros, who are mentoring these people coming up. 31:37 We've often talked about how alumni would like to get interested in broadcasting. 31:42 Maybe they work with a student. 31:43 Eric Sheerhorn was going to do a BTN Plus game, I think a couple of years ago. 31:48 He's going to be on our show coming up here after break with Jack Ramsey, which will be exciting to have those two telling stories. 31:54 But getting those guys some exposure to broadcasting could be good for the game. 31:59 Because we have a lot of voices that are the same for college hockey. 32:03 And it's probably good to grow some other voices as well and get them that experience. 32:11 I wanted to make sure I get this question in that it was from Magic on GPL. 32:15 He's talking about the juniors a little bit. 32:16 He says, I'll point this to you Veegs, if USA junior team makes it to the gold medal game on January 5th, will the Gopher players make it back for Colorado College on January 7th? 32:29 I believe it's in Sweden? 32:31 In Sweden. 32:35 Paveur made it back from China. 32:37 So Bob has often allowed players to come back and play. 32:42 If they want to play, he has let them do that. 32:46 We will see what kind of roles Gophers play on the World Junior team and how it goes. 32:52 But Bob has typically said, let them get through that game that weekend, rest them during the practice week, and let them recover that way, and then manage their ice time going forward, and eventually get them back when they get back into conference games after that Robert Morris series. 33:11 But Bob has been pretty ambitious with letting guys get back in the lineup. 33:16 So we'll see what happens. 33:18 I wouldn't expect them for both games, but I would expect them to play at least one of those games. 33:24 And then manage their ice time. 33:26 Sunday, Monday, actually. 33:30 It's almost like it was designed for them to be able to come back and jump in the lineup. 33:34 Can't be almost as if it was. 33:37 In the US., the US should have a pretty good team over there. 33:41 Yeah, the stuff I've been reading in the Athletics says Team USA should be a favorite. 33:45 You know, they'll have Trey Augustine is probably the number one goalie. 33:48 They've got some, yeah, they've got some elite Fords, you know, Stuggerood is expected to be on the top line. 33:55 Rinzel and Chesley are supposed to be in, you know, the top six for deep hairs. 34:00 And Oliver Moore will be a depth player on the World Junior team at his age level. 34:05 Should be a good experience for him there. 34:07 Now, the guy healthy didn't even make the camp. 34:12 Charlie Strammell. 34:13 Former gopher commit. 34:18 Iserman. 34:19 Oh, Iserman, yeah. 34:21 Didn't get even invited to the camp. 34:25 I read that the thinking was if he's not going to be a top six player for this team, they're going to go with experience and a little bit more size in older players. 34:36 There you go. 34:37 So that also means that he will likely be playing in the exhibition game against Minnesota at Mary Uchee. 34:45 Which could be interesting. 34:48 Could get physical. 34:50 Could get physical. 34:52 We've seen a few world junior players take, or US national team players take big hits when they play Minnesota. 34:58 So maybe we'll see one for him. 35:00 Smaller ice surface too. 35:01 A lot tighter. 35:04 That is throwing me for a loop all year. 35:07 I'm getting used to it, but it looks like it's a whole new arena from watching it from afar on television. 35:12 It looks like they have a brand and the lighting. 35:14 It looks like it's a whole new arena. 35:16 So I just that was my want to get that in there. 35:19 Not not that I dislike it. 35:20 It just looks like a whole new place. 35:24 I think the lighting is a big part of that. 35:25 It just looks different, just looks different. 35:28 But are you going to Columbus this weekend? 35:34 Who's on the calls? 35:35 BTN? 35:35 Who's on BTN? 35:36 Who's calling the games this weekend? 35:37 Well, that's ironic. 35:38 I was going to bring that up. 35:40 Oh, I'm in the studio tomorrow for the doubleheader. 