0:08
This is the GPL Podcast, part of the Poltab Sports Family.
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Oh boy.
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And so, I had to train for this marathon.
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Make sure you stay awake for the game tomorrow too.
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I think Bart must be watching upstairs.
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He's trying to be awake for Thanksgiving tomorrow.
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JUPITER MADES WORRIED.
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Now, here's Jupiter and Vigo.
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Good evening and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 259.
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Well, good evening, Vegoe.
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We're a day late this week.
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We tried to help people out by leaving Valentine's Day open.
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It's probably best for especially us men to not schedule stuff on Valentine's Day.
1:25
Yeah, I saw a bit The Big Ten Network did this week where they're asking coaches, like, what's the most expensive thing about Valentine's Day?
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And the coaches are like, if you forget to get something and have to make up for it and double down.
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So you're really GPL Podcast.
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Yeah, hopefully GPL Podcast being a day later helps everybody out and thanks for coming with us again tonight.
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We kept it simple, just made a nice dinner at home.
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I got some flowers, of course, but just kept it simple.
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It's nice.
1:54
What do you think Bob Motzko got Jess Myers this week?
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You had to go there, didn't you?
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Well, they were telling jokes to each other at media this week.
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They kind of were.
2:08
They kind of were.
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Well, let's bring in our guest today.
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Drew Cove is our guest this week and he's been here quite a few times.
2:15
It's a couple of anniversary over times as well.
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Drew, thanks for joining us again, kid.
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Hey, thanks for having me on.
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It's always a great time.
2:24
We had you on since what?
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You were 19, I believe we figured last time.
2:27
Yeah, I probably did it in my sophomore year apartment.
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Honestly, right by Baseline and Ritter and everything.
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It was just like a stone's throw.
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I was probably just sitting in my tiny little room.
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It's come a long way to another tiny little room only.
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This one's in St.
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Paul.
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Thanks for keeping the lights on tonight.
2:46
Exactly.
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I've upped the lighting system a little bit.
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Let's take a look.
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Let's zoom in on Bukestead.
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That's nice.
2:57
I hate to say things that make me sound really young, but when I was in elementary school, middle school, he was my favorite guy.
3:05
He was one of my favorite players.
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Back in high school, I said, you know what?
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I got to get his jersey.
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When he was like Phenom for the Panthers, obviously, at the time.
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My hockey stuff is kind of over here in the corner, but it's an office too.
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I got to keep it even keeled around the whole way.
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Jess and Coach Matzko kind of going, well, actually it's mostly Matzko kind of getting on to Jess a little bit this week at media with how negative he's been, I guess.
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Well, you know, sometimes that's the role of the reporter, is to point out issues you may see in a program.
3:48
I think this year we did have a lot of questions coming into the year with how Jimmy Snuggard was going to perform.
3:54
You know, playing with guys like Matthew Nyes and Logan Cooley, who you could watch this week on NHL games, you know, especially Logan Cooley against the Wild the other night.
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It's a bit of an adjustment, and we have seen Snuggard go through some challenges this year.
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You know, he still is.
4:10
Yep, he's still going through some challenges.
4:13
And then Justin Close, we had some question marks about him.
4:17
I don't know why.
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We just don't expect to see a goalie of his stature, you know, his height, perform at a high elite level.
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And he's one of the 10 Richter finalists this year.
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And this team is proving us wrong in some spots and still question marks for us.
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But Drew, this weekend, a very successful weekend for Minnesota.
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It wasn't just Justin Close shutting down Penn State.
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It was the whole team defense doing an excellent job.
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Yeah, and they've come an incredibly long way.
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And I think that was at least the biggest question mark that I thought about heading into the season, obviously with the big guns up front leaving.
4:56
But obviously the three NHL guys on the back end that departed.
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And a lot of people, I think, too, that might have been some of the question marks around Justin Close saying, all right, was he just a product of just a generational defense in front of him and saying, all right, he's able to make the shots that do get to him.
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And he's not kind of going above and beyond.
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But I think we saw last year when he needed to go above and beyond, he did.
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And he's obviously proving it again this year.
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But yeah, the team that I think the defense has been really locked down second half, especially they've just they've kind of turned a corner.
5:29
And I know I think I was pretty critical of them early on on some of the early mistakes and the young freshman mistakes that they're obviously going to be making.
5:37
But I think they've really settled in.
5:40
And obviously, you play a team like Penn State.
5:42
It's a little bit easier than Wisconsin and or Michigan State.
5:47
But yeah, I mean, you come out of a weekend with no goals against.
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I mean, that's it.
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Can't do better than that.
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Close has done that twice.
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He did it to Wisconsin a couple of was it last season, the year before or season before Vegas.
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And now he's tied with Briggs and Wilcox for 13 shutouts in a career.
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Yep, 13.
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Very lucky number to be on right now for Justin Close.
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And he's done it against good teams, too.
6:12
I heard Adam Wodon on his College Hockey News podcast talking about this week.
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He's like half of those shutouts are against top 10 teams.
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And it's not like he's getting 15, 20 shots in these games either.
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He's getting 25, 30, 35 shots in these games.
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So he's being tested.
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I think the biggest takeaway for me against Penn State was that is probably the best Minnesota has played at defending the crease and keeping the eyes clear for the goalie and a goalie with good rebound control, as I've seen in a decade, at least.
6:47
You know, it had a lot of possession.
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They had a lot of shots, but they didn't get a lot of second chances that were dangerous.
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And I think a big reason for that was the defensemen were playing their position, tying up sticks, letting Closer see the puck come in to them, and Closer didn't spill anything juicy out for Penn State, which is what the Nittany Lions thrive on.
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And if you take that away from them, they're kind of a simple team.
7:14
So, otherwise, the defense, not just the defensemen, but the forwards were doing what Motsco has been telling him to do the entire season.
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Just do it and you'll be successful.
7:27
This team right now is not playing dangerous hockey.
7:30
They are playing winning hockey.
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And I think that's something we haven't seen a lot at Minnesota.
7:35
You try to see the Gophers outscore their opponents.
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They can outscore their mistakes.
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When you're winning 3-0 back to back, that means you're playing smart hockey.
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You're not taking chances.
7:48
You look at some of the goals that Pitlick had, that Hughlin had, that's them taking advantage of the opportunities, not chasing them.
7:56
I kind of want to get back to Snuggeroad here, Drew.
8:01
He really hasn't done a lot the last few weeks.
8:06
He has kind of been that roller coaster.
8:08
Obviously, he had that odd streak against CC in January a month ago.
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Now, he's been quiet.
8:16
Yeah, I thought, especially right away, that CC series, I said, all right, he's finally, I mean, he figured it out.
8:24
He played against the best in the world.
8:27
We thought he kind of, I mean, the same thing, honestly, what happened to Oliver Moore, I think, just the way Oliver Moore's played, I think he's still playing at a very much higher level than he was in the first half of the season.
8:40
And I think a guy like him and Ryan Chesley came back and they've still played at a pretty high and just more competitive level than they did beforehand.
8:49
And it's interesting to see that, yeah, Jimmy's kind of not sustained that, especially since the explosion in the CC series.
