0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:18 So right away, my confidence is doing really, really, really well before that. 0:24 And then Don goes, can anybody on the ice take a penalty shot? 0:30 And the referee goes, no, it has to be Ramsey. 0:33 And I'm like, okay, there's shot two to the confidence. 0:41 You know, I think there is some shenanigans happening in the goalie community. 0:45 Are you gonna speak on that? 0:48 You know, I got to ride with Goalie Nation, but. 0:51 Ha, ha, ha. 0:57 Now, here's Jupiter and Vego. 1:05 Good evening, welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 253. 1:13 And Veegs, back from the break, almost a month off from the podcast. 1:19 How was the break for you? 1:20 We should feel well rested, right? 1:22 With all the time off? 1:24 Yes. 1:24 It's been very hectic for a father of two with the youth hockey. 1:28 And then of course tonight, I had to fuel up with some chicken parm. 1:31 You know, it's a hectic evening in the household, to get ready for the second half. 1:36 I was out shopping out all over the place. 1:38 You were like giving me notes. 1:39 I'm like, oh, geez, I gotta fix some things before it's... 1:44 It sneaks up on you. 1:45 We're back at the podcast again. 1:47 And we're at like super full strength tonight. 1:51 We kind of are. 1:52 So we've had our two guests on individually before VEGES. 1:57 This is the first time we've had them together. 1:58 So we're kind of hoping for some chaos, do you think? 2:02 Chaos theory, let's go. 2:03 All right, let's bring them in. 2:04 We've got Jack Ramsey and Eric Schierhorn. 2:09 Fellas, how are you doing? 2:12 Good, good. 2:14 Thanks for having us on. 2:16 Rammer's highlight reel at the start was a little better than mine. 2:18 That was pretty funny. 2:20 So I liked that one. 2:21 But he's got better material than I do. 2:23 So I don't blame me on that one. 2:24 It's easier when John Luke can do me more. 2:29 Well, it was you kind of ripping yourself because of that old penalty shot you got to take that. 2:35 Can anyone else take it? 2:41 I don't remember that Rammer. 2:42 When was that? 2:44 Sophomore year against Wisconsin. 2:46 I was on the PK and I picked off a DDD pass, got tripped on the breakaway and short, long story short, Don asked if anybody on the ice could take the penalty shot instead of me. 2:55 And I think Romanco was on the ice with me. 2:58 So there's no chance they were picking him over me. 3:00 And so he's probably going to pass it to one of the two defensemen. 3:04 And then Gennar was yelling, take the power play, take the power play. 3:10 And it was only in the game notes for about a decade. 3:12 Yep. 3:13 Next to the SID Brian Deutsch. 3:16 Yeah, who was it? 3:17 Who had the next penalty shot? 3:20 Who was last year, wasn't it? 3:21 Uh oh, now we need Nate. 3:25 We need Gopher State to remind us. 3:28 You know, I can check the Gopher game notes if you let me scramble a little bit and I can figure out who replaced you on there. 3:34 But it doesn't happen very often. 3:37 No, it doesn't. 3:38 But, you know, on the flip side, you know, you're not doing penalty shots, but still the Veegs, the Gophers stink at shootouts. 3:48 And we found that out at the last series of the year against Ohio State again. 3:53 Yeah, I know that the fans are really frustrated with the shootouts, but from my perspective, you just got to put that in the trash can. 4:01 You know, I've heard so often from fans that they're frustrated this team isn't going to Frozen 4s, isn't winning national championships. 4:10 And you know, it doesn't help you win a national championship spending a lot of time on shootouts. 4:17 You know, it's just something for a conference title race that Gopher fans have seen locked up by this program many years over the last decade. 4:28 They're spending their time playing for the Frozen 4. 4:31 So all this shootout stuff that people talk about, it's just nonsense to me. 4:36 And you know, this team has played pretty well. 4:38 They've only lost two games, I think in their last two months. 4:42 That's pretty impressive overall with all the guys they've had to replace. 4:45 So I think that's where they should put their focus. 4:48 Chill Kessel, they don't have that shootout specialist like Jack Ramsey anymore. 4:52 Their fans need to move on. 4:56 The thing is though is Rammer was actually pretty good at shootouts in practice. 5:02 Yeah, in practice. 5:03 I never saw that. 5:03 You know, we're hearing that from Coach Masco. 5:06 You know, all these guys, they do pretty good you know, in practice. 5:09 And you know, and then all of a sudden some weird defenseman will come up. 5:12 People are like, what is he doing this for? 5:14 And then Masco will say, Veegs, you know, hey, he won it in practice. 5:19 Yeah, well, what would you guys say is the biggest difference? 5:23 You know, Rammer is a shooter, Schierhorn is a goalie, you know, going from practice shootouts to game shootouts. 5:30 I would like, I had way, way, way more confidence in practice. 5:34 Like I would stop at the hash marks and stick handle, you know, and like be fancy with it and it would work. 5:40 But I had, there was no chance I was going to do that in a game because if I did that in a game and got Pochector, like it bounced over my stick, like I wouldn't be able to let that down. 5:47 So it's like, all right, let's keep it simple. 5:49 And doing that, like less likely to score, so. 5:55 I think for me, the difference is just less time to think, right? 6:02 Because in practice, it's usually rapid fire shootout. 6:06 And so you're just getting your reps in, you kind of got the timing down. 6:10 But then in a game when you have different guys coming down, doing, you know, one's going slow, one's going fast, one's taking an angle and you just get different looks that you're maybe a little less prepared for. 6:23 And then, I mean, it's just it's a lot of luck too. 6:26 I mean, there's no, you know, you could have a really good goalie who has a couple bad shootouts in a row and he's not necessarily bad at breakaways or shootouts. 6:34 He just didn't stop those attempts. 6:37 You know what I mean? 6:37 And so it's fluky and I don't know, I don't put too much weight on it. 6:44 I think the fan frustration, not maybe that they lost, is that they've had what? 6:49 Three of them, I don't know, three or four. 6:51 They haven't even scored. 6:53 Not once. 6:54 It doesn't matter who they put out. 6:55 You know, they put out the guys who score lots of goals in the games like Rhett Pitlick and Jimmy Stuggerud and they don't score. 7:01 And then you throw out guys like Cal Thomas. 7:04 I heard Max Rudd won the shootout the other day for practice. 7:08 You know, if they throw out those guys, the fans get really upset too. 7:12 So I think it's just a lot of luck. 7:15 And like Eric said and Jack said, it's different than practice. 7:18 You know, in the NHL, when there are a lot of points at stake in the shootout, you know, you start to build your books just like you do in soccer, where you look at goalies and you look at their weaknesses and shootouts and you look at shooters and look what they try to do. 7:31 Now you put a little more focus in it because it sort of matters whether you make the playoffs or not or what seed. 7:37 But in college, it's not really that important. 7:40 You know, the pairwise isn't looking at these shootout wins and losses for anybody. 7:43 So I don't think the coaching staff is looking at it either. 7:48 Well, it did cost them a point there in at Ohio State. 7:52 So they took four points out of six points. 7:54 Veegs, do you have any thoughts? 7:55 You know, it was a month ago almost. 7:57 Any quick thoughts on that series? 7:59 Well, I just thought they played OK in the second game against Ohio State. 8:03 You just didn't see the offensive ground game really take over. 8:07 Too many one-and-done situations for my liking. 