35:45 I think it's the second game is Michigan State or Friday night, Michigan State at Wisconsin or Penn State at Wisconsin, Penn State at Wisconsin, sorry. 35:55 And there's been a change in the broadcast crew because of COVID breaking news. 36:02 A very familiar voice will be in there for you. 36:06 Fred Plush came down with COVID yesterday or today. 36:10 And now it will be Mr. 36:12 Pat M will be there calling both games with Ben Holden. 36:17 Wow. 36:18 Nicoletti, huh? 36:22 Early birthday present for him. 36:24 He was going after, I don't know if that's too, is that no, luckily it's an earlier game for him because, you know, the first one is the second game is late, eight o'clock local. 36:32 Oh, every week now he's like, your guys podcast starts at nine thirty. 36:37 I've got to go. 36:38 I can't do it. 36:40 That's going to be late for Pat. 36:42 Saturday night, eight o'clock local time, I believe. 36:45 Wow. 36:47 So that just happened literally today. 36:51 That's how it goes. 36:53 Ben actually texted me first. 36:54 I said, he's like, are you going to get it? 36:56 I'm like, I don't know. 36:57 I'm supposed to be in the studio on Friday. 36:59 So I doubt, you know, they'll make a whole bunch of stuff around. 37:05 The studio is not so bad though, is it? 37:06 You just kind of sit back and relax. 37:09 I love being in the arena and want to call the games. 37:14 I always love to get back to Columbus. 37:16 It's a nice trip to see some friends as well. 37:20 So I'll be there in February for a game. 37:23 But tomorrow night or Friday, I'll be with Pizzo. 37:27 I haven't seen him in a while. 37:29 So I'll be good to see him and find out all the Twitter stuff. 37:36 I'll get all the down low on that. 37:39 All right. 37:40 Well, Veegs, one thing we need to talk about, a couple of other sponsors here, and I'm going to talk about Unreal here, Veegs. 37:49 Let's bring some things up here. 37:54 I love their stuff, Veegs. 37:59 It's great stuff. 38:01 Well, you know, it's a local company, White Bear Lake guy, Michael Jordan, started, wanted to make his own apparel company, wanted to leave a legacy here, and he's doing it. 38:09 We talked about his studio rink that he's helped put together in Mankato, and we're watching some of these drops that he's doing for the Vikings, for the Wild, just really cool stuff. 38:20 I think you should sign up for their text messages, look for their deals. 38:24 You just pull tab 15, you get 50% off your order, and remember, it's unreal.co, not a com. 38:33 I didn't know about the text messaging. 38:34 I'll have to check that out. 38:35 I haven't. 38:37 Yeah, when they do their exclusive drops, like their Viking stuff and their wild stuff, they send out a text message, and you get a link to buy it right away, because they make limited stuff. 38:45 So not everyone's going to be wearing it. 38:47 That's a great tip. 38:48 That's a great tip. 38:49 And of course, we'll talk about tips. 38:53 I love my Duke Cannon Veegs. 38:55 Had it on all weekend last weekend. 38:57 I don't wear it every day, because I like to smell good on certain days, not every day. 39:00 Not at work. 39:01 I'm not going to look. 39:02 I'm working from home. 39:03 I don't need it. 39:04 But you've been talking more about some of the other stuff, some of their soaps as well. 39:09 Yeah. 39:10 You know, I like that News Anchor Thick hair. 39:12 It's got that good naval diplomacy sent to it, helping make your hair a weapon. 39:16 You know, you can find it. 39:17 It's a local product again, so you'll find it at Target, your local hardware stores or ducan.com. 39:23 And, you know, that's Styling Putty. 39:26 Do the Mr. 39:26 Miyagi. 39:27 Put a little structure in your hair. 39:31 Well, of course, we appreciate Unreal and Duke Canter for being sponsors of The GPL Podcast. 39:37 All right. 39:38 Let's see. 39:38 Press a couple of buttons and bring Cappy back here. 39:41 I'll get you guys some commercials on Real TV. 39:48 No, it's been good. 39:49 I like this Pulltab family we're part of. 39:52 Yeah, they like the local products and I like to support local. 