0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:17 Oh, boy. 0:19 You're making mistakes, I love it. 0:21 And so, I had to train for this marathon. 0:25 Make sure you stay awake for the game tomorrow, too. 0:30 Let's get this bandwagon going, folks. 0:40 I think Bart must be watching upstairs. 0:45 Aw, he's trying to be awake for Thanksgiving tomorrow. 0:50 Jupiter made worried. 0:56 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 1:05 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 256. 1:14 Well, Veegs, I'm back in the country. 1:16 I got back, got my emergency passport. 1:18 They let me back in. 1:20 And now you're saying, if the Gophers lose this weekend, I have to go back to the Dominican. 1:24 What the hell? 1:25 Will they take you back? 1:29 I don't know. 1:30 You're not like Ogie Oatorpe, when they go back, they won't accept you again. 1:34 I don't think this thing has really many pages. 1:36 I don't know how, I know I can use it, but it's only got like a couple pages for stamps. 1:39 So, okay, well, we'll just send you back and forth, but hopefully we don't need to. 1:43 Gophers played great this past weekend against Ohio State, just as I predicted, six points. 1:49 You did, you did. 1:50 They needed them. 1:52 I, you know, I'm still, I'm still at this prove it to me. 1:54 And it was Ohio State. 1:55 They're still a terrible team. 1:58 Terrible team in the league. 2:00 Terrible record. 2:01 And I think Steve Rolick is going through a tough time with this group. 2:04 You know, he's brought in so many new players for that Ohio State roster. 2:09 They just aren't feeling it. 2:11 And you could sense it over the weekend, the frustration, bowling over, you know, Thieson going after Snuggard at the end of the game and sticking him with one right, right in the middle of the chest. 2:23 Gleb, no, he wasn't happy, because maybe that's the last time he'll see him in a college game. 2:28 Well, he might. 2:29 I mean, they could easily play him on the playoffs here. 2:33 They could. 2:34 I mean, were you surprised there wasn't some supplementary punishment there? 2:39 I am a little surprised. 2:40 You know, I had availability this week. 2:43 You know, Bob fielded a couple of questions. 2:45 Players fielded a couple of questions about the incident. 2:48 And they all stayed away very carefully, because I haven't seen anything like that in a college game, where someone goes right to the bench to try to settle a score. 2:58 And I don't know how hard it was with the stick to the chest. 3:02 You know, it could have just been like, hey, remember me. 3:06 I'll remember you kind of thing. 3:07 Or was it, hey, I'm going to jab you real hard, real quick. 3:10 So I don't really know. 3:11 But it was a little a little out there. 3:14 Thiesa wasn't happy that he got the exploding shoulder from Snuggerud earlier in their period. 3:18 And was it a good hit? 3:21 Was it a little he wanted he wanted to go after him legally and Snuggerud hit him back. 3:25 And so sometimes that's that gray area. 3:27 Sometimes officials maybe want to get involved and call an interference penalty on that stuff. 3:32 But I thought it was fine. 3:35 You said that's one thing I haven't liked about the NHL recently, someone gets a good, clean, legal hit and somebody goes after the guy. 3:42 And I've never been a fan of that. 3:44 I mean, it never was that way in the past. 3:48 Someone gets a good hip check on you, you don't retaliate, you get up, you keep playing, you hit them back legally. 3:57 We're in a weird spot of the game. 3:59 It is. 4:00 That's a good thing right there. 4:01 We're a weird spot in the game. 4:03 So we got a 5-2 victory Friday night, a 6-3 victory Saturday night. 4:08 Tell me what's up with both of these games. 4:10 What impressed you the most about both of these games? 4:13 I think the thing that impressed me the most is we are seeing Minnesota buy in to making possession plays. 4:21 After the weekend, I asked Bob, as a coach, are you happy to see your team not just try to score off the rush every time? 4:28 Are you happy to see them pass up just putting a puck on net and cycle it a little bit, put some pressure on the opponents and gain momentum? 4:37 And he was like, that's all we're talking about in the locker room. 4:40 He accused me of having a mic, you know, I've bugged the locker room so I can hear what they're giving in their pregame take, and I was like, no, I just can see it on the ice and I can hear a couple of his comments in the radio post game and in the post game with us. 4:53 That's what he's trying to instill in this team. 4:56 And so for this program to buy in to that is really important because with Michigan State on the calendar here coming up, I checked out some of their games. 5:05 They are not doing that kind of stuff. 5:07 They are in that firewagon hockey mode where they're trying to score all the time. 5:11 Sometimes it's okay just to possess the puck for 60, 90 seconds and gain some momentum. 5:17 I've got some thoughts about that that we'll talk about later with Michigan State and they do play firewagon hockey, but they're a little undisciplined. 5:26 So it'll be interesting to see how Minnesota handles that this weekend. 5:35 I think the other thing I was happy with is we're seeing the continued growth of Rinzel. 5:41 He's got 12 assists since coming back from the World Juniors. 5:45 I don't know if I've seen any mistakes since he's come back either. 