8:57
But yeah, now he's, I mean, if you would have said last year, at the end of last season, if he was like the top offensive guy coming back, that he wouldn't be leading the team in points right now.
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I think a lot of people would have said, wow, I mean, maybe that's not too surprising.
9:11
Maybe, I mean, an Oliver Moore kind of guy would take the mantle, but Brett Pilik leads the team in points right now.
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And that's, it's a bit surprising, especially given the goal scoring prowess of Snuggerud.
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But I mean, maybe if this is a slump and this is the bottom of the roller coaster and he's coming back up, I mean, now's the time to do it.
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Last couple of weekends of the season, but they're just going to hope he needs to be on an upswing at the right time.
9:38
And hopefully he can find his confidence in the next, or just find that touch in the next two weekends to when it obviously really, really, really counts.
9:48
And Veegs, I've been adding a lot of stats and stuff to GPL recently.
9:54
So I've kind of been going through each game, adding them to the site.
9:58
And I'm looking at it and Snuggeroot's got 150 shots this season.
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The next closest is Brodzinski and Pitlick with 83 and 84 shots.
10:10
So he's definitely getting the chances.
10:14
Yeah, I was going down a rabbit hole of hockey analytics this month.
10:19
And I was especially looking at the analytics of shots where the goalie sees the puck.
10:26
Because I was talking about how Justin Close sees the puck, makes the save, no rebounds, that's winning hockey for Minnesota.
10:33
He's so good at not letting any easy goals past him.
10:37
On the flip side, when you look at Jimmy Snuggeroot, he is maybe forcing his shots a little too much, even when the goalie can see the puck.
10:47
And so it's not a high danger chance, it's just Snuggeroot has it, and he wants to get those shots on net.
10:53
He's so driven, he's like, I've got a great shot, I got to get it off.
10:57
I think the key for him is that there needs to be some side to side movement happening, or some traffic before his shots are going to be more dangerous.
11:07
Because if you have a quick release, that only benefits you if the goalie has to move before you shoot the puck.
11:13
So I think that's going to be a real key for Minnesota here down the stretch is finding ways to get snuggerooed pucks where the goalie has to move and snuggeroo can take advantage of this quick release, and especially on the power play.
11:25
You know, Bob was talking about the power play against Penn State kind of letting him down.
11:29
He's like, you know, against Wisconsin, I think they got one power play or no power plays the whole weekend.
11:35
And then here against Penn State, two, three, not very many chances to work on it.
11:41
So they're not really finding their rhythm.
11:43
And so I think that's going to be important for Minnesota to change things up a little bit.
11:48
That's definitely a concern for me, Drew, is power play seems to be sinking quite a bit.
11:55
Yeah, I mean, at some point in the year, it was just clicking incredibly.
11:59
I mean, it was at 25 percent.
12:00
And it's like, I feel like the Gophers just generally kind of clip at that level, at least from the time I've been covering them.
12:06
It just seems even if the team is bad, they seem to obviously have that talent level to be effective on the power play.
12:13
But yeah, they're going to need to they need to create movement.
12:16
They need to be able to create that.
12:18
They need to be able to not be so predictable that teams can kind of fall into it and just get the chances in its own right.
12:27
I mean, I know you guys are talking about the waved off goals at various points and just kind of the frustration there.
12:34
But I mean, just getting the chances that they in capitalizing on the ones that they do get because they're so infrequent seemingly in the last few weeks.
12:44
So it needs to come back.
12:46
I mean, they need to have those game breaker guys step up.
12:49
I mean, they need some scoring off the rush.
12:53
They need to be able to get just use their skill to surprise the other teams and just to find a way to get the goals where they can.
13:05
Because I mean, it's tough when you set up and then it's just kind of moving around.
13:09
And there's not a whole lot of movement.
13:11
And it just doesn't end well for the Gophers at times at some of these points.
13:18
So yeah, they got to have some of these guys step up.
13:22
I mean, some of the, I think, seeing Rat Pitlick, like we talked about a little bit before, I think his play has been really, really strong of late.
13:32
And I think being able to have his shot also make a difference in a lot of different aspects of the game is going to be really important coming down the stretch.
13:43
Well, because they do have, you know, we got two guys over 30 points.
13:47
One, two, three, four, six guys with at least 20 points.
13:50
And Connor Kurth is, you know, one point behind.
13:52
Jackson Nelson is a couple of points behind.
13:54
So they do seem to be fairly balanced here.
13:59
And I think that's what I thought at the start of the season.
14:02
Is this could be a team that had three lines that could all score.
14:07
You know, you might have nine forwards who could get to double digit goals.
14:12
We're going to be close to that maybe.
14:14
I'm not sure if they're quite going to get there, but it could be seven or eight, you know, for sure.
14:19
And I think one of the things with Snuggeroot is he has to realize that sometimes if the goalie's got clear eyes on his puck, he's got to get some movement or he's got to change it up and get it to somebody else and maybe get it back.
14:33
Or maybe shoot low and help for rebound instead of maybe trying to pick your spot.
14:38
Well, I think when he's out there with Pitlick and Moore, you can make a possession play and get a higher percentage chance later in the shift.
14:44
Because I think one of the things that makes that line so dangerous is they're so aggressive.
14:49
You know, you watch Pitlick out on the ice.
14:52
Mesa Nevers gave away his nickname.
14:54
He's the Spider Monkey.
14:55
He is everywhere.
14:57
He is everywhere.
14:58
And he said Red Pitlick loves that nickname.
15:01
They had t-shirts made up for it.
15:04
And so when you got the Spider Monkey on your line, you got to take advantage of that and get some possession, draw some power plays, get the goalie moving side to side.
15:13
We need to get those shirts for the general public here.
15:20
I need to see a photo.
15:22
Send it to Dinkytown Ethics or just have us do it on our own.
15:26
We won't make any money.
15:27
That would be awesome.
15:30
Gosh.
15:31
That's just incredible, though, to have.
15:32
I mean, for how well I think Red Pitlick has really emerged this year, especially his play without the puck.
15:39
I mean, the speed, the doggedness on pucks in just a four-check scenario.
15:45
Yeah, I love that part of its game.
15:47
Like, it's so much fun watching him, yeah, watching the other teams set up in the defensive zone to say, all right, I mean, if Pitlick's on the ice, I mean, it's not, they're going to be really scrambling.
15:59
And you can tell that like really quick, they're like, oh boy, this guy's fast.
16:02
We got to do something here.
16:03
And then they make a mistake.
16:06
So I just, I've loved watching him play.
16:09
I mean, just skate around because he is just so fast.
16:12
And it's always so, to see one of the guys that like, because I think the college game is just so fast generally.
16:17
I mean, you see, it just seems faster than even at the NHL and just seeing all these guys that are just really, really, really good skaters take that raw skill and that raw speed and turn it into something.
16:31
And Brett Pitlick has done that.
16:33
It's so cool to see that on a team that you watch very regularly to be able to make a difference, to be even just that little bit faster than the rest of the guys that are already incredibly fast.
16:45
Well, I do think the difference in Pitlick is he's had that speed all his career, but I think he's just a little bit stronger, heavier, that he's able to make plays through contact significantly better than he's had in the past.