39:55 You have the product in your hair right now because it looks pretty good. 39:58 I do. 39:59 I got a little structure to it. 40:01 I had to coach a hockey game tonight, so I had to make sure the hair was looking good, good on the bench. 40:05 Kind of an old Don Donny Lucia a little bit. 40:09 Oh, yeah, it looks very professional. 40:13 I'm working on it. 40:14 Not enough party in the back. 40:16 It's early in the year, early in the year. 40:19 Well, we talk about some of the BTN plus things. 40:22 They got to up their game and some of the broadcast. 40:24 We've upped our game over the last couple of years with the software and being able to show videos and doing all this stuff, and obviously with our sponsors, with some of our stuff here. 40:36 If we can up our game, a school like Michigan could up their game. 40:41 They can. 40:42 They've got a fair amount of money there as long as they're not doing buyouts and lawsuits and payouts. 40:49 But I want to know, Cappy, is Ohio State going to up their game? 40:52 Winless in the Big Ten this season so far. 40:57 We asked Bob about that, and I think he hoped they would have pulled one out against Wisconsin. 41:02 They didn't come into this final Big Ten series, the first half looking for their first win. 41:07 What's going on in Columbus? 41:12 I think, I mean, I thought this before the season. 41:15 I just a little bit like, where are they going to get scoring from besides a couple of guys? 41:21 I mean, they brought in 15 new players, which is insane. 41:24 I mean, but Michigan State did, too. 41:26 Obviously, they brought in, you know, between their, I mean, I think their transfers were their big gets. 41:33 And then obviously, you know, Lev Shinov, a top five, you know, predicted player in the draft. 41:40 So they're 15 or a little higher level, at least come right away in and contribute. 41:46 Whereas, you know, Ohio State brought in some solid transfers, but, you know, no real game changer type of offensive weapons, unfortunately, and, you know, they're struggling to score goals. 41:57 And I think when you start doing that, it can become a mental thing and you put pressure on yourself. 42:03 And then I think the guys that they have back, you know, Burnside and Halliday, they put a lot of pressure on themselves. 42:09 I can imagine they probably thought like, yeah, I got, oh man, I'm looking at our, we got to be, we got to be up here if we're going to compete. 42:15 And then they're trying too hard. 42:17 And then they're getting obviously getting number one defenseman against them every time out. 42:23 And you've seen some frustration there. 42:25 I was at a game at Notre Dame and Halliday took a 10 minute misconduct late in the second period. 42:30 He did not see the ice in the third period, which I respected Coach Rolick for doing that. 42:35 In a game when they were down 2 to 1 or something, or 3 to 1. 42:38 And he had to set a point with his top producer. 42:45 And yeah, I just think they're just short there. 42:49 And their goaltending from Ternes has been solid. 42:53 But he's not going to maybe win you a game too often. 42:58 Like he needs a couple goals. 43:00 He needs 2 or 3 goals at least. 43:02 And they have just have not been able to do that. 43:04 Especially in conference play. 43:06 It's been kind of weird. 43:07 I think there's another reason. 43:08 I think the Big Ten, you know, they haven't lost in non-conference. 43:11 They're 5-0 and 2. 43:13 But they're 0-7 and 1 in Big Ten play. 43:15 So there you go. 43:17 That's the synopsis. 43:20 And Veegs, you know, Cappy can talked about it there, sitting some players for a little bit of time. 43:28 We've seen Bob do that a couple of times this year. 43:30 Maybe he needs to do it more if things don't go as as the way it should go. 43:36 Well, I think Bob is sitting guys for discipline, taking penalties. 43:40 You know, that's something we've seen. 43:41 Cappy is, you know, Pitlick takes a bad penalty. 43:45 He sits for a shift and then he goes out with the fourth line. 43:48 Or Brudzinski takes a bad penalty. 