5:49 That was the big thing with him in the first half. 5:51 He'd rush the puck and he'd get caught below the dots and he couldn't get back and there wouldn't be coverage. 5:58 I haven't seen that so far in the second half. 6:02 I know the competition's going to get better here the next couple of weekends. 6:05 But so far, he is not touching the stove. 6:09 He's getting near the stove, but he knows where he can get to and where he should stay away from. 6:14 It's just showing in the points and in the score sheet. 6:17 He just seems really confident right now. 6:20 I think that's what Minnesota really needs for their second half to take off. 6:23 Same thing with Pitlick. 6:25 He's staying very consistent. 6:28 He hasn't, I mean since early in the season, but then he came on strong and he hasn't really dipped off. 6:35 He's scoring every weekend. 6:36 He's not on this huge game streak he was, but he's scoring every weekend. 6:41 He's causing havoc out there. 6:43 I still wish he'd have a little better decisions on some of his offensive zone passing and where he's dropping or putting the puck. 6:51 But that's the kind of play we needed to see out of him late last year. 6:54 We didn't, so hopefully it stays this year. 6:58 Pidlick just seems more confident, a little bit heavier through contact. 7:03 I felt like earlier in his career, every time he got knocked by someone, he lost his balance and he'd lose possession of the puck. 7:11 This year, he's able to skate through that contact a little bit more effectively, which is paying off. 7:16 I really like the wrinkle we've seen lately with Minnesota in their face-off plays. 7:21 That's something that Steve Miller is introducing this team in the second half. 7:26 They've got a couple goals off of those face-off plays. 7:30 It's not just Snuggeroot, it's Pitlick at some points too. 7:33 I think that's really going to help this team down the stretch. 7:36 I asked Bryce Brzezinski about that. 7:38 He's just like, yeah, the years I've been here before, we just focus on getting possession off face-offs. 7:44 Now, we're trying to be deceptive and create offense off those draws, and it's already paying off. 7:50 Once you get to the end of the year, if you can get some goals off face-off plays, it's only going to help. 7:57 I still think on the offensive side that this team will go as far as Nevers, Nelson and Brzezinski bring them. 8:08 Obviously, Nevers didn't get a goal until Robert Morris. 8:11 His assists were down. 8:13 Brzezinski's kind of been all over the place. 8:17 Nelson's, that's just the exact kind of for a while. 8:21 But I still think if they want to be successful and get back to a frozen four, that line needs to step it up and be consistent. 8:32 They need to get a couple goals a weekend, at least from that line, not disappear. 8:37 Well, I think the bigger key for them is to gain momentum like they did last year. 8:43 They are showing up in the score sheet this year. 8:45 Bryce Brudzinski is up there in the team lead in points. 8:48 He's right there. 8:49 Sure, but then you had Nevers going the other way. 8:53 Well, Nevers has been recovering from his concussion pretty much all season. 8:57 He mentioned that after the CC series, it's the first time he's felt in good enough shape to compete in a close game. 9:06 He said there's stages, there's practice shape, there's game shape, and there's close game shape. 9:12 He finally feels like his head is clear enough to be in game, close game shape, and they need that. 9:18 I think Bob is trying to help him along. 9:20 I don't know if people noticed on Saturday, he and Brodsinski flipped wings so that Nevers could be on his forehand side, and Brodsinski had to go on his off-wing side. 9:31 The reason Bob said they did that was to try to help them get out of the zone, because Nevers was probably having a little bit of tricky, tough times handling pucks on his off-wing. 9:44 And by putting Brodsinski in that situation, he's a little bit bigger and heavier player. 9:49 He should be able to handle the contact and advance the puck forward. 9:52 So they're hoping to make the game easier for Nevers. 9:55 So I think it's still a work in progress with that line. 9:58 Yes. 9:58 But I don't think they need to be a dominant scoring line. 10:02 I think they just need to be a momentum line and play tough matchups. 10:06 Yeah, I agree. 10:06 And I'd like to see a little more physicality out of Nelson. 10:09 I mean, he's such a big kid. 10:11 I mean, just, I've always thought Nelson would be, that would be, but could be more of a Nice player. 10:20 Bear with me, where he protects the puck so well. 10:23 Nice did it with strength and he was kind of, he was not overly huge, but Nelson could really do it with strength and size, protect the puck. 10:32 I just want to see a little more out of that. 10:34 That's just me. 10:35 Yeah, you'd like to see him be a little bit more of a bully on puck possession and puck battles. 10:41 Yeah. 10:41 Cause that was something that Matt and I was really good at. 10:44 You know, I was listening to Drew Cove and Nate Wells this week, and they were talking about how Nelson was a freshman. 10:50 He took so many penalties from hits that he was delivering cause he's so big, you know, every time he makes contact, but figuring out how to be physical in puck battles and puck possession and board battles, that's a different skill than delivering big hits. 11:07 And I do think that there is room in his game for that to develop, and it's something he probably has to do if he wants to be a professional. 