8:10 That's something this program needs to take that next step, is be able to generate offense from in-zone possession and creating second chances and connecting shifts together. 8:20 You know, we've seen it at times for this program where teams can get on a run with that, but we're not seeing it consistently at this group. 8:28 And of course, you know, the program was pretty run down. 8:31 There's a lot of little negative injuries that were affecting players coming down the end of the first half. 8:36 And I think the fans probably don't know the number of injuries guys are dealing with. 8:41 And then again, in that last game, it's Ohio State, you know, Hugland goes down, Moore goes down. 8:45 So they don't really have the centers who can drive that kind of possession, playing consistent shifts in that game. 8:51 So I think that was a big impact. 8:53 So being able to turn the page the second half should be good for this group. 8:59 All right. 8:59 They have a long month off. 9:02 You guys both did this. 9:04 Jack, what's the first thing you did when that first half of the season was over? 9:09 Oh, Christmas break or whatnot. 9:11 Just get home. 9:12 Probably get home and get up to the cabinet with the family. 9:14 It's just rest and recharge. 9:16 I mean, it's a long break, but it's not a long break. 9:19 Eric, right? 9:19 You get like three, four days of actual time off. 9:22 And then it's, I think, I don't know if it was Christmas day, like we had practices or the day after Christmas. 9:28 You know, there's a stretch, you know, where you get a break in games, but the players aren't off as much. 9:34 So kind of on the coaching staff to keep things light and fun that, you know, when you're actually off, so guys can get a little rest in the mind. 9:44 Last though. 9:45 So you found it, Veegs? 9:48 Last Minnesota Pellet shot was a miss by Jimmy Stongeroode. 9:51 Hey, he missed, I missed. 9:53 Same players. 9:57 Happens to the best of them, Rammer. 10:01 Yeah. 10:02 You know, we're thinking about having Brian Deutsch on the podcast next week since, you know, he was kind of a Robert Morris guy before he came to the U. 10:10 So I told him we'd put it to a vote here. 10:12 So do you two think that Deutsch would be a good guest for Robert Morris? 10:18 No, I'm just kidding. 10:19 Deutsch is always classic. 10:21 You gotta love Deutsch. 10:23 I don't know what hockey insight he'll provide, but he's probably got some great stories of behind the scenes looks. 10:31 I don't know how much he'd want to let it fly, but behind the scenes interactions with Don and Genner and Grant, whoever. 10:40 Just funny, grezzer, behind the scenes looks that I'm sure fans and listeners would appreciate. 10:48 Don't let Deutsch know that, Veegs. 10:54 Don't let him know I said that, though. 10:56 No, Eric's spot on. 10:57 He would have better stories than the next 10 player guests that you have on your podcast. 11:04 Maybe in overtime, if you can keep him on for a bit, too, he might spill the beans a little bit. 11:09 But if you can give him a couple of stories, it would be pretty good. 11:12 But who's got more stories, Deutsch or this guy who's saying, really? 11:17 Mr. 11:17 Craig Flohr. 11:18 Craig was privy to some of those behind the scenes interactions, so I don't know who's got better. 11:27 We'd have to do a story-off or something like that, but. 11:31 Craig's been on quite a few over times. 11:33 He was on our 250th show a couple earlier this season. 11:38 Well, so was Deutsch. 11:39 We had Deutsch on for that as well for the 250th episode. 11:44 He's a good guest. 11:45 So I think, Veegs, we might want to pencil him in for next week, don't you think? 11:48 I think that's a definite yes. 11:50 I think so. 11:50 And he's got stories about Derek Schooley, too, the head coach at Robert Morris, who was there when Deutsch was there. 11:56 And he's at Robert Morris and he's on the USCHO podcast every week these days. 12:01 He took the mic last year and he stuck with it even while being behind the bench for Robert Morris this year. 12:08 He's continued to podcast. 12:09 He's always got interesting East Coast perspectives on things. 12:13 I got to talk to him quite a bit, the Frozen Four in Tampa last year. 12:17 And so, I'm looking forward to that matchup coming up in two weeks. 12:22 So, Stephanie, yes. 12:22 So, we'll have to give him the... 12:24 Can you just text him now that it's been voted 100% he needs to... 12:28 Clearly, he's watching. 12:29 So, he could be. 12:33 Veegs, we had the month off to come back, play an exhibition against the U18 National Development Team. 12:41 They've actually fared pretty well recently against that team where that team has been known to do pretty well against colleges and they had just beaten North Dakota. 12:52 But I would say that was a pretty successful evening this past Monday night. 12:58 Well, I think the biggest thing for me was looking at Aerie as a goaltender in a game. 13:02 I always think it's so difficult to evaluate goalies in practice. 13:07 I remember when I was helping out with a high school team, the head coach would be like, so who do you think the goalie should be this weekend? 13:12 It's just like, oh man, I don't know. 13:15 It's like, this guy's a better battler. 13:16 I think he handles adversity more. 13:19 Technically, it's hard for me to really evaluate. 13:22 If they look smooth and athletic and have their agility and are not giving away goals, it's hard to evaluate. 13:29 So getting Aerie between the pipes in front of some fans and able to make some saves. 13:35 He actually saw a lot of rubber against the development team and he did himself proud, I think. 13:41 I think it's difficult for a goaltender to basically not play for six, seven months in game action and then just get thrown in the fire like that because there is a lot of talent in the Ann Arbor program. 13:52 Yes. 13:53 Eric, Mr. 13:54 Schierhorn, I should say, so we've got too many Erics here going on right now. 13:57 A lot of times in exhibition games, they like to rotate the goalies. 14:01 Maybe if you have three, you'll play one a period, maybe split half time. 14:04 This time he played the full game. 14:08 If you were a starter, did you like playing those exhibition games? 14:13 Not really. 14:13 There was basically nothing to gain. 14:18 And I wouldn't say everything. 14:20 That's a little dramatic. 14:21 But there's not much upside to these games for the whole teams in general, but especially the goaltenders. 14:28 I mean, as a backup, it's and someone who hasn't played yet, it's great for him to get touches in. 14:34 And if it goes well, it's like, OK, we got something here and maybe you can get the inside path to be in the starter next year. 14:41 But as a starter, it's like, I mean, you don't not want to plan, but you're like, and this game doesn't really do anything for me. 14:49 And I've actually been on his side of it in my senior year when I was riding pine. 14:55 I played the full game against the U18s at, well, it was in Plymouth, but in Plymouth. 15:01 And, you know, I played well, so it was it was fine and it was good, honestly, to get in there and get touches in and, you know, gain some confidence, really, because when you don't play, you kind of lose it. 15:12 But generally speaking, yeah, I think if you put true serum in most guys in that locker room, they'd say, I think we'd rather have just done New Year's and not played at 2 p.m. 15:26 on the first. 15:28 I think sometimes there's probably a coach that sees that game on the schedule and is like, yes, they're going to have to behave themselves the night before. 15:38 Lock them in. 15:39 But whatever, it is what it is. 15:43 What about you, Jack? 15:44 How do you, what did you think about these exhibitions? 15:47 I think they're kind of good for the Gophers, especially with the guys gone at World Juniors, just to see, you know, get a good look at the team with the guys gone and playing pretty well against the National Development Program, who's obviously fared well against BU and North Dakota. 