43:51 He sits a shift, goes out with the fourth line. 43:53 The thing is, is when those guys have been getting sat, they come out the next shift and they score anyway. 43:58 Part of it is they're getting to play shifts with Jimmy Clark, who's been a real surprise this year, how fast he's come along. 44:07 You know, I know we interviewed him last week at availability, and there are a lot of features that went out. 44:13 You know, he wouldn't be on this team if Logan Cooley decided to come back. 44:17 But because Cooley left when he did, Clark was the guy and he is fit right in. 44:23 And so I think whoever plays with Clark gets a little boost to their game. 44:26 And I wonder how long Bob is going to be patient with some of his lines. 44:32 I know he's moving Snuggeroot around this weekend, maybe with Rhett Pitlick and Oliver Moore. 44:38 We'll see if that sticks together because that could be fun to watch. 44:41 But Jimmy Clark is kind of that secret sauce that can be added to any line and make it work. 44:47 Yeah, it's been great watching him. 44:48 I mean, he made that great pass. 44:52 I looked so bleak for the gopher is down three nothing, five minute PK. 44:58 And then he gets a rush and you watch, you know, Pitlick just get on his horse. 45:03 It was fun to watch that. 45:04 I don't know if you could see it on screen as much, but I was watching him from where we were and you could just see him get up from like the blue line, the defensive blue line and just a great pass from Clark. 45:18 And I talked to Coach Miller and that Saturday morning, he just loves how like he says he's a lot like Justin Close in terms of his demeanor is so chill. 45:30 Nothing bothers him. 45:31 He doesn't get high and low. 45:33 He's like he's like he barely celebrated scoring an overtime goal against, you know, against Michigan State. 45:38 And I think a guy like that his mentality is like, I'm just going to go play and it's not going to matter. 45:44 And usually those kind of freshmen, if they're bringing some talent with them, which usually they are if you're coming to Minnesota, those are the guys that, you know, that they're not, oh, why am I not playing more? 45:55 They're not thinking they're just waiting for their turn. 45:57 And when they get their turn, they're doing the best with that opportunity instead of, why am I not playing more? 46:02 Why am I not getting this? 46:03 Why am I not getting that? 46:04 Those guys that adapt faster mentally to go when you get your opportunity, those are the guys that have success quick. 46:12 And he's earning it. 46:14 And you've heard the coaches, like you said, talk about how great he's been. 46:19 My girlfriend would like to know, Cappy, will there be dogs in the student section again this year? 46:26 Got to be, right? 46:27 Yes, Cappy. 46:29 She loves that. 46:29 I love that. 46:30 I think it's great. 46:32 It's awesome. 46:33 I mean, there's dogs everywhere now. 46:34 I love dogs. 46:35 I don't own a dog. 46:36 I like dogs. 46:38 But they're everywhere now. 46:40 I mean, they're in the airport. 46:41 They're sitting, you know, they're everywhere you go. 46:44 I mean, you can bring them with you now. 46:46 And they behave, as long as they behave well, and they're great TV. 46:51 Our cameras were all over them. 46:53 Yep. 46:55 Hopefully, they're there this weekend and they get all the TV time they want. 46:58 And it's hopefully, you know... 46:59 Well, you have to be careful. 47:00 That means Ohio State might be scoring goals, though. 47:03 Well, you know, was it a couple of years ago, didn't Minnesota kind of go over and celebrate on the wall with the dog? 47:10 Nick Blankenberg did. 47:12 That was, yeah, that was the most popular thing. 47:14 It was Michigan. 47:15 It was Nick Blankenberg. 47:17 So that's where that dog... 47:19 And then I feel like they've loved how they got some, you know, some publicity. 47:24 And then they're like, well, let's bring them in. 47:26 And so I'm assuming, you know, the the knuckle pucks will be prepared for that this weekend. 