11:16 You know, I think that took Nick Mugestad a long time to figure out that sometimes you have to be a little bit of a jerk on the ice and bully people with your size. 11:24 And I think it's hard for that big player to realize being physical isn't making big hits all the time. 11:31 It's being tough to play against. 11:33 But all in all, very successful weekend, Veegs. 11:36 They moved up to number nine in the pairwise. 11:38 I believe they're still there. 11:41 So that's good because they had been hanging around that 12 and 11 mark. 11:45 So it's really key to get up there because obviously got some huge games coming up. 11:54 And it's going to be important. 11:56 Yeah, I think the one thing I didn't love out of the weekend was the Poundy kill. 12:00 You know, especially in the Friday night game, they gave up to power play goals to Ohio State. 12:05 You know that I know they had worked really hard on it all week trying to get ready for Stephen Holliday and Ohio State power play. 12:13 That was good. 12:14 And they gave up to on Friday, you know, sometimes losing track of Holliday. 12:18 You know, that's something they're going to need to really focus on going forward, is, you know, understand what they need to do against their opponent a little bit more and make sure they're aware of where the dangerous guys are on the ice. 12:32 Well, I want to get into one of our sponsors here, VX, and let me tell you, I wasn't a very warm lake boat location last week. 12:38 It was mid 80s every day, felt like 93, 94. 12:42 And let me tell you, my Chill Boys came in extremely. 12:51 They just, Was it life changing? 12:54 Was it life changing comfort? 12:55 I don't know if it was life changing, but it sure made the hot and humidity feel a lot better. 13:01 Well, you know, if you're looking for something life changing, maybe you gotta go with a different option of the 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neighborhoods for great food and beverage needs. 13:59 You know, if you're eating healthy, you know, January and you're looking for that fruit and produce, Cub's a great spot. 14:04 If you're looking for the fresh milk, Cub's got the freshest milk. 14:07 And if you need some THC because you're going on dry January and you want something else, check out one of their wine and spirits store. 14:14 But everything you need, one of us, Cub. 14:18 And we also gotta thank Cub and Chill Boys for being sponsors of The GPL Podcast. 14:26 We talked a little bit about Schlossman's article on what he would like to see with the NCAA tournament. 14:30 We had Adam Wodon kind of do his rebuttal on that this week, Veegs. 14:36 Give me your thoughts on Wodon's rebuttal. 14:40 I think it's tough that a guy like Adam chooses to go right after the pairwise, as saying that's great for setting the field for the tournament, but it's not great for seeding the tournament. 14:54 And I think we all understand that it's not going to be a perfect solution. 14:59 That was one of the things that just got me right away, because a lot of people say, I like pairwise because I know what I have to do to get in the tournament. 15:06 You know, Bob was talking about this week. 15:09 He's like, we got to get some wins. 15:10 You know, we've put ourselves in not the best position the first half, because we've been growing as a program. 15:16 Second half, we've got work to do, because the mathematical formula doesn't take passengers along. 15:22 You got to earn it. 15:24 So I think that was an interesting take. 15:26 The other thing he talked about was the teams who are the three and four seeds who are getting home ice advantages. 15:35 He thought maybe one way to change that is, well, you can only do that if you're a one or two seed. 15:42 Okay. 15:43 We're already having trouble getting bids for tournament regions out west. 15:48 Now, if you're the one or two seed, you're going to get your home seed because you're the host. 15:55 But if you're a three or four, you got to go somewhere else. 15:57 And your fans are going to go somewhere else. 15:59 Could you imagine North Dakota being a three or four seed, having a regional, for example, Fargo and having go to Manchester? 16:06 That would be insane. 16:08 And then I think those North Dakota fans out of spite might not resell their tickets because it would much rather be in Fargo or Sioux Falls. 16:15 So those I thought were some disingenuous arguments from him just to make a point. 16:20 And so that's frustrating because I think... 16:23 Someone is saying, oh, let's get a little... 16:26 Can we get this out there? 16:28 He is a Mark Schaeffer disciple. 16:30 And I get Schaeffer. 16:32 You know, with Cornell, they came to the Marriott UG regional and they got smoked. 16:35 And that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. 16:38 But I don't think... 16:39 An overtime in one of those? 16:40 Yeah. 16:42 But I don't think that should really like shape your argument for all of college sports. 16:49 You know, I'm looking at this from the big picture. 16:51 What's best for the game? 16:53 And what's best for the game is these campus sites in the first and second round. 