16:03 I mean, they could, they could probably make the NCAA tournament as a college team, right? 16:08 But just get a feel for what it's going to look like this weekend. 16:11 If those guys, you know, most likely win tomorrow and if they, even if they lose tomorrow, they're probably not going to come back and play this weekend. 16:17 So it's good that we can put together a feasible roster missing a few guys. 16:22 That was a hot take, by the way. 16:28 What's that? 16:29 I don't know if I have a rebuttal for you on that one, but that is a hot take that they'd make the tournament. 16:34 That could be a preposterous statement. 16:38 They're a pretty good team. 16:40 Let me. 16:40 Yeah. 16:41 What if they beat BU 8-2 or something? 16:43 And they're going to win. 16:49 That's where I have some hesitation with just crowning them as better than some of these teams is the one-off exhibition game that maybe they might not necessarily want to play or play their third string or back up. 17:02 I'm like, I don't doubt that they're a really good team, but being a top 16 team in college hockey, I'm a little hesitant to crown them that. 17:12 I didn't say top 16. 17:13 Put them in the Atlantic and they win the conference. 17:17 Oh, he's moving the goalpost. 17:21 Oh my gosh. 17:22 It's unbelievable. 17:24 Because I remember one time they beat like North Dakota and then they lost to Bethel the next day. 17:31 And so there is so much talent that this team can make you look bad if you're going to give up rushes and play transition hockey. 17:39 But I don't think the Gophers did that. 17:40 I think Begley and Rudd were looking to show that they can be responsible and given more than six, seven minutes a night. 17:48 They wanted to show what they could do and not start getting crazy and riverboat gambling out there. 17:53 That's spot on. 17:56 That's spot on. 17:57 Hey, it's hard to get up for Bethel after you play North Dakota too. 18:00 No doubt. 18:01 And it was at Bethel too, I'm pretty sure. 18:07 Sports center. 18:09 It's tough rank. 18:12 Oh boy. 18:13 Did you guys, would coaches ever say, hey, so-and-so is playing for us next year. 18:18 Don't lay them out. 18:23 No, I'm trying to think who would have been. 18:24 Since we played NTP twice, Rammer, would have been our senior year, which I guess Faber would have been on that team, right? 18:31 And then our sophomore year, maybe at the start of the year exhibition. 18:40 And then that would have been no one or Reedy. 18:45 But no, that was a long way to say no. 18:47 But no. 18:50 I'm trying to think back. 18:52 I remember there was a gopher commit that got laid out pretty good a couple years ago. 18:59 And he was like a first round type talent. 19:01 And you just kind of go, Oh, no, that's not a great look. 19:10 I was kind of worried for Cole Iserman this last weekend. 19:12 You know, I think he committed out to Boston under good circumstances. 19:17 And I saw someone tell me that he shook hands with Bob and Ben after the game. 19:22 I think there's no hard feelings between the coaching staff and that family there. 19:26 I think that's a very personal decision he made to stay home. 19:30 And that is definitely something that Bob understood. 19:34 What? 19:35 That's always Gary again. 19:36 Remind me. 19:37 So Cole Iserman is probably going to be like a top three pick. 19:41 And I know he decommitted, but I didn't know there's a backstory, to be honest. 19:46 You know, Veegs, it's probably one of the fans that were angry and everything else. 19:52 I'm guessing the players and coaches probably know a lot more to the story that we're never going to hear than anything else. 20:00 Yeah, I think it's always tough when somebody leaves home and he's got personal reasons why he wants to stay back in Boston that weren't really there when he committed to Minnesota. 20:08 I think he just saw what was happening with Cooley and Knives and was like, I want to be a part of that. 20:14 And then, you know, as it got closer and closer to actually sign that NLI, he realized that being home close to his family was just so much more important. 20:22 And he didn't want to put his family through all the stress of trying to travel out to Minnesota to see him play. 20:28 You know, it's so much easier for them, especially if he's going to be a one and done or maybe a two and done type player anyway. 20:34 So yeah, no big drama. 20:37 No, I'm glad that's the case because he sounds like a good kid, you know. 20:41 And like you said, they're kids, Veegs. 20:45 Exactly. 20:45 I mean, Brock Faber, when he went to the program, he realized how much he missed home. 20:50 And when it came time to commit, you know, he talked about, I wanted to be closer to my family. 20:56 And I didn't really know that when I was 16. 20:59 But after being at the program for a while, I realized the best thing for me was probably to stay close to home. 21:04 And so that was his decision. 21:08 And I definitely understand it for Iserman. 21:11 All right. 21:12 We need to take a little break here and hear from our sponsors. 21:20 Jake Middleton here, director of hair and hygiene for the Minnesota Wild. 21:24 How did I get this important role with the team, you ask? 21:26 I'd like to think it was because of hard work, but the truth is I run hot. 21:30 Yep, I'm a sweater. 21:34 In my role as director of hair and hygiene, I'm sort of like a player coach. 21:38 Let me pull out the grease board here. 21:40 Well, it's not actually a grease board because there is nothing dirty about Duke Cannon. 21:46 How do I help the guys stay squeaky clean? 21:48 Helpful reminders. 21:49 It's simple. 21:50 Tarp saw, Duke Cannon up. 21:53 Say it with me. 21:54 Tarp saw, Duke Cannon up. 21:56 Tarp saw, Duke Cannon up. 21:59 Pick the scent that suits you. 22:02 Sawtooth, thick body wash, extra thick. 22:08 And my favorite, midnight swim. 22:14 Duke Cannon. 22:15 Work harder, smell better. 22:19 Are you tired of the same old fundraisers? 22:21 Paying $15 for a stale bag of popcorn, chocolate candy bars melting in your car, and more frozen pizzas than you have freezer space. 22:32 Introducing FURTA Fundraisers, a fundraising company with as much personality as the people who play the game. 22:43 Choose from great products made by local companies, flexible plans built around your needs. 22:49 Sell how you want and be supported from start to finish. 22:54 Deliver max return without charging people a fortune. 22:58 It's never been easier to support your community. 23:00 Ignite your fundraising. 23:01 FURTA Fundraisers. 23:03 FURTA Boys. 23:04 FURTA Girls. 23:06 FURTA Community. 23:07 FURTA Fundraisers. 23:10 Of course, a big thanks to Duke Cannon and FURTA Fundraisers for sponsoring the GPL Podcast. 23:17 All right, let's bring them all back. 23:21 A lot going on this time of year, Veegs. 23:24 World Junior Tournament dominates everything because it's the biggest tournament out there. 23:29 It really is. 23:30 And as Jess Myers reported, today, it's coming to the cities. 23:36 That's right. 23:37 I've been waiting for this for a long time. 23:39 I always loved the World Juniors. 23:41 It was such a huge deal in Canada. 23:43 It's finally started to migrate its way south to where it's a big deal here in the US. 23:48 I think now that the Ann Arbor Plymouth program has really taken off and set them up for success of this tournament has made a big difference. 23:55 And it's just some of the most exciting hockey because this is an age where those players make a lot of mistakes and there's a lot of transition hockey and there's a lot of offense and anything can happen as we saw this year when Canada got knocked out, you know, in a game where they pretty much controlled the last 30 minutes, you know, one bad bounce and the goalie over committed to the shot and had no chance at the deflection. 24:18 And now they're out and it's looking pretty good for the four Gophers who are still out in Sweden. 