17:01
And that ability to play at that speed with that physical play makes all the difference.
17:09
He still drives me crazy, Biggs, and some of his offensive zone entry.
17:15
And I will text you this.
17:16
I'm like, what is he doing?
17:18
So I love the kid.
17:21
He's great.
17:21
I love what he's brought this year.
17:23
But some of the passes, the passes.
17:26
You'll be out doing something.
17:27
You'll be making dinner.
17:29
I haven't had chess watch the game yet.
17:30
And you just know what's coming for me.
17:33
I know what's coming.
17:34
It's the passes backward.
17:35
You know, the south passes when he's driving and he throws the puck back to someone that he thinks is there but just doesn't see.
17:43
The plays in front of him where he's got good eye contact and vision on, he's good with.
17:49
It's just some of the stuff anticipating what's going on behind him doesn't always work well for Reds.
17:55
So if he's a podcast listener, you know, keep it going north.
17:58
You know, we're a true north team here.
18:01
It seems like some of that type of stuff that I've noticed with Oliver Moore too, even when he was at the, I mean, even at World Juniors, just seeing not necessarily like just south passes, but just the kind of stuff where it's like, boy, you were like three steps ahead of everybody else and they couldn't even catch up to where you were going to be.
18:19
And I remember in World Juniors, he overskated, he fanned a shot, he overskated it and just kind of watched it, like expecting the defender would be in to close on it.
18:27
And then it came to be, I can't remember, it was a goal the other way because it was an odd man rush, but it was like, oh man, because it's just like he knew what needed to happen.
18:35
It's just like nobody else was on the same page at the right time.
18:39
But it's like I can, you can tell, like he's got the IQ for it.
18:44
He's got the head for it and he knows what should be happening and what he can make happen.
18:50
It's just the rest of the team kind of being all on that same step that he is because he might be at step seven or eight and the rest of the team is still just getting past step three or four and catching up with it.
19:00
So it is interesting to see all those guys kind of on the same line some of the time to say, all right, what are they going to do with it?
19:06
Are they going to be magicians or is it going to end in a couple of turnovers and then back to the bench?
19:12
And that actually brings me back to something that you talked about earlier this season with Oliver Moore-Veegs and some of the things he needs to do.
19:19
But before we get to that, we need to get to one of our sponsors and it's Duke Cannon.
19:27
Jake Middleton here, Director of Hair and Hygiene for the Minnesota Wild.
19:31
How did I get this important role with the team, you ask?
19:34
I'd like to think it was because of hard work, but the truth is, I run hot.
19:38
Yep, I'm a sweater.
19:42
In my role as Director of Hair and Hygiene, I'm sort of like a player coach.
19:45
Let me pull out the grease board here.
19:48
Well, it's not actually a grease board because there is nothing dirty about Duke Cannon.
19:54
How do I help the guys stay squeaky clean?
19:56
Helpful reminders.
19:57
It's simple.
19:58
Tarp saw, Duke Cannon up.
20:00
Say it with me.
20:01
Tarp saw, Duke Cannon up.
20:03
Tarp saw, Duke Cannon up.
20:07
Pick the scent that suits you.
20:09
Sawtooth.
20:12
Thick body wash.
20:14
Extra thick.
20:16
And my favorite, midnight swim.
20:19
Tarp saw, Duke Cannon up.
20:22
Duke Cannon.
20:23
Work harder, smell better.
20:26
And of course, we thank Duke Cannon for being one of our sponsors.
20:30
Love our hair.
20:32
Love our hair.
20:32
But also one of our sponsors is Cub Foods, Veegs.
20:37
Cub Foods.
20:38
Cubs love sports.
20:39
They love PJ Flex headset.
20:41
They love the Wildland 7 podcast.
20:44
They sponsor the Pulltab Sports broadcast studios.
20:47
And they're in your hometown.
20:50
They've got everything you need for pickup, delivery.
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If you're looking to eat healthy, they've got great produce.
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If you're looking to maybe spoil yourself with some Pale Ale's or THC seltzers, they've got a bit Cub wine in the spirits.
21:03
So, everything you need.
21:05
One of us.
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They're awesome.
21:06
Cub.
21:09
Love me some Cub.
21:10
Definitely love me some Cub.
21:12
Let's bring Drew back in here.
21:15
So, as I teased before the commercial break there, one thing you talked about earlier this season on the podcast.
21:22
Oliver Moore.
21:24
He's got one speed.
21:25
It's fast.
21:26
It's great.
21:28
I want to see him change it up a little bit.
21:33
I think he's done quite a bit of that since he came back from the World Juniors.
21:39
Well, I think during the World Juniors, he kind of had some good reinforcement that you're just not faster than everybody and you have to find ways to make more plays and create those high danger chances.
21:52
If you're just coming down the wing and the goalie sees you coming and you take a shot, most goalies at your level are going to make those saves.
21:59
So he's learned you got to have a few more tricks in the bag and he's working well with Snuggerud and Pitlick.
22:05
That's probably Minnesota's most dangerous line because they've got great speed.
22:09
They've got great skill.
22:11
They're hard defensively.
22:12
They're fast in transition and they're aggressive getting second chances when they do get offensive zone time.
22:18
So he's really developed over this season.
22:22
He's a much better player now than he was at the start.
22:26
What do you think there, Drew?
22:30
His passing is still amazing at times.
22:34
No, I mean, it's the same.
22:35
I mean, similar kind of stuff just from like the start of this.
22:39
You could tell in the first half he had some immediate success in the first few weekends, I think.
22:45
Yeah, and it definitely tailed off.
22:48
I think once they got to more BigTen talent, he got to face bigger, heavier teams.
22:55
Obviously, some of the teams that are ranked in the top echelon of the country right now and have been for a while.
23:01
And I think, yeah, he realized that, wow, I've dominated at every level I've ever played at doing what I do.
23:09
And now it all of a sudden doesn't work all the time.
23:12
And I think he definitely kind of hit a wall there for a little bit.
23:15
He's like, oh, yeah, my speed and my shot.
23:17
But it's not always going to happen because obviously as a freshman, he's going to be a little smaller.
23:21
He hasn't had that time to, like you mentioned, Veegs about Red Pit, like just kind of get better at being physical over like a couple of years.
23:30
That takes time.
23:31
And who knows if he's going to act, if that is going to be realized at the college level.
23:38
I think he figured it out quickly after the World Juniors, like you said, just kind of realizing that, wow, yeah, here are some of these other guys that are pivoting and making, and they are the best at their level just like I am, but they're adjusting to their circumstances.
23:54
I know, I think PJ Fleck likes to say, you can't let the circumstances dictate your behavior.
23:59
But in this case, it does have to happen for hours or more because you've got to find ways to be successful at this level if you want to really prepare to get better at the very next level.
24:09
Because it's not going to get easier at the NHL.
24:12
I know that for sure.
24:14
Not saying I played the game.
24:15
And I know a lot of people might say, you know what, you didn't play the game, so you don't know.
24:20
But College Hockey is hard, but obviously levels beyond this are a lot tougher.
24:25
And it's good that he's figuring it out, I think, in the second half.
24:29
He's figuring out ways to be, to still make an impact and still make a positive impact and kind of find his way around some of the other things.