16:58 And I just think that the best thing going forward, you know, you talk about growing the game. 17:04 I think providing great atmospheres at the eight home sites is the way to do that. 17:09 Not try to put it in St. 17:11 Louis or Loveland or rotate it between Omaha, Sioux Falls and Fargo every year. 17:18 I just don't think it's a good thing, especially out west. 17:21 And we've got so many eastern coaches that are just looking at it from a selfish point of view because they don't have the problems that we have out west. 17:28 There's lots of HL buildings out east and they probably want to keep it that way. 17:33 But then, you know, you have so many times with like a number four Providence will play number one, Mankato, Minnesota State, basically in their own backyard. 17:43 I'm like, well, Mankato gets the overall number one seed and they have to go out there or, you know, there's things like that. 17:52 Or, you know, Mankato being at home against Providence. 17:58 Yeah, usually I think what's happening is you're having these western teams having to go out to these eastern regionals and play home teams. 18:06 You just don't seem to have that out west because there's only one regional. 18:10 So there's typically going to be a western team that's going to be in the top four and that's where they're going. 18:16 And so you don't have these eastern teams that are having to do the same situation that so many western teams have to do all the time. 18:23 I mean, just look, you look at Minnesota when they went out east a couple of seasons ago, they had to play western Michigan right off the bat in front of nobody. 18:35 Western Michigan coming to Minnesota. 18:38 And you have that same game where Minnesota has got to come back and you know, Ben Myers wins it in overtime and five people cheer there and compared to nine, ten thousand here. 18:50 Or heck, if it's reverse and Minnesota has to go to western, that's a great, yes, great atmosphere there too. 18:57 And I'm sure the players would love that. 18:59 I think a lot of fans would love to go to these games. 19:03 And I think a lot of players almost enjoy sometimes being the villain. 19:07 It's hard to be the villain when it's an empty building. 19:10 That is true. 19:11 You know, so we were, you, me and Cappy were all kind of chatting this week and kind of talking about that. 19:16 He brought up something that someone had told him. 19:19 So I've been putting it out there that the Maryland Heights Regional this year, Maryland Heights, Missouri, just outside of Kansas City, that building, he learned, only holds 2,500 people, Beegs. 19:34 So they're going to sell some, are they going to allocate, what, 500 tickets per four teams, 250 tickets? 19:41 I mean, typically it's 500 a team. 19:44 So there's going to be 500 tickets available for Lindenwood and the local people to grow the game. 19:53 Oh yeah, Bobby, he said, I said near Kinsley, yes, near St. 19:56 Louis, that's my mistake. 19:58 But a, in Alder, why don't we just go to Aldergerena? 20:03 I mean, it's basically, I mean, I know, you know, you know, Bramard is over 2,000. 20:10 Bloomington Ice Garden is 2,000. 20:12 I mean, what are they thinking here? 20:15 Well, they're thinking that they don't want to be in Fargo or Sioux Falls, giving it to North Dakota every single year, because that's the school that's bidding. 20:24 But they're in Sioux Falls this year, too. 20:30 There aren't enough bids out West. 20:31 There just aren't. 20:33 You know, Denver put together that Loveland bid and they got one. 20:37 You know, it's probably not a great, great setup, but just, you know, they were the only ones that did it other than North Dakota. 20:43 So they got it. 20:44 You know, you have a lot of these schools, they just don't want to risk the $100,000 guarantee to the NCAA on top of the $280,000 it takes to put on a regional. 20:55 And on top of that, you need 100 volunteers to staff a regional. 21:00 So it's not just like an easy thing for a school to pick up. 21:04 You know, you've got schools like Duluth and Mankato that are kind of cutting their administrative staff, and then you expect them to put on an event like this in Sioux Falls or, you know, in Fargo or something. 21:17 It's just not going to happen for them. 21:18 You have to have a big enough university that can take on and staff one of these events. 21:24 And there's just not enough of them out west that are willing to take that risk. 21:28 Now you've got St. 21:29 Cloud, you know, their whole school is kind of on a cliff right now of fiscal issues. 21:35 You want them to try to host a regional on top of that? 21:40 So maybe they should go back to home rinks. 21:44 It makes a lot of sense. 21:46 You know, I asked Bob about it today and he kind of threw his hands up and he's like, hey, I just want to make the tournament. 21:53 I'm not going to get involved campaigning one way or the other. 21:56 And I get that from his perspective. 21:58 You know, he's lived it at Minnesota. 22:00 He's lived at St. 22:00 Cloud. 22:01 He's been in great regionals. 22:03 He's been in bad ones. 22:04 He's heard all the arguments from all the coaches. 22:07 I do think this is going to be a tough sell in Naples, but I just think it's for selfish reasons. 22:13 You know, there's other options they could do, but the Western regionals are a problem. 22:19 East isn't so bad. 22:21 And it would be a lot better for the game. 22:23 That's bad unless there's Western teams playing in it. 22:31 I wish, it might be just a project. 22:34 Let's just look at last year's tournament. 