24:24 They've got Finland tomorrow and then we'll see what happens in a potential medal game because they do play two games regardless. 24:31 So they either play for gold or play for bronze. 24:35 So it's going to be an exciting time here. 24:36 So that's going to be in around Christmas of 2025 and it's the 2026 tournament. 24:41 We played at Mariucci and at the Xcel Energy Center. 24:44 I'm guessing a lot of practices at Ritter and maybe even Tria. 24:48 It's going to be a huge event. 24:50 I'm excited for it. 24:51 Veegs, do you think we'll be able to get some credentials for that? 24:53 It might be tough. 24:55 I don't know. 24:56 We'll see what happens. 24:56 I've heard some other talk when they pitched the idea that they might have games at other locations as well and not just the two sites because I know when they came to Minnesota, they toured a lot of buildings to look at potential because you know it's like when it's Norway against Slovakia, you're not going to fill 10,000 seats for that. 25:15 So if you get a right size venue for it, you know, there's plenty of good rinks around here for them to check out. 25:22 I'm looking forward to going to as many games as I can. 25:25 I usually try to go up to Lake Superior after the Christmas break, spend a little day checking out the lake. 25:31 But next year, it's going to have to be a hockey rink. 25:35 I might have to, I mean, well, what do you two think about this junior tournament? 25:40 It seems like it's just ever since maybe even Crosby and Ovechkin, when they were up in Grand Forks, it's really kind of taken off the last 20 years. 25:49 But it's also helped the US team has been successful, Jack. 25:53 Yeah, no, 100%. 25:55 It's been like, I think when I was a lot younger, I didn't even know what the tournament was. 25:59 And like you said, once you kind of had some of those household stars, those really top end guys, it started becoming a Christmas tradition of checking it out and following along. 26:10 This year, it's a little bit easier time wise to fall along. 26:13 And next year is going to be really special. 26:16 Eric, same thing, I usually get up to the cabin, but I think I'll probably try to stick around for a few games and catch that. 26:21 And that'd be really, really cool to be able to catch some of those games at Mary Uchee. 26:24 It'd be a cool combination. 26:26 Yeah, it's going to be the 50th anniversary for that season. 26:32 VEGES is actually next year for 2025. 26:37 Probably somewhere in Canada. 26:39 Next year it's in Ottawa. 26:41 Ottawa, Canada. 26:41 Yeah, two years. 26:42 Sorry, I dumped a gun on that. 26:44 No, no. 26:45 Well, the thing is, it starts at the end of 2025, but it's the 2026 tournament. 26:50 So basically two years from now. 26:55 Did you guys ever go to the camps where they started kind of tagging guys for that level where you were competing with players maybe to look at getting an invite to play for USA at any kind of international events? 27:09 Rammer probably did, but I didn't. 27:12 I did my 17 year old year. 27:15 Just the national camp thing. 27:19 I mean, I tried out when I was... 27:21 Well, hold on though. 27:22 Are you talking about that or are you talking about something else? 27:24 Are you talking about the summer camps where they bring 35 guys in where it's like, okay, this is basically the pool that we're driving. 27:34 I didn't sniff that. 27:37 No, no, no, no, no. 27:44 Those summer camps where they have like the eight different teams of like the 15s and then the 16s and then the 16s. 27:54 Yeah, it's a little easier getting out of the Pacific District, which is Seattle, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon. 28:04 California produces good players, but other than that, now, I will say this, though, is at least in the later years, they started tapering how many players we sent. 28:17 So like by the end of it, 17s is the last year. 28:20 And by the end of it, Pacific District was sending like eight people. 28:25 We were sending like one goalie, 3D and, you know, four forwards type of thing. 28:32 So that made it a little harder, but still, I'd rather be going out of Pacific District as opposed to Minnesota. 28:39 Yeah, I didn't make it out of my, because it goes districts to like your state for at least for Minnesota. 28:46 It's district, state, and then you go. 28:48 And when I tried out 15 year old year, I didn't make it out of our district, which is like Edina, Eden Prairie. 28:53 It's kind of like Lake Conference is what our area is. 28:55 And I didn't even make it out of the first cut. 28:57 And then 16s, I didn't even try out. 28:59 And then 17s, I made it. 29:02 But I was, I'm in November. 29:04 Eric, I don't know, when's your birthday? 29:06 February 96. 29:07 So that, yeah, so that's a little bit, I'm in November 95. 29:10 So that kind of sucked too, because I was trying out with the Loteris and the Schultz and the guys that were a year older than me. 29:18 So it took me a while to kind of hit a growth spurt and be able to keep up. 29:21 Well, I saw Andrew Carlson commenting here, Belgium and Slovenia at Fogarty. 29:30 Belgium. 29:31 Is Belgium made of World Juniors? 29:34 I don't think so. 29:36 I think the question will be, will Russia be back in the Juniors by then, Veegs? 29:40 Probably not. 29:42 We'll see. 29:43 That one's above my pay grid. 29:50 It's going to be interesting though, because I think that the Finland team has really upped their game. 29:56 Recently, they started out kind of slow, lost to Germany. 29:58 I think they lost to Canada too. 30:01 But then they kind of turned it on late, Veegs beat Sweden, beat Latvia and got in. 30:09 This is one of those tournaments where you get a young group of players together and they can get hot and find some chemistry and make some things happen. 30:16 I have been impressed with the US team. 30:18 I think they've generated a lot of offense throughout their entire lineup. 30:22 I feel like their special teams have been pretty good and both goalies have been okay. 30:27 I think they'll get tested more in the next two games that they play. 30:30 But they've got two good ones. 30:32 Augustine has been really good out of Michigan State and Fowler as well. 30:37 Okay, the question is, will Rinzel and Chesley play like they are right now? 30:44 Because I've really noticed that those guys don't push it up and try to enter the zone as much as they do when they play for the Gophers. 30:52 They've been really trying to be more stay at home kind of guys. 30:57 Well, I think that's a lesson they learned in the first half of the year. 31:00 I think towards the last couple of games that they've played, they have been taking less chances and letting the game come to them. 31:07 And it's been paying off, at least for Chesley. 31:10 He's getting scoring opportunities in the offensive zone because he's not forcing it. 31:14 He's waiting for opportunities to present themselves. 31:18 And then he unleashes his shot and he's got a big shot. 31:22 And he's proven it that he can score with it. 31:24 It's just not something that you can just force all the time because it's going to get blocked. 31:29 You're going to put yourself in bad situations. 31:31 You know, they're playing with a lot of talented players. 31:34 So when the space is there, they got to take the game forward. 31:37 All right. 31:41 Any other thoughts, Figgs? 31:43 Other than this is just one of my favorite times of the year. 31:47 I can't believe this is out. 31:48 It's a different tournament without Russia. 31:51 One less or big power. 31:54 This seems different coming out of the pools with Russia not in there competing and just their style of play matching with everybody else. 32:03 So I think that's been interesting. 32:04 We've seen a lot of tight games though. 32:06 I don't know. 32:07 I think they're on the big ice for most of these games. 32:10 I think it makes a difference. 32:11 I think teams can play more defense. 