24:41
He's kind of finding his other pitches, so to speak.
24:46
There's one thing I wanted to discuss about the Penn State Series Viges.
24:50
Friday night, I think that defensive piece came together the most.
24:59
Hughlin and Fish both take penalties at the same time.
25:02
Hughlin a two-minute, Fish a five-minute.
25:05
They've got to kill five on three for two minutes.
25:08
They get it done.
25:09
The crowd's getting into it.
25:10
They're doing an excellent job.
25:11
They're keeping Penn State to the outside.
25:13
Very few chances early.
25:18
Hughlin comes out.
25:19
Nelson goes back in.
25:21
So now they've got not quite full two minutes, but like 1.40.
25:26
A long time.
25:28
And, you know, close did end up coming up big.
25:31
But it just seemed like such a catalyst for this team.
25:37
Because when that first happened, I'm like, oh, here we go.
25:40
Here we go.
25:41
This is not good.
25:43
And they just shut them down.
25:44
And I think that could be a very, it wasn't just a big turning point for the game.
25:49
That could be a turning point for the season.
25:51
But, oh, they just shut them down, an offensive team in that whole scenario.
25:58
Well, definitely could be a weekend changer.
26:00
You know, if you have a bad stretch in one game, just like the Michigan State game, you know, where they gave it away in the third period, that changes your entire perspective on the weekend.
26:12
You know, you go from such a high to such a, we gave something away.
26:17
And now they have something that they can rally around.
26:20
And one of the things that's impressed me about Justin Close, and this especially stands out when the Gophers are short handed, is he does a pre-scout of the opposing team's power plays.
26:30
And he has a really good idea of what they're trying to do.
26:34
And he excels at reading the play and getting his eyes on shots really quickly.
26:41
And some people say, oh, that's a great athletic save.
26:44
It's a great read.
26:46
And that's what makes Justin Close one of the top college hockey goaltenders is he knows what to look for and what's important to scout and what's important to anticipate.
26:55
And that stretch of hockey, that's not just him reacting.
26:59
That's him going through his brain going, what are they trying to do and how can I beat them there?
27:04
And that's what he executed so well.
27:07
And now Close is a top 10 finalist for the Richter Award, Drew.
27:13
Yeah, his positioning has been, I think, just watching some of the Penn State series, just seeing his positioning and like you mentioned, because he's just, he knows where he's going to be.
27:24
He's planned out where he's going to be for that type of situation.
27:27
And he just is, it's amazing how much wasted effort or how little wasted effort he kind of puts in to making his saves.
27:36
And that's the sign of, I mean, like, just like you talked about winning hockey and not chaotic hockey.
27:42
You could be chaotic.
27:42
And I think we saw it with Liam Souleir a couple of times where their odd man rushes and you're darting across.
27:48
And he ends up in the corner when the net score, when the net's just wide open and you see the celebration happen and he skates around by, it's like, oh, how'd you end up in the corner?
27:57
So you just kind of like diving around.
27:59
And obviously it's kind of tough to prepare for some of Minnesota's top offensive players on a two on one.
28:03
But I mean, I think Justin Close, you saw there what makes a really elite college goalie and just kind of the dichotomy between the two, not trying to say Liam Souleir is just absolute garbage, but I'm trying to say that Justin Close, really it looked like night and day, I think in that series.
28:23
And just seeing how good he's been and obviously you guys have talked about it, we've talked about it, just how he came from out of nowhere to be the guy.
28:33
And now he went from, all right, here's the guy who's just going to have to do it.
28:37
And now, all right, he's the beneficiary of a really good defense and now he's kept the team in a pretty decent pairwise position through this season with a defense that was definitely in flux at the start of the year and has obviously gotten better.
28:52
But he's really proving he belongs in that top category of college goalies.
29:00
And I think one of the things about Closer as well is he's mentally tough enough when if he lets in a squeaker that he should have got, Moscow's not afraid to say, yeah, he'd like that one back.
29:11
And just in the same way, I'd like that one back.
29:13
But that happens so rarely to him that it's not a big deal because he makes the saves that he's expected to make.
29:21
He gives the defense confidence to take away passes across the middle and just let him see the shooter and take the shot.
29:27
And as a team, when you have that kind of confidence in your goalie, you can play a very sound system in front of them.
29:34
And I think that's what Gopher fans are seeing right now.
29:38
I think he only gets scolded kind of really once.
29:41
It might have been at Penn State when he was playing the puck behind the net and setting them up for goals.
29:46
And maybe it was a high.
29:47
I might have been Ohio State.
29:49
Actually, he was setting them up for goals.
29:51
And because you could hear the mics, the mics were like, right.
29:55
They're like right on the park.
29:57
It's like it's like the coaches had lapel mics for that one.
30:03
Well, we want to know what Steve Miller sounds like during a game.
30:06
Oh, listen to that Ohio State game.
30:08
Yeah.
30:09
He's loud regardless.
30:10
Yeah, yeah, he is.
30:11
You can hear him on big broadcasts, too.
30:14
So we had some questions come in right before the podcast here.
30:17
You know, I just threw it out for people.
30:19
And I've got Jenny Gopher here.
30:22
He's asking that the new ice sheets solve the net issues on the Zambodi side of the rink.
30:28
Were the old pegs enshrined or did Craig Flork eat for himself?
30:33
I think this whole problem was just solve it.
30:35
But the whole floor was redone and everything was new.
30:39
Yeah, because the pegs weren't aligned quite right there.
30:42
And they had to kind of just like MacGyver them to get them to work.
30:46
You know, they've got a whole new concrete floor there.
30:48
Everything's perfect for this setup.
30:51
And I'd like to get Portillo back in there or Tommy Napier.
30:56
Tommy Napier.
30:56
I'd like to see him out there.
30:58
That was Joop's favorite.
30:59
I always remember.
30:59
Oh, yeah.
31:01
Yeah, because those guys were treating the net like a squat rack.
31:04
So we haven't seen really a goalie like that this year.
31:08
And we really haven't seen the goals knocked off at all, unless somebody ran into them this year.
31:13
Right.
31:13
And that's when they're supposed to come off.
31:16
That is true.
31:17
So there you go, Denny.
31:19
Next question.
31:20
Vonner wants to know, what's the over under on close consecutive shutout minutes?
31:26
Currently at 174 minutes and six seconds.
31:30
What do you think, Drew?
31:31
Is that pretty good?
31:32
Is 176, is that?
31:34
174 or six?
31:36
I think it's all right, actually.
31:37
I don't know.
31:38
But I don't know.
31:39
I mean, I think it would be more difficult against Notre Dame, I think.
31:43
Obviously, I think over the years, they've gained a reputation that, yeah, that Jeff Jackson is pushed back on at times for being a very defensive oriented, or almost just like a defensive, no depth to them at all.
31:59
No other dimensions other than defense.
32:02
But I do think Notre Dame will score at least once this weekend.
32:09
And so whether that happens on Fridays or Saturday's game, I don't know.
32:12
But I mean, if he's on a heater, he's on a heater.
32:15
I mean, you got to get the hot goalie at the right time.