22:36 Who would have hosted Hoov? 22:39 And then see who, I mean, it would just... 22:43 And like you said, if you're filling, I mean, yeah, you might not be filling up huge arenas, but you go to North Dakota, that's what, 12,000? 22:51 You're going to the Cole Center. 22:52 It's the same thing. 22:52 You could fill these places up. 22:54 You've got, I mean, even Ohio State's got a gigantic arena and things like that. 23:00 I mean, you could make a lot more money off of $20 tickets filling a Mariucci than you will Maryland Heights, Missouri. 23:12 Well, Mike Cross from Penn State did the analysis on his own. 23:15 And he's like, the NCAA hockey will make an extra $2 million by moving to these home ranks. 23:22 And I think right now the distribution for each school for hockey is like 60,000. 23:29 You know, if they do this, that goes up to 120,000. 23:34 You know, it's a significant difference for some of these smaller schools. 23:39 You know, if you're one of those Atlantic hockey schools where you're only going to get to go to one of these games, you know, once every five or six years anyway, would you rather get an extra $600,000 in your program over that time? 23:51 Or did you want to play in an empty neutral site building for that one chance to maybe get to the second round? 24:00 It's just goofy, Veegs, but you know, Wodown's like, well, what about, you know, the eight and nine seeds and, you know, maybe the seven and, you know, the seven and ten seeds and things like that. 24:16 Like you said, you know where you're at. 24:19 Hey, and I'm fine, too, if you have the pairwise to say who gets in the tournament and then you have a committee, match them up and just disregard the math. 24:30 What, you know, I'm fine with that too. 24:32 Put them in a smoky room and figure out who's the eight seed, the nine seed. 24:37 I'm fine with that too. 24:38 You know, I think they still want to avoid the conference matchups in the first round and move the seeds around, but just do it the way they've always done it. 24:45 You know, if you're the top four, you're one seed. 24:47 If you're five through eight, you're a two seed, you know, and so forth. 24:52 Basically, if you're one or two seed, you're a home team. 24:56 And, you know, and you're set in, you know, I guess they could have some set brackets then, Veegs, because let's say, okay, let's say a team, let's say get the one and two of a bracket gets upset. 25:12 Well, then it's got to be at the third seed. 25:17 We've seen three and four teams, the three and four ranked teams get to a regional final. 25:23 I mean, who would have thought that? 25:27 So there's potential for three seeds who are, you know, nine, ten, eleven and twelve ranking in the pairwise could host a game if the way the chips fall. 25:44 I don't know. 25:45 I just hope we keep this conversation going to April and we hear from some more Eastern coaches because, you know, I've heard CHN, I've heard Brad, you know, I've talked to Coach Motzko, we've heard David Karl. 26:00 I just want to hear some more Eastern coaches and their perspective on the issue because really they're going to be the ones that either make this possible or the ones that shut it down because I think the Western coaches are pretty united in voting for this and in trying the campus sites and just see how it goes. 26:18 But those Eastern coaches have been pretty quiet on the issue and I would like to hear from them and their reasons one way or the other. 26:27 Let's get some of those Hockey East teams on board. 26:31 I mean, think about it. 26:34 How about a game up in Maine this year? 26:38 Since Maine is kind of back this year. 26:41 How about a home game? 26:41 Yeah, I mean, this is great for Maine. 26:43 It's great for Quinnipiac. 26:46 You know, if Cornell gets going and they get in the top eight, they'll have a home ice game too. 26:50 It could be good for them. 26:54 It's just an interesting topic and then when I saw the 2500 seat arena, I'm like, oh boy. 27:00 Can you imagine if like a Minnesota and a Michigan or something like that gets sent to that regional? 27:08 I mean, good luck getting into it. 27:11 It's going to be watching most of those will be watching to me. 27:13 Maybe we could cover it and that would get us in the arena. 27:17 But fans are going to be out of luck for that regional. 27:23 And you're not going to see Excel get back in the cycle. 27:28 I think it's $75,000 a day in cost for the facility. 27:33 And you need it for at least four days. 27:35 So that's $300,000 there. 27:37 So that right there makes it more expensive than the average cost of any other regional just with the ICE facilities. 27:44 You know, you're not looking at all the other things on top. 27:47 Excel doesn't want to give up the additional dates at this point. 27:51 And Minnesota doesn't want to take the risk. 27:54 You know, it looks pretty good that Minnesota is going to be a tournament team going forward. 27:59 But, you know, you can never control the matchups either. 28:04 All right. 28:04 Well, it's an interesting subject. 28:06 And we'll just like you said, we'll keep talking about it. 28:09 And then let's, you know, even if Gophers, let's say Gophers don't make it to the Frozen 4 leagues. 28:14 Let's get to let's get some credentials. 28:16 Let's get in there and let's talk to those coaches that will be at the Frozen 4. 28:20 Let's get their thoughts on it. 28:21 For sure, definitely for sure. 28:23 Well, we need to hear a little bit more from our sponsors. 28:27 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? 