32:13 I've always heard lots of people talk about how the big sheet should promote offense. 32:17 I think it's the opposite. 32:18 It promotes more defense and more structure and more possession. 32:22 And it kind of slows the game down. 32:23 I think we're seeing that have an impact in this tournament this year. 32:29 I miss Russia, too, because Russia is a great villain in these tournaments. 32:36 When I think of the Russians at World Juniors, I think of guys who, as opposed to your average hockey player, will just celebrate way too hard. 32:49 They're just hateable. 32:50 They're taking cheap shots. 32:51 They're colorful in a way that doesn't really jive with your traditional hockey fan. 32:57 There's just something about the Russians, I think, that we're pre-programmed to not like in general. 33:02 They're a really fun team to watch crumble, because I feel like they have some bad, bad beats in the World Juniors. 33:12 I hope they get back sooner rather than later for that aspect alone. 33:19 You're always looking for that Russian guy with the tinted visor and the white gloves, the flashy flair, extra edgework stuff. 33:27 You're just like, oh, this is going to be fun to watch. 33:30 Hey, we used to see that a lot in the Super Rink League leagues. 33:34 I think there are a lot of wannabe Russians in the Super Rink League. 33:37 That HC Torpedo Russian team we played, they were our arch enemies. 33:42 Well, and they drank real Russian beer and smoked real Russian cigarettes after the game, too. 33:49 You did not want to take a puff of one of those. 33:51 You might lose a lung. 33:52 Oh, those were the days. 33:56 All right, Veegs, we need to hit up a couple more sponsors here. 34:03 And one of them is new and one of them is not so new. 34:09 Our friends over there, Chill Boys, still one of my favorite things is Chill Boys. 34:15 I love the Chill Boys. 34:16 They've got three options for you. 34:18 Bamboo, Bamboo Boxer Briefs and Performance Boxers. 34:22 You know, I gave out some Chill Boys as holiday gifts to people this year, especially that Viking Purple Boxer that they had. 34:31 Great gift. 34:32 I've got a $10 off gift code for somebody in overtime. 34:36 For our best question, the first 10 minutes of overtime, I'll give out a $10 gift code to that person. 34:41 Otherwise, you can use that chillboys.com. 34:44 Pulltab15 offered to get 15% off your order. 34:49 Yeah, I almost forgot about that 15%. 34:52 Pulltab15 for 15% off. 34:55 It's a great deal. 34:56 But besides Chill Boys, we have a new sponsor as well, don't we, Veegs? 35:02 Cub Foods is on board. 35:04 Cub is on the Pulltab Sports bandwagon. 35:07 So you should be too. 35:08 If you've got stuff you need around the holiday season or for holiday parties, Cub is the place that's going to have it. 35:14 There's so many other stores they're going to run out of what you're looking for. 35:17 Cub has great inventory and they're sponsoring local teams. 35:21 You know, they're on the Wild on 7th podcast. 35:24 They sponsor Twins Homer Hankies. 35:26 They're on PJ Flex headset. 35:28 Maybe they should be on your agenda as well. 35:30 So check out Cub, everything you need. 35:33 And they even have liquor stores now. 35:34 So if you're looking for Duck Duck Beer, maybe, or if you're looking for some THC drinks, check out Cub. 35:42 Definitely. 35:42 So we're glad to have Cub on board with us. 35:46 It's going to be fun having them with us. 35:49 All right, let's bring them back. 35:50 Schierhorn and Ramsey, guys. 35:52 Oh, now you're all mixed up. 35:53 I got to switch you back here. 35:55 There we go. 35:55 That's more normal. 35:58 Okay, the long break is over, guys. 36:00 You played your exhibition. 36:02 How much were you guys chomping at the bit to just get going week after week, you know, starting January, Eric? 36:10 I mean, this is a stretch run. 36:15 Well, there's two things on that. 36:17 One, it gets boring because you haven't played in a month-ish. 36:22 And then you go from playing early December and then you go right into finals. 36:27 And so you don't really practice. 36:29 There's maybe some captain skates and you work out just to kind of stay in, stay in shape. 36:33 And then you go home, you rest for a little bit and then you come back and there's no school. 36:37 So it's just you go in, you work out, you practice. 36:41 And then your day's over at like noon and there's nothing to do. 36:45 And so there's no one on campus. 36:47 It's dark, it's cold, it's snowy. 36:51 And then so when the games come around, you're like, okay, finally something to do. 36:56 And so it's a relief in that sense. 36:58 And two, I felt my freshman year, there was something about coming back from Christmas break that, you know, the first half's kind of a whirlwind. 37:09 And once you kind of come back with a reset over Christmas break, the second half, it almost feels like not necessarily the year of vet, but you have experience and you kind of know what's coming and you get a get a feel for play. 37:24 And I think you can see a lot of guys elevate their game in the second half, which I'm hoping is what happens to some of these young guys on this team. 37:31 But I think there's a confidence about, you know, having the reset and having the first half experience and then coming back and kind of almost being like it's year two in a sense that I think will hopefully help this team. 37:46 One thing a lot of coaches have said, Jack, you know, even Don and even Bob, he's like the freshmen can't be freshmen anymore after a break. 37:55 It's kind of like they need to step up. 37:57 Yeah, they love that one. 37:59 That's spot on, Eric. 38:00 I was kind of thinking like you come back from Christmas break and you kind of feel like you're starting your sophomore season. 38:05 It feels like an accurate sense. 38:07 Yeah, I mean, once you come back, it's okay. 38:09 Who's going to shrink and who's going to elevate their game and are we going to roll with 20 seniors or are we going to have a bunch of underclassmen with, you know, some upperclassmen carrying the way? 38:19 And it's Big Ten time, right? 38:21 You got to get CC and Robert Morris out of the way, but now it's Big Ten time. 38:26 Can we make a jump in the standings here? 38:29 Like, not completely out of it. 38:32 But now we start looking at the pairwise and kind of as a player, I'd start tracking on the pairwise now. 38:37 And not that the games in the first half don't matter, but it's like, okay, everything is crucial now. 38:42 Are we going to get an auto bid or not? 38:44 So you're just so much more focused on that end of the season. 38:47 Like, it's finish line is kind of in sight. 38:49 Like, let's start getting dialed in here. 38:52 Well, Veegs, we've got CC coming in town. 38:54 It's finishing a kind of a contract that started quite a few years ago. 39:00 It's wonderful to have that old WCHA foe back and playing them. 39:06 They've been up and down, but they did take two overtime victories in North Dakota. 39:12 So these games are big this weekend and trying to get the victories for pairwise. 39:17 Yeah, I know coming into the year, Chris Mayotte felt very confident with his team. 39:21 He liked his depth. 39:22 He liked his goaltending. 39:24 He was surprised that he was being picked so low in the NCHC. 39:28 He was like, if we're getting picked sixth, seventh in this league, it must be a really good league. 39:33 And I think by them getting two wins over North Dakota, they showed how good they can be. 39:39 So this is a program that's gone through some turmoil with him taking the reins. 39:43 He kind of reset some of the recruiting that was being done at CC. 39:47 And now he's starting to get his guys there. 39:50 And this is a coach that's had success. 39:51 He had it at Providence. 39:53 He had it at Michigan. 39:54 He was a guy who was tagged by USA Hockey to help out at the World Juniors. 39:59 And this is his team now. 40:01 And it's going to be a tough test for Minnesota. 