47:33 So, yes, the crowd's been there. 47:34 Is it getting better? 47:36 What's that? 47:37 Is the crowds getting better? 47:39 I mean, probably not. 47:41 They're not winning. 47:44 The crowds are I mean, generally, when they play Minnesota, they'll be good crowds this weekend. 47:50 It'll just again, either could be seven or eight thousand people there. 47:53 And it won't, or it's gigantic. 47:56 So it's, you know, and they've done that. 47:58 They don't open the top now unless they fill the bottom. 48:01 So, you know, the story goes on. 48:05 They have a new president coming in. 48:08 The AD is leaving this spring. 48:12 And the president, the new president of the university is a former Air Force hockey player. 48:17 So, yeah, so I, you know, I did talk to Coach Rolick in Notre Dame, and he didn't say anything about other than he's talked to him and he hopes to have more conversations. 48:29 But, I mean, you can't ask for anything better than that to at least get a better shot at, you know, being the next team to get a new plus with the women. 48:42 Like, come on. 48:42 It's like, yeah, look who's number one in the women's pool. 48:45 Yeah. 48:46 National champion, national runner up last year. 48:49 I mean, if they got like a five thousand six, something similar to Pagula, I mean, you know, the rest of the league almost doesn't want to see that because that's more recruiting. 49:00 Makes it a raucous atmosphere. 49:02 Yeah. 49:02 I mean, so, you know, it's been talked about for a long, long time. 49:07 And, you know, hopefully with these, you know, with these changes, the president, I don't know if he's going to hire the athletic director at Ohio State, but he's going to have a say. 49:17 But he's also obviously the president is going to have a say in what is built, well, how money is spent and yada, yada, yada. 49:23 So it's at least hope there with, you don't see too many presidents come into Ohio State that has a hockey background. 49:31 So I'm hopeful. 49:34 Figures. 49:36 It's good for the league if they have that. 49:39 Yeah, check twice what you're looking for in your schematics and your design, and just cut that one check and get that hockey rink done right. 49:48 Because this is not something you want to build to raise. 49:51 Whatever. 49:51 I mean, I don't, you know, whatever gets it done. 49:54 They, you know, they're talked, the one they talked about is building like a 2000 seat arena for the women that will be the men's practice room. 50:00 I'm like, what are we doing? 50:02 What? 50:02 No, I mean, and I don't, it never happened. 50:04 I think it was just something that, you know, they did to kind of quiet the crowd for a minute. 50:11 Well, what they did at the Regents meeting for Ohio State is they approved the design phase, right? 50:16 They didn't approve any of the building and that initial design that they asked for was that 2000 seat. 50:22 But when I asked Steve Rollock about it, he's like, it's a design. 50:27 There are many outcomes that could happen. 50:29 I think, like I said, I think it's just a show. 50:31 It's not that won't happen. 50:33 I don't think it would be a waste of time and money to do that. 50:37 I think. 50:38 Why not? 50:39 I don't know. 50:41 I feel like the Minnesota Wilde lost an opportunity when they built their TRIA practice rank. 50:46 They could have built like a four or five thousand seat rank. 50:50 And then if you host the World Junior, you've got the TRIA rank and you've got Excel. 50:55 And maybe the World Junior is going to come to the Twin Cities anyway. 50:59 You know, we've seen them have stuff at Target Center. 51:02 We've seen them at Excel. 51:03 We've seen them at Marriott. 51:04 You know, they're looking at all kinds of ways to host the tournament here in the Twin Cities in a couple of years. 51:10 And I think that would be great. 51:11 We've got the arenas there now. 51:14 But yeah, why wouldn't you want to have a newer? 51:16 And St. 51:17 Thomas on the way. 51:21 So I know, I know Chicago's doing it again. 