32:17
And that's, I think, a lot of everyone's talked about it over the years, just you got to have your goalie being hot at the right time and into the playoffs and into the end of the regular season.
32:30
And, you know, that's how you make up for, you know, maybe lackluster game in a tournament time to say, all right, your goalie can get you out of it and kind of make or break as a game.
32:41
And you know what, if he can do that, if he can do that this weekend and continue this hot streak, then the Gophers have a pretty decent shot, I'd say, to make some noise in the tournament.
32:55
I see another question here from somebody watching live.
32:59
Tim Hapke, we'll give this to you, Veegs.
33:02
Well, Bartosz Kavitsch, Bartow, make it back to campus or has his year in juniors killed it?
33:11
I think it's going to make him a lot further away from getting starting opportunities at Minnesota.
33:19
He's a goalie that they like, and he did them a favor by coming to campus.
33:23
It sounds like Nathan Ari is that goalie that they want to play next year.
33:27
And he looks impressive when you watch him.
33:30
Who knows what his mental fortitude will be like when there are bad games, because that's something we learned about Justin Close after he took the net.
33:40
You never really know that with goalies, but he played that 4000 minutes of junior hockey.
33:45
So the coaching staff saw that said this is a guy we want to bring in.
33:49
So when Bardo comes, if he comes, you're not trying to lean on him to be a heavy minutes guy, you're leaning on him to be a, you know, a guy to bring out the bullpen maybe or give some competition.
34:01
Certainly doesn't help that he went down to the NHL.
34:05
And now I think his first game he didn't have a great game either.
34:08
So he's got some work to do.
34:11
And I noticed his dad still like retweets some of GPL's tweets once in a while.
34:17
Well I think Bardo is still dating a Gopher women's player.
34:20
You know, so he really probably wants to come back here to Minneapolis.
34:25
But you know, this is a results oriented business though it's not, it's not, it's not friends on the playground.
34:31
So the coaching staff has to do what they see best.
34:34
And you know, they have got late commits at goalie before, and you want to goalie with lots of experience.
34:39
We'll see what happens.
34:41
All right, let's throw this one at you, Drew.
34:42
Zuzu wants to know on Twitter, initially, initial NCAA thoughts.
34:48
Number two seed.
34:50
They go on a run, maybe find themselves a low number one.
34:52
I think that's a little difficult.
34:54
But yeah, you see what are your initial thoughts right now?
34:57
Yeah, I mean, I was reading that question earlier and I was taking a look at the pairwise seeing what was going on.
35:02
And obviously they're number eight right now.
35:03
And I mean, that to me, it seems like unless things fall apart, they'll be a two.
35:11
And whoever knows whatever gymnastics they do to get certain matchups or certain teams and whatever regionals.
35:19
But I think a one is almost, I mean, I don't think beating Notre Dame, they just received votes this week, I think.
35:29
But I don't think beating Notre Dame, even sweeping Notre Dame, and beating Michigan.
35:36
I mean, Michigan's on the verge of not making the tournament.
35:38
Right now, I don't think they would, right?
35:40
Like they're 14th or something like that.
35:42
And there's enough automatic qualifiers that are just not gonna bump them out.
35:48
But yeah, I don't think beating Notre Dame and Michigan would necessarily solidify any major improvement for the Gophers.
35:59
Because I don't think they jumped up.
36:01
They didn't jump up super significantly, thanks to the the Wisconsin and Michigan State Series.
36:07
And those are probably the two most important that they've played the last two, just because they actually looked, they looked a bit more prepared for him this time around.
36:17
When they when they actually had a little bit more body work to go off of from them.
36:21
But yeah, I don't I think they're kind of stuck in this in this two seed.
36:25
But I think a few weeks ago, we would have said maybe they would have been would have been more bubble like and three seed worthy.
36:31
So I think they're in a good position right now.
36:33
But yeah, one seed seems definitely seems out of reach right now.
36:38
Hold on for that one Biggs.
36:39
I just had a quick follow up on that Biggs.
36:44
Really, I think if they have a chance to get to a number one seed, they really have to go to Madison, you know, in a semi final matchup, and then go to Michigan State, probably, to bump that up and get victories there and win the Big Ten tournament.
36:57
Really?
36:57
Yeah, I mean, CHN put out their pairwise probability matrix, which is always fun to see they do the Monte Carlo situation simulations deal.
37:08
And I think it puts Minnesota at like a nine percent chance of getting one of those top four seeds.
37:16
So it's small.
37:16
It probably involves them doing a lot of stuff like winning hockey games.
37:21
I mean, winning every game here on out, because I think the top Big Ten team will be at least a four.
37:30
Yeah, you got it for the best team in college for the best conference in college hockey.
37:34
I think that's the it's only it's only right.
37:36
It's only right in just at that point.
37:39
So Tim Haske asking if Jess is traveling to South Bend.
37:43
He hasn't made as many trips this year.
37:46
Well, I do know that Jess has been covering the Big Ten as a whole this year.
37:50
So he's had to give attention to some other schools.
37:53
So he's not just following the Gophers on the road every weekend.
37:56
I know he's been covering St.
37:57
Thomas hockey quite a bit this season as well.
38:00
He's down like a St.
38:01
Thomas.
38:01
They can't walk doing high school hockey.
38:04
So he's he's expanded his coverage.
38:05
He's not solely doing the Gophers this year.
38:08
But I do not know as like I said earlier in the podcast, a little under the weather this week.
38:13
You know, I want to keep it away from the team for all of you.
38:17
All right.
38:19
Of course, I have to bring in Darren Bakken asking favorite Gopher Hockey jersey Drew.
38:24
Oh, I prepared this for a podcast we actually never recorded like two years ago.
38:32
But there's the I mean, the ones from like the 20s to the 40s.
38:35
I really like if you go on vintage MN hockey, Kyle keeps a great site.
38:39
You guys should go check it out because there's a bunch of cool stuff over there.
38:42
They are a former sponsor here, too.
38:45
Yeah.
38:46
All right.
38:47
I mean, you guys have got great stuff.
38:49
Yeah.
38:49
Yeah.
38:50
And I not to mention I do not to be a, you know, a show for your guys's podcast.
38:55
But I love the I love the commercials, the sponsorship.
38:58
These are great.
38:58
This is great stuff.
38:59
I love I like the Duke Cannon commercial.
39:01
That's awesome.
39:02
I haven't bought Duke Cannon before, but I'm going to now.
39:04
So, uh, you've got it right there.
39:08
There we go.
39:11
Rocking the flow.
39:11
I don't have.
39:12
Yeah.
39:12
See, my hair is way too long right now, so I don't.
39:16
Serious flow.
39:17
Serious flow.
39:19
Matt, check that out.
39:20
I'll have to pick it up.
39:21
But back to the jerseys.
39:23
Anything, I think from the 20s, there was that there was like one that was like a mustard gold and it just had like Minnesota straight across the chest with like a maroon stripe on it.
39:33
I think that'd be cool if they could revive like a version of that just to try something out and be have something be different.
39:42
I don't know.
39:43
But obviously the ones they brought back.
39:44
Those looks though, because those looks were part of it was the fabric and like, yeah, whoa, and it was heavy.
39:49
They look great, but not great for playing hockey in these days.