40:03 I think a month ago, based on how CC had played, we were saying any losses to CC would really hurt their pairwise. 40:10 I don't know if that's necessarily going to be the case anymore. 40:13 And they're going to get a tough test in those two games. 40:16 And I think one thing about this weekend, it's where the coaching staff starts to tighten the reins on their players. 40:22 I think that first half, it's show me who you are. 40:25 Let's see what you can do. 40:27 We'll give you the freedom to explore your game and then pull it out there. 40:31 Second half of the year, I think the coaching steps up a little bit more. 40:35 And guys will be, you know, coached more to find a better word. 40:40 You guys experience that as players with your teams as you transition from the first half to second half? 40:46 Yeah, yeah, it's kind of I think the coaches are starting to get a feel for. 40:51 These are the guys that we can coach up and who we can ride going into the end of the year. 40:55 And these are some of the guys they're going to have to leave in the dust and we'll pick them back up in summer. 40:59 You know, these are our guys. 41:00 It's crunch time. 41:05 I think the one thing with Minnesota is that they've ridden Justin Close pretty heavy. 41:09 You know, he's played every game so far. 41:12 He's had a lot of practice time because they were so shorthanded with goaltending. 41:17 The start of the year with Aerie getting hurt and then Wies got hurt so much that Potter had put the pads on for practice at one point just to give them a look. 41:26 You know, they're playing their power play game against Annette. 41:30 You know, that's where things had gotten with this team because they're just trying to keep the ship moving ahead. 41:36 So I think it'll be interesting to see how that happens. 41:39 The second half, that break is probably great for closer. 41:41 I don't know, Schierhorn, if you had that kind of workload in the first half, I'm sure mentally as much as physically it is nice to have that break. 41:50 I mean, there's a massive difference in having three goalies versus four goalies, let alone, you know, two or one, even in some cases. 42:01 And that's just like practices are just significantly easier with more, obviously, because I was never I never really wanted to even when I was playing all the games, I never really wanted to dog it and practice. 42:15 I felt like that was the wrong way to do things, even if sometimes it was like, geez, I don't know if I need to get this many shots on a Wednesday. 42:24 But like, yeah, not having those go in, and I kind of get the same feel for closer from the little bit that I know him that he's not going to be someone that just stands in there because he's like, hey, guys, sorry, not going to try because I need my rest. 42:38 And so, yeah, I honestly didn't know that that was a thing. 42:43 So I think that could totally play a factor in him being tired, for sure. 42:49 And I think the other impact it had on the team was they didn't have that net battle that you really need to get some of those ground games goal because they didn't have goalies in practice. 42:58 You know, they're just shooting at the shooter tutor essentially. 43:01 So there's no rebounds. 43:02 It's hard to get traffic. 43:03 It's hard to simulate that. 43:05 You know, that's why they got Matt Bryant from the club team to join just so they had another body in there that they could practice. 43:11 And I think, you know, it had a big impact on them in the first half. 43:14 You know, I think some people kind of pooh-pooh that and say, ah, it's not a big deal. 43:19 They'll be fine. 43:20 It changes the way they can practice. 43:22 Well, we saw him in Grand Forks before he was, you know, really needed to be on the official roster because they needed someone for just practice, Veegs. 43:30 Yeah, I mean, morning skate, you know, you don't want your starting goalie going out there taking an hour worth of shots, especially with some of the guys on this team that like to shoot a lot of pucks. 43:40 You know, so it's helpful to have four, I think, at this point, especially when you have a goalie who plays as much as Closer does. 43:47 You got to make yourself available to Bob next year. 43:50 Yeah, right. 43:52 I have not skated since March of 2020, and I don't plan to break the seal with the practice with the goalie. 43:59 Gophers, that's just not going to happen. 44:01 That would not be good for anyone. 44:03 You'd break something. 44:04 Yeah, I'd pull something, break something, and I'd let in. 44:08 I mean, they're better off shooting on an open net. 44:12 Yeah, the scouter report I got on Potter was it was a one and done experiment. 44:21 Yeah, that's tough to come off the shelf into a bunch of stallions that are 18 to 22 just primed and firing 100 mile an hour shots at you. 44:31 It doesn't really work. 44:33 Do you guys remember the Paul Deutsch story? 44:36 This is the Minnesota Wild, like 15 years ago. 44:41 He was one of my dad's buddies growing up, and he always played Men's League, and they didn't have a goalie ever. 44:48 So at like 35 years old, he finally said, screw it. 44:51 Like, I'm going to get pads. 44:52 I'll be the goalie. 44:54 And he was the goalie. 44:55 And then my dad coached in the Wild. 44:57 They needed a goalie for like morning skate and for practice. 45:00 And so they called him and brought him in and did just fine after like three years of playing goalie. 45:07 So Jacques was like, you can bring him back and for like the next three, four years, he was like a practice goalie whenever they need an extra guy. 45:17 And then at home, at home, I think they're playing Nashville. 45:21 My dad and I were going to the game. 45:22 So this is after my dad had retired and Paul was going to the game. 45:27 He was coaching like his daughter's U-12 team and they got a suite to go to the game. 45:32 And the goalie got hurt like in morning skate. 45:35 So they had Paul dressed for warmups and he was the backup goalie on the bench until the guy, I think it was Houston, then got there from Houston. 45:43 So like the ultimate perfect timing that he was on the ice for warmups with his daughter's team in the crowd. 45:48 Oh my God. 45:50 And he was, he started playing goalie at 35. 45:52 So never too late, guys. 45:55 It's never too late. 45:57 For me, it is. 46:01 I'm about to turn 45 here on Friday. 46:03 So I will not be putting on the pads at this stage of my career. 46:07 Wham. 46:10 Wham. 46:13 Veegs, I know the fans are going to want to know. 46:17 Are the players going to be back from Sweden? 46:19 Are they going to play? 46:22 It's always up to them, usually, isn't it? 46:26 Yeah, Bob's philosophy on this, if they're back on time and they have their gear and they want to play, he's going to let them play. 46:34 He's not going to say, no, I don't want you to play if they say they want to play. 46:38 So I think if the guys get back, they're in and Bob will manage their stress level going forward. 46:46 He can reduce the amount of practice time they take those next couple of weeks. 46:50 But in general, if guys are back and want to play, they'll be in the lineup. 46:54 And I think, you know, Snuggerood missing some games here because of illness. 46:58 You know, maybe he'll get through it OK. 47:01 I remember Ryan Lindgren losing about 10 pounds when he got really, really sick at the World Junior. 47:06 And, you know, he tried to play through it and it was not great, but he figured it out. 47:12 All right. 47:16 Well, it's always a wait and see. 47:19 It was kind of that when they came back from China last year on the after the Olympics. 47:25 Paper was all of a sudden playing and they barely made it. 47:28 And it was Penn State, wasn't it? 47:31 Penn State or something. 47:33 Yeah, it was crazy because I remember Faber talking about how even in the airports, like they couldn't get any food because everything was shut down when they got to all these places. 