28:40 Introducing Ferda Fundraisers, a fundraising company with as much personality as the people who play the game. 28:48 That's big, throw gas in your fingers. 28:50 Big dump for the boys. 28:52 Choose from great products made by local companies, flexible plans built around your needs. 28:58 Sell how you want and be supported from start to finish. 29:02 Deliver max return without charging people a fortune. 29:06 It's never been easier to support your community. 29:09 Ignite your fundraising with Ferda Fundraisers. 29:12 Ferda boys, Ferda girls, Ferda community, Ferda Fundraisers. 29:23 Jake Middleton here, director of hair and Hygiene for the Minnesota Wild. 29:26 How did I get this important role with the team, you ask? 29:29 I'd like to think it was because of hard work, but the truth is, I run hot. 29:33 Yep, I'm a sweater. 29:37 In my role as director of hair and Hygiene, I'm sort of like a player coach. 29:41 Let me pull out the grease board here. 29:43 Well, it's not actually a grease board, because there is nothing dirty about Duke Cannon. 29:49 How do I help the guys stay squeaky clean? 29:51 Helpful reminders. 29:52 It's simple. 29:53 Tarp saw, Duke Cannon, up. 29:55 Say it with me. 29:56 Tarp saw, Duke Cannon, up. 29:59 Tarp saw, Duke Cannon, up. 30:02 Pick the scent that suits you. 30:04 Sawtooth. 30:07 Thick body wash. 30:09 Extra thick. 30:11 And my favorite, midnight swim. 30:14 Tarp saw, Duke Cannon, up. 30:17 Duke Cannon. 30:18 Work harder, smell better. 30:21 And of course, we thank FURTA Fundraisers and Duke Cannon for sponsoring The GPL Podcast. 30:27 I was telling Veegs in the pregame show, nothing but Duke Cannon the entire trip in Dominican. 30:33 So it worked just perfectly in that completely tropical weather. 30:38 So great stuff. 30:40 Stay tuned. 30:41 We're talking about having some giveaways at home games down the stretch here for the Gophers. 30:46 So, you know, follow us on the social media platforms and look for us around the rink. 30:53 Definitely something, a good reminder there, Veegs. 30:56 All right. 30:56 Now, Veegs heading to Michigan State. 31:02 Technically, Minnesota has not lost in 16 straight games to Michigan State. 31:08 I believe it was 14 wins in a row. 31:10 Oh, and then, oh, is that a? 31:12 What didn't they split here earlier this year? 31:14 Or is it was it to something like that? 31:18 Yeah, bringing up on your phone. 31:20 Let's see what it was here. 31:21 There's the shootout loss. 31:23 Yes, 3-3 tie with a shootout loss and a 6-5 victory in over Minnesota. 31:31 So overtime games. 31:32 Yes. 31:33 So. 31:35 Haven't lost a regular. 31:36 Well, technically haven't lost per the NCAA rules and pairwise in 16 games. 31:43 I don't know if that's going to continue this weekend, but we know Michigan State has such, they've such turned it around this season being. 31:51 We kind of saw it coming last year when they kind of started off hot and then they cooled off, but they've started off hot this year and they've continued to be hot. 32:00 Boy, Nightingale is just doing a fantabulous job there. 32:05 Well, he definitely knocked out of the park in the portal with Joey Larson, Reg Savage and Isaac Howard. 32:11 They've got three of their top scores that came out of the portal. 32:14 It's like going into the deck and drawing out three aces. 32:17 We saw the flip side of that with Ohio State, they go in the portal and maybe they draw like a five, a six and a deuce or something. 32:26 Nightingale didn't have that happen to him. 32:28 I watched condensed games of their match up with Michigan. 32:34 Sparty is dangerous. 32:36 Even in the game they lost, I thought the first five minutes, they came out with a really good jump, really good energy. 32:41 They were on their toes. 32:42 They were jumping pucks. 32:44 But then, like we've seen with Michigan State and Michigan, there are just these egregious turnovers and they're giving away goals. 32:54 So I think that's something. 32:55 I like that, Biggs. 32:56 I like that. 32:57 We've seen that happen with Minnesota too. 32:59 You have these players who are just so focused on pulling off the move or winning the one-on-one battle or flashing the skill, and they make a risky play in a low reward situation, and they give offense the other way. 33:12 So I think that's really something that when you play the more experienced teams like Minnesota, maybe is becoming, it becomes a dangerous situation for Michigan State because they so badly want to make their mark in a weekend, that they give away goals, and they can't quite outscore their mistakes. 33:33 Well, we touched on a little bit earlier. 33:37 Yes, they're a high-flying team, but I think some GPLers even took out some love of the penalties that were taken last weekend against Michigan. 33:45 It's a natural rival, gonna be more penalties. 33:48 They're still a very undisciplined team when it comes to penalties. 33:53 They're still taking a lot. 33:55 I think to get over the ultimate hump, they need to kind of cut that in half a lot. 34:01 That's somewhere where Minnesota could take advantage of, is the power play, because they know they're gonna get quite a few. 34:08 I do think some of the penalty stuff of the Michigan State Series is blown out of proportion. 34:13 Some of that's just a ref saying, let's just get to the end of the game and give guys two and 10s. 34:18 So all those penalty minutes, there's a lot of hugging and face washing. 34:22 It wasn't real violent. 