39:54
Yeah.
39:54
I mean, I love the ones that they didn't they bring them back for like the opening season at the new arena, the like almost the kind of ones.
40:02
Okay, that's what the Bumblebee ones.
40:04
Yeah, those ones are cool.
40:05
I love those ones.
40:06
And they obviously had a lot of staying power through like the 30s, 40s and like the 50s a little bit, I think.
40:11
So I think those are just that when I think of like Gopher Hockey, I think of like that's the jersey.
40:16
But as selfishly as someone who like grew up watching the team around this time, the ones that like from 2006 to like 2018, those are just like the classic ones to me, which is pretty simple, pretty straightforward.
40:30
I think those are just that that's kind of and they were around so long.
40:33
That's just kind of what makes me think of when I when I think of a Gopher Hockey jersey, I really think of the home whites from whatever the basically end of Blake Wheeler to end of Sammy Walker.
40:46
So Blake Wheeler getting injured didn't look good, by the way.
40:51
What about you guys?
40:52
I was going to ask you, Veegs, what's what's your favorite?
40:57
I really like that old deep maroon, like her brooks with the Gophers across and like the old, old Gopher, like the like the like the Prairie Gopher kind of one that's kind of up like this.
41:09
Yeah, like the one they brought back for the Hockey City Classic in Chicago.
41:13
Yeah, I really like that one.
41:16
Justin Close actually has that really, really old Gopher on his helmet right now.
41:20
And then the other one I liked is the one like they did for the outdoor game at TCF, you know, the gold gold with the Minnesota over the top and the number in the middle and just the bars on the sleeve.
41:32
I think that's a good clean look.
41:35
I do like the old Gopher script thing that they have going now with the, you know, the cursive kind of, I think that's a cool script.
41:43
So trying to incorporate that.
41:44
With it kind of curved, you know, we were talking about that with your text a couple weeks ago.
41:48
Yeah.
41:49
I like that kind of arch curve to it too.
41:51
So finding ways to put that.
41:53
I think that could be cool with that script, like on a sleeve or a shoulder.
41:57
You know, they've got that vintage skating goldie on the third.
42:02
But I think having that Gopher script somewhere would be neat too.
42:05
The men need to take more pages from the women's book on the jersey design because the women have had great jerseys for years.
42:11
The budget is tough.
42:13
The budget is tough, Drew.
42:14
I mean, the Gopher men's team goes through about four times as many sticks.
42:20
So that's a big part of the equipment.
42:23
And they can only get jerseys every so many years, whereas the women can get jerseys more often, Vakes?
42:30
Well, their budget's different because Minnesota spends their budget on so many different things like sticks.
42:36
You know, I mean, that number probably went down when Vinny Leterri turned pro, but.
42:40
You got the joke before I could get to it.
42:45
Well, it would help if all the players were using a certain stick, but they could get contracts.
42:50
It would be a lot cheaper, but that's just not reality.
42:53
So I would say one of my favorite ones actually right now is their current white.
43:01
It does have a very retro look to it, late 80s to early 90s when they still kind of wore those mesh jerseys and the mesh fabric.
43:10
So when I look at it, it looks I have.
43:13
That's the first jersey I ever got with one of those mesh M jerseys.
43:16
So it reminds me of that.
43:19
And I see Snuggerud wearing that.
43:20
And I think of his dad right away because his dad wore a jersey very similar to it.
43:27
So I'm I'm I don't know if it's my all time favorite, but I really like in the new whites and the new maroons are not great.
43:33
And obviously the golds are great as well.
43:35
The golds have become very popular and they're undefeated in them bigs.
43:39
Yeah, might seem a lot down the stretch here when they get great.
43:44
Yeah, I like this year's set.
43:46
I think it's a good clean set this year.
43:47
So nice job to whoever put those together.
43:49
Wish they ordered twice as many.
43:50
I'm going to start.
43:54
I saw a question here from John Reynolds.
43:58
Your opinions, Pino versus Strobel on the fourth line.
44:02
Go, Drew.
44:04
See, I was I think I was really hard on Pino at the start of the year, because I think he looked he looked like a passenger on a lot of on a lot of on a lot of his just appearances on the ice.
44:14
He looked like he was like a little bit weak on pucks, like on the wall, especially.
44:18
But and I really like Strobel coming into this year because I just like his energy and his like just the way it seems like he goes about his life.
44:26
And I think what made me think about himself is that it seems like a guy that you want like on the ice and a guy who loves beat playing for the Gophers and not just obviously not to say that Pino doesn't like doing the same thing.
44:35
It's just the way that Strobel expresses himself doing it.
44:37
It just made me think I'm like, all right, I want to give this guy a shot.
44:40
But I think I think Pino's made really good strides in his in the time he has been playing.
44:47
And obviously, Strobel's shown flashes, but I mean, it's hard to it's hard when you have a guy like Jimmy Clark come in and I think play really well and take up one of those spots that wasn't really necessarily wasn't supposed to jump up into the line chart like that.
45:03
Obviously, they needed a guy to fill a spot, but I think he's done really well.
45:08
But I think Pino gets it now.
45:11
I think at the start of the year, I might not have said it, but I think I like that a little bit better than Strobel right now.
45:17
Let me just say the GPL Message Board Veegs, they love Pino.
45:22
They do not love him.
45:23
Sarcasm, people.
45:24
It's sarcasm.
45:25
Sarcasm, definitely.
45:27
They are mean to him.
45:29
They're very mean to him.
45:30
And I actually feel like since he's got his cage rattled here with Strobel getting a little more ice time, Pino's responded with some more engaging play.
45:39
I agree 100% with Drew earlier in the season.
45:43
He was like a passenger on his line during play.
45:46
I think he just didn't have a whole lot of confidence going on.
45:50
We've seen more engaged play from him lately.
45:54
And I would like Charlie Strobel to get more run.
45:57
I think he adds an element to the roster that is missing and can be very effective in the role of asking him to play.
46:05
But I've also seen him make some minus plays out there.
46:09
In my mind, I try to chart positive and minuses for those two players specifically because it's a hot button issue for a lot of people on the message boards.
46:18
And Strobel is not 100% consistent out there.
46:22
And so that's something the coaches need out of that fourth line is consistency and don't get your team in trouble.
46:28
And I think we're still kind of feeling out how those players can fill that role.
46:33
I don't think it's as clear cut as our message board would like it to be.
46:39
Definitely, definitely.
46:40
We'll have to wait and see, you know, he could turn out to be a hero and then we'll see all those people just kind of have to swallow it.
46:46
But Veegs, we need to hit up our sponsors a couple more times here.
46:51
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46:56
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46:57
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46:58
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47:00
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47:03
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47:03
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47:06
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47:09
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47:13
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47:14
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47:16
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47:17
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47:21
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47:25
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47:31
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47:38
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47:47
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47:50
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48:01
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48:35
Drew, back in, would you have opted to kick off in overtime or receive an overtime?
48:43
Boy, and this is going to be a little embarrassing, but I did not watch the second half of the game.
48:52
But I think I've heard enough of this controversy where I don't know, I feel like I'd want the ball.
49:01
I'd want the ball right away in overtime, just to say, all right, let's go on if we can.