47:42 So like the minute they got back stateside, they were just like anything. 47:46 McDonald's, Power Bars, Cliff Bars, you know, candy, whatever they get their hands on. 47:52 They're just like they needed food so bad. 47:54 And I think was it nice? 47:56 His equipment didn't make it back. 47:58 And so he couldn't go. 47:59 So, you know, it's going to be unique circumstances for all of them, but they'll be coming off of emotional high anyway. 48:07 You look at it. 48:10 They want to play, right? 48:11 I was going to say you take a really tired and jet-lagged snuggerooed over, and this is no offense to who would ever come out of the lineup, but you're putting that guy in the lineup and Chesley and whoever else. 48:27 Can't disagree with you there. 48:30 That's just the way it goes. 48:31 Yeah, it's such a shortened season. 48:35 At the end of the day, you don't play that many games. 48:40 No, you really don't. 48:42 If the conditioning is there, they want to play at the end of the day. 48:46 And they're not 35 years old. 48:48 They're teenagers. 48:49 That does help a lot. 48:54 So what do you want to see from this Gopher team this weekend, Vig? 48:57 Obviously, Bob wants to start locking things down, like you mentioned. 49:03 They should do well. 49:05 But we kind of want to see it, don't we? 49:09 Want to see that ground game. 49:10 You want to see guys start to learn their lessons and apply them in the game. 49:14 You know, one of the things Bob's been frustrated with is the guys practice so well, Monday through Thursday, executing what they're trying to implement in their game plan and their systems. 49:25 And then they get in the games and guys are just forcing plays that aren't there, or taking shots that feed the other team's breakout. 49:34 And it's just stuff that they don't do in practice, but when the games happen, they start to pop up. 49:39 And I think that's one of the things that Bob is getting frustrated with and wants to see them correct in play. 49:47 And the only way to get through that is by playing games. 49:49 And I think it's important for them to get off to a good start here, because while CC is better in the pairwise right now, Minnesota needs some wins. 49:58 They've had so many ties right now. 50:00 They're putting themselves kind of in a dangerous spot in the pairwise where they might have to go play North Dakota in the first round regional in their first game even. 50:09 So that's not really a place where you want to be. 50:15 Anybody want to predict this weekend, or is it just not a big deal when it's CC? 50:19 Do you want to predict this weekend, Veegs? 50:21 There's no points on the line. 50:26 What do you mean? 50:27 Part of the show. 50:28 I got to look back after this, too, if we can bring up the historical records of what my record is. 50:33 I think I predicted two sweeps, so I'm for sure. 50:36 I just roll with the sweep every time. 50:41 I'll throw my prediction out there. 50:43 I'm going to do the sweep, Shocker. 50:47 What I would like to see, though, is I was looking at their previous games before we got on here, and the Gophers have been outshot in six of the last seven. 50:56 And if you think back to those games, it feels like Closes has had to make a lot of 10-bell saves to keep them in it. 51:06 I know you talked about locking it down, Biggs, but having a clean win where they give up 25 shots and less than five great A's feels like it hasn't happened this year or at least hasn't happened in recent memory. 51:25 And so taking care of what I would say is a lesser opponent, I know they beat North Dakota twice going into break, but if you look back at their schedule, they don't have any good wins besides that. 51:36 I mean, they beat Union and they swept Miami and they beat Long Island or something like that. 51:42 But they really don't have that many quality wins against whoever they play that's a decent team they're losing to. 51:51 So this feels like a get right series. 51:56 I think it could be a get right series, but that's also a trap historically for the Gophers. 52:01 That's true. 52:02 When you start thinking this is a get healthy, get points, get feeling good, great offense, that's when you get into trouble. 52:10 When you have a team that goes, okay, this is going to be a rock fight, the offense is going to come to us from hard play, that's the kind of mentality I think they need for the second half. 52:20 And that's how they've gotten in the holes this last stretch of games where they're getting out shot is because they're feeding the other team's offense, so they're not just taking control of the game. 52:30 Like against Notre Dame, I thought they did that really well, where they just said, you know what, we're just going to take what we can get and take our chances when they show themselves. 52:39 I think the last couple of weeks, that hasn't been the case, and they're pushing offense that's not there. 52:45 That's where I get worried. 52:47 I guess I should say this. 52:49 If in terms of a get-right game, what you're thinking of or about, you know, them taking it lightly, I'm thinking of like a Long Island University. 52:58 I don't know if CC is bad enough for them to say, okay, this is going to be a cakewalk. 53:03 It's just a lesser opponent that they should, in theory, be able to handle. 53:09 Although their goalie does look really good. 53:11 Virgo is the Player of the Month. 53:15 His numbers are nice. 53:17 So what's your prediction, EnVeegs? 53:24 You're going to make Motay mad if you don't pick a sweep. 53:27 I know. 53:29 It's just really hard for me to pick a sweep based on what we've seen this year. 53:33 And I really think one of these games is going to go to overtime. 53:38 And, you know, it could be an anything happens kind of game. 53:42 We could see another shootout. 53:44 So I think we're going to see a win and a tie. 53:45 All right, Jack, bring some positivity here. 53:51 I can't. 53:52 I think it's going to be a split, too. 53:54 And I know we're talking less of an opponent. 53:56 We're missing four guys, if I'm correct on that. 53:59 Like, we're missing four of the best players off our roster. 54:05 And that hurts big time. 54:06 Don't play, though. 54:07 Don't totally play. 54:08 Right. 54:08 Yeah. 54:10 What's the timeline on that? 54:13 It's a tough commute back. 54:15 They get back that day, essentially, because it's going to be like an 18 hour travel. 54:22 So they're going to be able to basically get back, take a pregame nap and come to the game. 54:28 So it's not ideal. 54:30 I don't know how well you can sleep on a plane after a World Junior Tournament. 54:34 If they win the gold medal, maybe the excitement will allow them to sleep on the flight back. 54:40 But you never know. 54:41 I heard a lot of the Wild players coming back from Sweden were all mixed up. 54:45 Yeah. 54:45 You listen to some of the guys on the Wild and Seventh Podcast talk to Kinger about it. 54:49 It's just like, it was hard to adjust the time there and then coming back, it was hard. 54:55 And, you know, you do all these things to try to set yourself up for success. 54:59 And it's tricky. 55:00 And maybe just that first day back, it's easy because you can just get through it on adrenaline. 55:05 But we'll see. 55:06 You know, Stuggeroot only needs, you know, half seconds to get his shot off. 55:11 But Rinzel and Chesley, it's a little bit more of a demanding game for them. 55:15 I feel jet-lagged coming from Alaska and that's three hours. 55:18 So I know. 55:22 Hopefully with Rinzel and Chesley, like you were talking about earlier, like keeping the play in front of them, letting their forwards do the work. 55:28 Because in the World Junior Tournament, they're playing with skilled enough players, like, hey, let's get the puck off the stick, give it to these guys, let them go to work. 55:35 We're going to score a goal. 55:36 It's because of them. 55:36 You know, if the puck's going to be in the back of our net, it's probably because of us. 55:40 Like, that'd be a great mindset to bring back home and do that. 55:44 I think that would really solidify the decor and keep pucks in front of us. 55:49 But yeah, I'm going with the split. 