34:24 Wasn't like 1970s college hockey where things got totally out of control all the time as Pat McClitty is familiar with. 34:33 So that said, Minnesota's power play, I think needs to continue to evolve. 34:40 I think we've seen them get pretty static at times in their positioning. 34:44 You're seeing some of that change. 34:46 I really like it when they move to that low spread, when they put Snuggerud and Pitlick down along the goal line and change where players are and just kind of confuse the penalty kill for the other team. 34:57 I know Ohio State did that to Minnesota on Friday when they're moving holiday around. 35:02 So that's something I'm still looking for in that power play unit, but it's going to be important. 35:07 Minnesota did get some power play goals. 35:10 That needs to continue to happen for them to be successful. 35:14 You know, I think one of the keys this weekend is going to be defense. 35:20 When it's high flying, you need to have disciplined defensemen who don't, who make the right choices at the right time. 35:30 When to jump in, when not to jump in. 35:33 You know, we've seen Renzel jump in a little too much at times, but he's gotten a little smarter with it. 35:39 This is where you need the leadership of somebody like a Kester to play well himself, but also get guys, hey, play smart here. 35:50 You know, we don't need that extra guy up there and get counterattacked and not have enough guys back. 35:55 So I think defense is going to be huge in a high flying type of series. 36:00 The flip side of that is I think Minnesota's defensemen can be extra dangerous if they get involved in the offensive zone for loose pucks. 36:11 Okay. 36:11 We saw that a little bit with Middlestad, Thomas and Rinzel and Chesley this past weekend, where they were jumping on pucks around the hash marks. 36:21 As the other team gets tired, it starts throwing the puck around. 36:24 That's the time if you know your shift discipline and you know who you're out against and you have that awareness, that's a time to jump a puck, maintain possession and continue to apply pressure on the other team. 36:38 The thing that I noticed when they do that though, is they have a Jackson Nelson or an Aaron Huland who sees it happening and knows to cover back. 36:47 And you know that other defensemen can slide over to give support so you still have two, three players above the puck. 36:53 That's critical team hockey that Minnesota has the ability to play and I want to see them continue to do that. 37:02 Play smart. 37:03 Because when they do that, they are one of the most dangerous teams in college hockey because one of the things Minnesota defensemen do is skate well. 37:11 And so if you can involve them in offensive possession, it's only going to lead to more opportunities and more danger and more chaos. 37:23 What does Michigan State need to do? 37:29 Do they need to do anything different to be successful? 37:32 Because yet they still haven't gotten a regular season win. 37:34 Maybe it's still a little bit in their heads. 37:37 Some of those guys have been there a while. 37:39 What do they need to do to be successful? 37:42 Well, I think they need to be more mature in front of their own goal. 37:46 One of the things that Michigan really did to them was put traffic and pressure and pucks around the crease. 37:52 And Augustine seemed to struggle with that. 37:54 You know, he didn't have clear looks at the shooters. 37:59 He had trouble with rebounds. 38:00 A lot of Michigan State guys were looking at the puck, not picking up their checks. 38:07 Michigan State's got young defense, just like Minnesota. 38:10 They've got, I think, four or five freshman defensemen. 38:14 Minnesota needs to really challenge them around the net and play big boy hockey and play physical and engage those battles. 38:24 Because I think Michigan State maybe struggles at times there. 38:28 So it's an opportunity for Minnesota and probably a weakness that Michigan State has to rectify. 38:33 Because you can't compete down the stretch here unless you can be strong in front of your own net. 38:39 And I don't care how good your goalie is, if you can't see the puck and there's loose rebounds, where free opponents can jump on them, you're going to have a hard time being successful. 38:51 All right. 38:53 What happens this weekend? 38:55 I mean, the logical old school Lucia would say, sweep it home, split on the road. 39:04 Split on the road is a successful weekend. 39:08 What do you think? 39:10 I know the speed limit is going up from playing Colorado College, Robert Morris, Ohio State to Michigan State. 39:18 But the way Minnesota played these last three weeks makes me think that they are maturing and getting better and they are ready for this kind of matchup. 39:27 And watching Michigan State play that rivalry series, Home and Home with Michigan, exposed a lot of question marks I have with their team. 39:36 So I think six points for the Gophers on the road. 39:39 Wow. 39:41 I like that, Veegs. 39:44 That's bold. 39:46 It's not bold for me, but that's bold from you. 39:49 It's very bold for me. 39:50 I usually don't pick them to do well on the road, but I just think we're seeing this maturity and this growth. 39:59 And I think it's going to be a great match up for Minnesota. 40:02 Just looking at the standings here. 40:04 Let me see. 40:08 There are 10 points behind Michigan State right now. 40:12 You sweep them, you're within four. 40:15 So Wisconsin still has the edge though, since there are 30 points and they have two games in hand on Michigan State. 