49:05
Let's go on offense.
49:06
Let's get the points.
49:07
Let's do what we can and either, you know, win the game, if possible, or if anything, just stave it off.
49:14
And like, just hope the defense can hold to whatever they need to just kind of a more known quantity.
49:19
But I think I would have received.
49:21
Okay.
49:22
And one other flip side question, more of a hockey person.
49:25
Do you want to shoot first or shoot second in a hockey shootout?
49:30
Am I the Gophers or am I any other?
49:32
Let's just say you're the wild.
49:41
See, I'd say shoot second.
49:43
And I don't like that's just maybe it's just because I've seen every home team ever decide they want to shoot second, especially in the NHL.
49:49
But I don't know.
49:51
I want to be able to react and say, all right, if I need the one goal to win it, to clinch it at the very end of the three.
49:59
And that's what I want to be able to do.
50:01
So I don't know.
50:03
I like the walk off nature of it.
50:05
So I think your answer exposes your hockey expertise because essentially if you kick off or you go second the shootout, you know what you have to do.
50:16
And that's the advantage of going that second.
50:19
So I think, all right, you know, maybe true.
50:21
But how many of those players knew the rules had changed for playoffs?
50:26
I think they were.
50:27
I didn't even realize that they were asleep during their team meeting, because I didn't know that until they started talking about it.
50:33
I'm like, well, here's the rules.
50:35
I was explaining to Barb and they're like, no, if you score a touchdown, you still get the ball.
50:39
I'm like, that was new to me.
50:42
Yeah, super.
50:44
And maybe the maybe the coach didn't tell his players.
50:50
If he did, he should go out.
50:51
You win.
50:52
You do this.
50:55
I don't know.
50:57
Maybe they should do that before the shootout with the Gophers if they get in one.
51:01
See, that's why that's why I was hoping so hard that Carl Fish was going to get the goal in that breakaway scenario.
51:08
Just to say, all right, they can score in a like a one on nothing scenario.
51:12
And like even defensive physical defenseman Carl Fish can do it.
51:17
Then, you know what?
51:17
Anything is possible.
51:19
And Fish gets the puck coming off the five minute kill last week.
51:24
He scores there.
51:26
The roof comes off the place because it was already very loud at Mariucci.
51:30
Like I was telling Nate Wells this week on our podcast, I was we were saying, you know what?
51:35
St.
51:35
Paul might never have recovered after that.
51:39
The parade would have been thrown.
51:40
We would have said, you know what?
51:41
It's officially Carl Fish weekend in St.
51:44
Paul.
51:45
We would have thrown a parade right in front of the old high school arena.
51:51
And it would have been a great time.
51:54
All right, Big.
51:55
Let's quickly get into Notre Dame this weekend.
51:57
Both games on Peacock.
51:59
You need to pay for the subscription.
52:00
Pay the $5.99 for one month, Bigs.
52:03
It's well worth it.
52:04
We're pushing.
52:05
You and I have been pushing, streaming all year.
52:07
We're going to keep pushing it.
52:09
If you were smart, you would have got it a couple of weeks ago for the Michigan Sea.
52:12
Yeah, you could have watched some other stuff.
52:14
But like you said, we're talking to pre-game, you know, Oppenheimer's coming on, Peacock.
52:18
So maybe buy Peacock $5.99 for one month.
52:22
Watch Oppenheimer later this weekend, you know, maybe between the Friday game and Saturday game or something like that.
52:27
But Jeff Jackson teams typically have been so well defensive.
52:33
But as you mentioned earlier this season, they're not quite the same style as they have been past three, four, five years.
52:42
Yeah, as I've been looking at their season for them, it's one where they just don't have the structure that you'd expect.
52:51
And I thought for a while it might have been because Jeff Jackson was trying to change his style.
52:56
I'm now starting to come to the realization it could be because he's got so many freshmen and graduate players on the team and it's just not working for them.
53:04
Opposite ends of the spectrum there, yeah.
53:06
Yeah, and they just can't play with the discipline that they're used to so they're having to kind of think on the fly.
53:12
So while this Notre Dame team is known for getting in rock fights, they're going to do some done stuff too.
53:18
And so I think this is a weekend for Minnesota where they just have to stay out of the trouble and let the game come to them and take advantage because Minnesota has shown that they can play that style and it works for them.
53:29
So just don't get away from it.
53:31
So Drew, it's like weight and then pounds, it sounds like, according to Vegoe.
53:35
Yeah, I mean, at some point, they're a little bit of an irresponsible run and gun style.
53:40
Like you're going to have rebounds, you're going to have play kind of quickly turning the other way.
53:45
And I think the Gophers have the talent and they have the ability to turn it the other way and to turn something into an odd man rush the other way and take advantage.
53:55
Obviously, I think Ryan Bischel is certainly a force, I think, as a goalie in the Big Ten and in the country.
54:03
But it's the Gophers have the talent and I think he's just a little Justin Close is a little bit better on the Gophers end from that perspective.
54:15
But I think that, yeah, they just got to be able to take advantage of broken plays going the other way and to kind of capitalize on those mistakes.
54:24
I feel like I need to get Frank Mazzacco to do a stat breakdown on Ryan Bischel against Minnesota over his career.
54:31
Because I see all the accolades that Bischel gets nationally.
54:35
And I've heard people say, you know, he should be a Big Ten goal of the year back to back to back.
54:40
And I just I never really truly see it.
54:42
And maybe it's just because I see him against Minnesota and I typically watch Notre Dame against Michigan too.
54:48
So I've just seen him against these high flying teams.
54:51
But I just I don't always see it why he's so highly touted.
54:55
So I thought for a long time it was Notre Dame structure.
54:58
I don't know.
54:59
He's got decent numbers this year too.
55:01
So I will also be watching how he plays this weekend.
55:05
Well, if you guys are not following the Gopher game notes Twitter account, you need to be doing it because the person behind it has so much data.
55:14
And funny you asked that Veegs is one of his tweets earlier today.
55:19
Between the pipes Medina native Ryan Bischel has a career mark of 3, 6 and 1 with a 2.71 goals against average and a 0.911 save percentage against the Gophers.
55:35
So that is definitely not goalie of the year material when he plays the Gophers Veegs.
55:41
I feel like I know how to pull up his career numbers just to see how they compare.
55:45
Just because he's very highly touted.
55:52
He definitely is.
55:53
Minnesota has done well against him.
55:56
Or decent, I would say, against him.
55:59
They're definitely motivated against him to play well.
56:05
Plus, I think ever since the She-He penalty in the Big Ten playoffs, Minnesota has played pretty well there, Drew.
56:18
Was that She-He or Novak?
56:19
I think it was She-He.
56:22
She-He got the penalty, I think.
56:23
She-He got the trip?
56:27
Yeah.
56:29
Are they both on the ice then, too?
56:31
That sounds really...
56:32
Well, yeah, Novak would have been there around that time.
56:37
But ever since then, they've actually done pretty well at Notre Dame.
56:42
Yeah, I feel like in my head, too, I still think Penn State is just this uber-scary castle on the hill for the Gophers.
56:49
And you know what?
56:52
It hasn't been the end of the world for them at times in the last few years.