55:51 I think it's a pretty good team. 55:55 It's probably going to be a half-filled arena. 55:58 You know, it's Christmas break, the students are probably gone, right? 56:01 It's hard to come in there and get the emotions going with the crowd. 56:06 But it's such a big weekend. 56:07 I mean, this weekend and next weekend, I'm not going to put the doomsday thing out there. 56:13 But like, if you come out of this the next two weekends, two and two, you're probably in some trouble coming down the stretch just because of how weak the Big Ten is kind of this year. 56:25 So I really hope it's a three and one stretch over the next two weeks. 56:30 Well, I'm going to go with sweep because I'm trying to be Mr. 56:33 Positivity here. 56:35 We need the sweep because and I think more importantly, this weekend is not as important as next weekend. 56:43 We'll get into that next week. 56:44 But you got it. 56:46 You cannot lose to six. 56:47 You cannot lose. 56:48 You cannot lose a game to Robert Morris. 56:50 You can't lose to 63. 56:52 That is a season's done, right? 56:54 If they lose one to Robert Morris, it's done. 56:56 Got to get the automatic qualification at that point. 57:00 It could be. 57:02 So sweep this weekend. 57:04 I'm going to say sweep next weekend, too. 57:05 So let's get some positivity going into Big Ten second half of the season. 57:11 That would be great. 57:14 Veegs, we're doing kind of a special podcast Monday afternoon, early evening. 57:21 A little pregame. 57:22 With Dinkytown and where is it going to be? 57:26 It's going to be at Tom's Watch Bar, downtown Minneapolis. 57:30 So they've been doing some pregame events with different groups. 57:34 And so Dinkytown Athletes wants to give some Gopher Hockey fans two free DuckDuckBeers when they come to the pregame. 57:42 I'll have some swag from Dinkytown Athletes, some T-shirts, some things like that that they've been selling, like the Rhett Pitlick stuff, the Jimmy Snuggerud stuff. 57:50 We'll have some Jimmy Snuggerud signed photos for fans in attendance. 57:55 And I'll talk with Jerry from Grey Duck Spirits about DuckDuckBeer and about the promotions they're doing with Grey Duck Vodka. 58:02 They're contributing some significant money to Dinkytown Athletes. 58:06 And so we'll talk about that and how they got involved. 58:09 So come on down, keep me company. 58:11 I got Luke Buer from Gopher Illustrated's 24-7 Podcast. 58:15 They do a lot of Gopher football stuff. 58:17 So he'll be there with me to help put on the show. 58:20 He's done a couple of these with Dinkytown Athletes in the past. 58:23 So it should be a fun afternoon. 58:24 Hope you can make it. 58:26 We did it early enough so people could get there and still get to the rink. 58:30 Sounds like fun. 58:30 I won't be able to make it down there that night, but I'll kind of be producing, you know, doing more behind the scenes stuff for that. 58:37 So everything goes as fairly smooth as possible with these. 58:40 And we're not quite sure on the time on that yet. 58:42 You know, they're opening doors like at 430 or 4 or something like that. 58:46 Yeah, we'll start the event at 430 and we'll probably get going sometime around 5 with our show and be able to get you out of there or if you want to stick around. 58:53 It's a big night of sports. 58:55 You got the Michigan-Washington National Championship. 58:59 Two Big Ten teams. 59:00 Two Big Ten teams, just like the Frozen Four hopefully will be, right? 59:05 Could be. 59:06 So that's going to be fun. 59:09 Technically, it's going to be a challenge for us, but we're going to pull it off somehow this Monday. 59:13 We're going to push ourselves. 59:14 We're going to push ourselves to grow in 2024. 59:16 That's going to be fun. 59:18 And, you know, I don't really have a chance to talk about it, but Jack and Eric, wish you guys had some NIL opportunities back in the day. 59:28 I mean, even if it's free Chipotle or something like that. 59:32 Yeah, that would have been nice. 59:34 I would have certainly taken free Chipotle. 59:36 I had a gross amount of Chipotle in college, too. 59:39 So I would have gotten my money's worth. 59:42 But yeah, I don't know. 59:44 Do we have any idea how much these guys are making? 59:46 Like, do we have any idea how much Nye's made last year? 59:48 I feel like he's been the most endorsed athlete, maybe, or maybe it's Cooley. 59:56 I know he had like three brands. 59:58 And did we hear any rumors on how much he raked in last year? 1:00:03 Didn't say how much, but he was with Warroad, you know, the TJ Oshie. 1:00:06 He's a CCM sponsored athlete. 1:00:08 And I know he had some other things as well. 1:00:10 You know, Cooley was big with Chipotle with his USA hockey connections. 1:00:15 So no dollar amounts are really being discussed with this right now. 1:00:19 And everybody's being real cagey about it because it just provides information to the competition. 1:00:26 So everybody's been kind of hush hush on what it is for actual dollars. 1:00:32 But Minnesota's positioned themselves to be effective in NIL. 1:00:37 They're never going to be like one of those top 15, top 20 teams, but they're going to be enough to be competitive, I think, down the road. 1:00:45 Are you talking hockey or all sports? 1:00:47 Football mostly, all sports. 1:00:48 I'm thinking hockey, they'll be pretty good. 1:00:50 Football and basketball are going to be able to compete with the other big dogs and like the SEC. 1:00:53 They'll be able to compete with Iowa and Wisconsin and Nebraska, schools like that. 1:00:59 Yeah. 1:01:01 I think the Michigans and the Ohio States, the Penn States, you know, they're in a different level. 1:01:05 Yeah. 1:01:06 And they were anyway to start with. 1:01:08 Yeah. 1:01:10 But that 25 to 50, I think that's where Minnesota is going to end up. 1:01:14 Yeah. 1:01:16 It'll be interesting. 1:01:18 Definitely be interesting. 1:01:20 Well, guys, thanks for coming on the show with us. 1:01:24 You're going to stick around for overtime, aren't you? 1:01:26 100%. 1:01:27 I remember you got that Taco Bell order in yet? 1:01:31 No, that's in like 45 minutes. 1:01:33 Did you order Taco Bell last time you were on? 1:01:36 That's the biggest. 1:01:37 I'm two for two towards the end of overtime. 1:01:41 Last year, my Taco Bell sat outside because we ran it for like an hour and a half. 1:01:44 My Taco Bell sat outside because it was cold last year, and it sat outside in like minus five degree weather. 1:01:49 You can just go get it at any time. 1:01:52 Don't wait. 1:01:53 You can't wait for Taco Bell. 1:01:55 You can't wait. 1:01:56 V, you got anything coming up right now? 1:01:59 Obviously, we got that podcast. 1:02:01 I know you've been doing a lot of extra writing for GPL. 1:02:07 You're thinking about any new stories coming down the pike? 1:02:10 Yeah, we've got a little peek behind the finances of BigTen Hockey. 1:02:13 So we're going to be looking at some of the coaching contracts across the league and some of the game contracts. 1:02:20 As I put out on Twitter this week, Robert Morris is getting almost $50,000 as the guarantee for coming to Minnesota. 1:02:27 So we'll have some other little tidbits about teams throughout the Big Ten. 1:02:32 All right. 1:02:33 So we'll be looking forward to that in the coming weeks from Veegs. 1:02:36 And that'll do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 1:02:40 Obviously, we'll want to thank Jack and Eric for joining us on the show this week. 1:02:44 We'll be back next week to recap the CC series and preview Robert Morris. 1:02:50 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for overtime, of course. 1:02:53 But for the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.