51:25 They just bought more land next to their two practice ranks. 51:28 They're building two more and they're going to put stands in one of them finally. 51:32 Okay, that makes sense. 51:34 But yeah, you know, not everyone, you know, money is a thing. 51:37 And, you know, it's not always people want to expend that extra. 51:44 Yeah, five million or whatever, whatever that number is. 51:47 It's easy for us to talk about when it's not our money, but you know. 51:52 All right, Veegs, into the games this weekend. 51:55 Oh boy. 51:56 Yeah, I know. 51:58 I think it's a must sweep. 52:00 They really need to do that. 52:02 But what does Bob need to convey to this team? 52:06 That you need to play two nights. 52:08 And this is critical in our success because it really is. 52:12 I think it is. 52:13 You're closing out that kind of first half of the season, how you feel about it. 52:18 And you want to close out feeling good with a sweep. 52:21 What do they need to do? 52:24 I think the message from the staff has to be intense and critical all weekend long to maintain the focus for two nights. 52:33 I think when they have that good Friday night, the message that I perceive is like, things are going great, guys. 52:40 We're making progress. 52:42 We're going up. 52:43 It's not a straight line, but we're making progress. 52:45 We're going to be all right. 52:46 I feel like this is one of those weekends where even if they would have like a 4-1 win, the film on Saturday has to be like, hey, here are things we still need to clean up. 52:56 That's not good enough. 52:58 You know what we're going to get from Ohio State because they need points too. 53:03 It's not going to be an easy game. 53:05 I feel like that focus and practice has been picked up this week from what I can tell. 53:11 Everyone's intense. 53:12 They're working on lots of battle situations. 53:16 They're working on lots of face-off situations. 53:18 They're working on their entries, hard plays. 53:22 That's the message I think the coaching staff is trying to get through the team right now is, hey, two games, let's finish the first half with a bang. 53:34 All right, Cappy. 53:34 Was that prediction or was that just about the game? 53:37 Well, not the prediction. 53:39 We'll hold the prediction, but that's what they need to do to be successful, according to VEGES. 53:45 That's the message they're getting. 53:47 Okay. 53:48 Okay. 53:52 Cappy, I know you. 53:56 We started to go back and forth and you're like, Ohio's bad as they think they are, but maybe they are as bad and they need. 54:06 A win this weekend could be really big for them. 54:09 Sure. 54:10 I mean, they need to score first. 54:12 I think that's like huge. 54:16 Because one, it'll give them a little confidence to see a puck go in the net. 54:19 To play with a lead is just a completely different thing at home. 54:26 Yeah, I don't know. 54:27 And then Turner says to play great. 54:29 You know, their special teams are not really good. 54:34 They don't have, I mean, you lost two stud defensemen. 54:38 Both have had NHL games now this year. 54:41 That both were really good on the power play, especially Mason Lurie last year. 54:47 They have some guys that are okay up there, but they don't have that like elite guy. 54:52 And it just, it snowballed. 54:55 And you know, when you're not scoring goals, everyone knows you're, you're, you're, you're scripting the stick more. 55:02 You're thinking more. 55:02 You're not playing as free. 55:04 You're thinking, oh my God, what's going to, and when you're on a losing street, what's going to happen next to, to, to us? 55:09 So like getting a first goal, playing with a lead against the team like Minnesota is, I just, I don't see other ways of them having success. 55:21 You know, hey, maybe you zero zero into the second period, you know, and you're building, you're building some confidence that way knowing you're right there and one goal is going to get you to the top. 55:34 But I, it's got to be, I'm just thinking to myself of, you know, being on teams, not at colleges in general, when you're struggling to score and, you know, everything's going bad for you. 55:46 You, if you don't get some positive things in a game early, it's really hard. 55:50 I don't care how mentally strong you are. 55:52 It's really hard to play through that and have confidence, especially when you're playing. 