40:24 Notre Dame is just one point up by Minnesota, but it has played two more games. 40:28 I mean, you look at Notre Dame has played 16, Wisconsin 12. 40:32 It's interesting. 40:35 Same thing with Michigan. 40:35 They've only played 12 games as well. 40:37 So I have a feeling that Notre Dame is going to drop here in the next few weeks as both Minnesota and Michigan catch up with them in games. 40:46 Yeah. 40:47 I think we're going to see Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State drop down in pairwise on the standings. 40:54 I think you're going to see Michigan, Minnesota rise up in the pairwise. 40:58 And I think you're going to see Michigan State kind of drift with Minnesota back and forth. 41:03 OK. 41:05 All right. 41:07 I'm thinking more split this weekend. 41:09 I'm not as bold as you. 41:10 I'm still I. 41:12 Well, I haven't seen as many games. 41:13 I tried to watch some of the second Ohio State game when I got home, but I was just distracted a bit. 41:19 I. 41:20 It'll be nice just to kind of sit down this weekend and watch watch the games. 41:24 And there's one thing Friday night, BTN plus only folks. 41:30 So if you're if you're not on the it's B1G plus, I guess it is. 41:36 If you don't have that program, you'll be listening on the radio or Frank and Doug over the stream because there is no regular TV and that's a five p.m. 41:44 game Saturday. 41:47 BigTen Network, I believe, 3 p.m. 41:49 And 3 o'clock early. 41:52 I like that. 41:54 It's gonna be a quick turnaround. 41:56 It is, but let's go. 42:01 People complain about it. 42:02 Someone's like, I pay $180 in TV each month. 42:05 I'm like, are you paying so much? 42:09 Are you doing that just so you can get it? 42:11 Bally Sports or what? 42:13 I just, I don't know. 42:16 Just different priorities, I guess, Veegs. 42:17 And, you know, we all make choices. 42:19 You and I have been preaching for years. 42:21 Get on board, folks. 42:23 Get on board with the streaming cause it's coming and it's gonna be more prevalent. 42:27 And I believe it is there a Penn State? 42:30 We got another game that's just back to my schedule again. 42:34 Yeah, I can see it. 42:36 Let me see what we got here. 42:37 It was a free show, everyone. 42:40 We didn't break down. 42:41 We're gonna look at TV schedules. 42:43 Well, I usually don't, you know, so it's like stream only here. 42:50 It was Wisconsin next weekend. 42:56 That'll be a big series. 42:57 That'll be a big series. 42:59 Both games, B, B1G plus. 43:02 Got to have the stream next weekend. 43:03 That is weird that there's no TV for that. 43:09 Well, some of this is on the host schools investing in the TV production. 43:14 We talked about that way early in the year. 43:17 Minnesota has obviously made it a priority to have a high quality production crew working at their sites. 43:24 Other schools, not so much. 43:27 We'll see. 43:27 Then we'll have the Peacock for the Notre Dame series. 43:30 Yep. 43:31 Exactly. 43:33 The Peacock has done a great job. 43:35 Whenever I do it, I just get the one month for $4.99 or $5. 43:40 It'll be affordable. 43:41 Yeah. 43:42 Yeah. 43:42 For the one month and then catch up on whatever Peacock TV shows that are streamed only and get rid of it after a month. 43:52 It's well worth it. 43:55 So big weekend coming up. 43:57 Looking forward to it. 43:58 I love the early games. 43:59 It allows me to go out after the game on Friday. 44:02 It allows me to go out after the game on Saturday. 44:04 Maybe you have a few beverages, cause a little trouble, who knows? 44:07 But it's all good. 44:10 It's crunch time, Veegs. 44:11 There's no doubt about it. 44:12 It is crunch time. 44:13 Minnesota needs to start winning. 44:15 Needs to start showing that they can be the team we thought they could be. 44:22 And I could sense Bob's feeling good about his team. 44:25 I put a quote on Twitter here before the show, where, you know, Nightingale's done a nice job with his team. 44:31 He's done a good job in the portal, and he's got some good returning players. 44:35 But we're a different team than we were when we played them last time. 44:38 And, you know, I feel like we did pretty well in that series, too. 44:42 So we'll see how it goes this weekend. 44:44 Yeah, they're a nice little team. 44:46 They got a cute little team. 44:48 They got some cute little transfers that flash a little bit. 44:52 But, you know, yeah, we don't have any transfers on this roster. 44:57 Anything in the hopper? 44:58 You know, you got something in the hopper, don't you? 45:00 I probably got too much in the hopper. 45:02 I've been busy with the youth hockey world the last couple of weeks. 45:06 So it's been busy. 45:07 But I've got stuff in the hopper. 45:09 It's coming. 45:09 I'm working with a show for something coming up, too. 45:12 Oh, really? 45:13 Oh, yeah. 45:14 So that'll be fun. 45:16 Stay tuned. 45:18 You'll see. 45:19 He won't even tell me. 45:20 I won't even tell you. 45:21 I got to zip tight with my sources. 45:26 Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 45:29 We'll be back next week to recap the MSU series. 45:34 And we're going to Madison the week after that. 45:36 So I'll have Todd Molesky on next week as well. 45:39 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for overtime. 45:43 For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.