55:57 Everybody's ranked in the league except for them now, you know, so there's, there's no breaks other than when you play non-confidence games. 56:07 But yeah, that's, that's got to be their mentality, I think, is getting a good start, getting a lead, and then hopefully, I put some confidence in their back pocket. 56:16 Well, I'm definitely picking the sweep for Minnesota, more or less because they... 56:19 I'm shocked. 56:20 I know. 56:23 They, they, you know what? 56:24 They need it. 56:25 They need six points. 56:26 They need to get a little more competitive in the league. 56:29 If you care about the standings, which is funny, the coaching, I don't think cares about the Big Ten standings all that much. 56:34 Yeah, but you know what? 56:35 But six points? 56:39 Yeah, but you know what? 56:40 A loss hurts them in the pairwise. 56:44 And if, if, if, if Ohio State keeps going down, it could be that could be really bad year for them. 56:50 And you have a loss to Ohio State that's going to damage your pairwise. 56:55 So that's why I say a must have six points this weekend. 56:58 Veegs, what happens? 57:02 I agree with you. 57:03 A loss to Ohio State is not good right now. 57:05 They're 27th in their pairwise. 57:07 You know, that's right there with Minnesota State, 28. 57:10 Colorado College, 29. 57:12 You know, St. 57:13 Thomas, 35. 57:15 That's that's not a good place to be. 57:17 And loss to a team there would damage Minnesota a lot. 57:21 I think Minnesota is going to be able to get through this weekend. 57:24 I think Jimmy Snugger is going to be the Big Ten first star of the week coming out of this. 57:28 I think I think the line with Moore and Pitlick is something that's really going to free him up. 57:34 I think Oliver Moore is really starting to get it. 57:36 I think he's going to be able to contribute playing with those two. 57:39 And I think that's going to be a fun line to watch. 57:41 I think Snugger Root gets five or six points this weekend. 57:44 And the Gophers get six points. 57:47 Wow. 57:47 I love that prediction. 57:49 I love that. 57:52 Stoking Snugger Root here. 57:53 All right, Cappy. 57:54 I'll say that about Snugger Root. 57:56 He's like watching him all weekend. 57:58 Closer than I watched him this year. 58:01 Obviously his numbers aren't as good. 58:02 I mean, Jesus, he was playing with two guys that are. 58:06 You know, not just in the NHL, but, you know, top six type NHL players, right? 58:11 I mean, and he could be one if he if he'd be probably in the NHL right now, if he would have signed, I don't think he'd be playing today. 58:19 He played hard and he's been playing hard like you don't. 58:24 He might get frustrated out there, but he doesn't. 58:26 He still keeps going. 58:28 And he's shooting the puck a lot, almost maybe sometimes he's shooting too much where there's maybe other things he could be doing, like, you know, making a play. 58:35 But I think his mind is telling him to shoot, shoot, shoot because a lot of people tell him to because then he has a great shot. 58:41 I do like that line. 58:42 He needs someone to dish him the puck. 58:45 I love Aaron Hugeland's game, but he's not a puck. 58:48 He's not a puck distributing like assist centerman type of guy. 58:53 So I like with Pitlick the way he's playing, that's the perfect guy for him to put on if you're trying to get the snubbery going. 59:01 So my prediction this weekend, I just, I don't know. 59:07 I don't see a, I don't know. 59:09 Maybe at one point for the Buckeyes, I don't know though. 59:14 Maybe they can, you know, Minnesota just comes out flat or sometimes teams do not come out strong at Value City Arena because maybe the crowd is late. 59:23 Crowd might be slow coming in on Friday. 59:25 It's a 630 start there. 59:28 Maybe, I don't know. 59:29 I mean, the students will be there. 59:30 Students actually have been great. 59:32 I'm jealous. 59:33 We never had a good student section. 59:35 They have a good student section there back in that corner. 59:38 But I want to, I want, I want to be a homer type of thing. 59:42 I just, I don't know if that can happen. 59:44 I just really don't. 59:45 So I'm going to say a sweep as well. 59:48 There you go, folks. 59:48 So if anything else besides sweep happens, don't blame us. 59:54 I mean, and you know what's funny is I was looking at the pairwise after last Friday's game, I think, and the Buckeyes pairwise actually went up because they lost to a high rank team. 1:00:03 And then I looked, Princeton won, Mercyhurst won. 1:00:06 All the teams that they beat in the non-conference. 1:00:10 Yep. 1:00:11 Omaha won. 1:00:12 All three of those teams that they had sweeps or they didn't lose a game to, obviously, having lost in non-conference, moved them from like 28 to 26, even though they lost. 1:00:22 So it's like, who knows? 1:00:25 Maybe if they get swept, though, their pairwise will go up because they played Minnesota this week. 1:00:29 I mean, I don't think it'll ever get horrible unless they just lose all their games because they're never they don't have a bad team to play or I think they play Bowling Green. 1:00:40 And then they have one more with Mercy Hurst at home, which you went all three of those that maybe who knows if that's their own. 1:00:47 No, they're not going to go for a league cut. 1:00:49 I hope not. 1:00:50 Knocking on wood right now. 1:00:53 But yeah, I don't know. 1:00:55 I mean, you look at that. 1:00:56 Look at the NCHC though. 1:00:57 They got CC, Duluth and Miami are 30 or around 30 or lower. 1:01:04 The NCHC usually is like Miami, maybe CC, but Duluth is near 40, right, Diggs? 1:01:12 So Hurtin Minnesota pairwise. 1:01:16 Well, because they have a tie. 1:01:17 They have a win and a tie. 1:01:18 Win and a tie. 1:01:19 Yeah. 1:01:20 Well, I mean, it can't be perfect. 1:01:21 I don't know. 1:01:22 It's no. 1:01:23 The hockey east is crazy. 1:01:24 I don't know how. 1:01:27 pairwise, I don't. 1:01:29 pairwise explained. 1:01:30 explain it to me, Diggs. 1:01:33 That's what overtime is for. 1:01:34 You need a couple of beers first. 1:01:36 Overtimes and beverages. 1:01:37 So well, thanks for coming on the show once again, Cappy. 1:01:41 You're up there right with Molesky. 1:01:43 I'm going to am I going to pass them in January since I'm the next Big Ten guy? 1:01:48 I think you might. 1:01:49 I don't think you're going to pass them though. 1:01:50 No, I didn't. 1:01:51 I wouldn't think I would. 1:01:52 But it's funny though, their next four Big Ten games are against the Buckeyes. 1:01:57 Yeah. 1:01:57 And you'll be back with us in early January after the Robert Morris series. 1:02:00 So it'll be fun to have you back on then. 1:02:04 Yeah, I hope they win those two games so you guys aren't too grumpy. 1:02:10 Because I mean, if they lose one of those to Robert Morris. 1:02:14 Yes. 1:02:16 Veegs, do you have anything for us before we say good night for the podcast? 1:02:21 Thanks for being with us for the first half of the year. 1:02:23 It's been a lot of fun working with Pulltab Sports and having all the viewers. 1:02:27 I was just emailing at Jupe the other day. 1:02:30 Our viewership is up. 1:02:32 We appreciate all you coming with us. 1:02:35 It makes it a lot of fun. 1:02:36 It's the hair, guys. 1:02:37 You're bringing on the hair. 1:02:39 You look good. 1:02:40 Look good, feel good, play good. 1:02:42 Here you go. 1:02:43 I like the way you're thinking there, Cappy. 1:02:45 Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 1:02:49 This is our last show of 2023, but we'll be back with a new podcast on January 3rd, where our guests will be Jack Ramsey and Eric Sheerhorn. 1:03:01 That's going to be fun just from the stories right there. 1:03:04 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for overtime, of course, but for the rest of you, we'll catch you again in January. 1:03:12 Thanks for listening.