56:58
And obviously, I always think back to the five straight games that they lost there right at the end of Don's tenure.
57:07
And I'm always like, man, the Gophers might never win at Penn State ever again.
57:11
And obviously, they change that tide.
57:14
And it's kind of hard to break those feelings.
57:16
Because yeah, I just remember, especially right when Notre Dame came into the conference, and it was very dominant for them.
57:23
And I think the Gophers have since, even the playing field at least a little bit, because obviously, it's different animal playing against classic Notre Dame-style hockey, not to anger Jeff Jackson, but classic Notre Dame-style hockey that Gophers have struggled against in the past.
57:39
So what do you think, Veegs?
57:41
What does Minnesota need to do?
57:43
I mean, you talked about patience.
57:47
What do they need to do to get to have a successful weekend?
57:51
Well, I think the successful weekend for Minnesota is improving on some of the things we're worried about.
57:57
Get on the power play by possessing the puck in the offensive zone, drawing some penalties, and getting to work on that in game situations.
58:04
I think that's really important for Minnesota.
58:07
I'd like to see Jimmy Snuggerood find more ways to use his shot, especially situations where the puck's moving side to side.
58:16
You can't just come down, run a nine route with the puck and fire it and expect to score all the time.
58:21
It's not a high percentage chance even for a guy like Snuggerood.
58:26
So find ways to change angles, use traffic.
58:28
That's important to me.
58:30
I want to continue to see this battle between Pino and Strobel for playing time.
58:34
I think Bob's kind of committed to letting those guys eat some chances.
58:39
We'll see who's going to be more consistent.
58:41
And then finally, I want to see Cal Thomas back in the lineup.
58:45
He got nicked up a little bit this last weekend.
58:48
Bob said he's going to be fine in practice this week.
58:52
Invalability said he should be good to go this weekend.
58:54
Let's see him on the ice.
58:57
What do you think, Drew?
58:59
Man, I think I do want to see Justin Close continue.
59:04
The level of play he's been at, I want to see just kind of him and the defense remain as cohesive as possible against what will be probably a relatively chaotic Notre Dame attack, just given it's going to be unstructured at times.
59:20
It might not be all what they expect.
59:21
It might not all be what it's drawn up to be.
59:23
And Big's, like you said, just how planned out and methodical that Justin Close is in terms of his preparation for a team, a team that might forget their own preparation at times, might throw him off.
59:35
So I want to see how he deals with that and how the defense and him kind of work that relationship together.
59:42
Because obviously that trust level goes a long way and being built over the course of the season.
59:47
But I just want to see that group still remain effective.
59:52
And obviously with Landon Slaggart being, he's still one of the better scores in the Big Ten.
59:57
And they got to watch out for him.
59:59
So I think I'm mainly just watching back end.
1:00:02
I want to see how tight the Gophers stay through this whole weekend and see what the offense can get on the other side.
1:00:09
Just take advantage of the chances they can get.
1:00:12
And if they can get on the power play, just keep it moving.
1:00:16
Keep it moving and see what they can do and hopefully restore some confidence in that.
1:00:21
You know, if it goes to a shootout, I'd love to see if they can score one.
1:00:26
I'd love it.
1:00:27
I think that was the last time they actually won a shootout, was against Notre Dame four years ago.
1:00:35
Who got that goal?
1:00:40
Brandon McManus.
1:00:43
That's a while ago, folks.
1:00:47
So, Cora, Mr.
1:00:49
Cove points this weekend for how is it distributed?
1:00:55
Boy, I'm wary about saying about going, I think, the way you're going to go, Jupe.
1:01:05
But I do think, I think it could be a sweep.
1:01:07
I think it could.
1:01:08
So, I think they could get all six.
1:01:11
I mean, if it does end up in like OT and they get, you know, they get four or five, so I don't know.
1:01:17
It could, we'll see how it goes, but I do think the Gophers get a majority of the points.
1:01:22
I think the way that they played against the last three weekends, I guess, is just, is they've shown that they're, they can consistently play against the really good teams and they can dominate the teams that they really should be dominating at this point in the year if they want to be considered one of the upper echelon teams.
1:01:41
So, I think they could easily get a sweep.
1:01:43
It's just a matter of if they execute properly and they don't let the frantic aspect of Notre Dame kind of burn them at times.
1:01:57
Well, I'm thinking that they have turned the corner and like Veegs is saying, their structure is much better.
1:02:05
I think that's going to lead to a sweep this weekend.
1:02:07
I've been calling a lot of splits actually lately, so I'm going with a sweep, six points.
1:02:14
I think I'd go home for this weekend for me.
1:02:16
Veegs?
1:02:19
I think the over-under for Closers' shutout streak should be 234.06, which would give him another zero on Friday night.
1:02:31
Then we'll see what happens Saturday.
1:02:34
I think this team is in a position to continue that shutout streak, get close to the record, and six points are what I expect.
1:02:42
So sweep across the board tonight.
1:02:45
Nice.
1:02:45
It's been a while since we've had that.
1:02:48
Let's go.
1:02:51
Mick and Letty would love your positivity, Veegs.
1:02:55
But we know he's already asleep.
1:03:01
Well, thanks for coming on, Drew.
1:03:03
It's been great to have you.
1:03:04
Hey, thanks for having me on.
1:03:06
It's been a great time.
1:03:07
I do want to shout out, too.
1:03:08
It's my parents' 27th wedding anniversary today.
1:03:11
They've now been married to each other for half of their lives.
1:03:15
So they're...
1:03:16
Nice.
1:03:16
So that's...
1:03:17
Duke's dad anniversary.
1:03:18
Yep, exactly.
1:03:19
Exactly.
1:03:20
That's exactly why I put that up there.
1:03:22
I did not, but that's A-OK.
1:03:24
But very happy anniversary to my parents.
1:03:26
So it's very...
1:03:28
Yeah.
1:03:28
I wouldn't be here without them.
1:03:31
I don't think you would be.
1:03:32
No, I very much would not be anywhere without them.
1:03:36
Well, thanks for coming on.
1:03:37
Definitely.
1:03:38
V, is anything in the hopper?
1:03:40
We'll see.
1:03:40
There's a lot of youth hockey going on these days.
1:03:43
My life is very busy.
1:03:44
So stuff is coming.
1:03:45
I had a great conversation with Frank Seritori today.
1:03:48
It was just...
1:03:49
It was like the funnest 45 minutes of my day.
1:03:51
Oh, you jerk.
1:03:55
Like I said, well, people said, get the two Seritori brothers on the Ocho on ESPN.
1:04:02
For the Frozen Four.
1:04:05
I might have gotten a commitment from Frank to do a live tweet for one of the semifinal games in St.
1:04:11
Paul.
1:04:11
So we'll see.
1:04:13
All right.
1:04:14
All right.
1:04:16
Well, that is going to do it for The GPL Podcast this week.
1:04:21
Got to thank Drew, obviously, for coming on the show again.
1:04:24
We are off next week since the following week.
1:04:27
The Gophers have a bye.
1:04:28
But we'll be back on February 28th when we have Brad Schlossman and Adam Wodan on to kind of give us their views on changing the NCAA regional format.
1:04:42
We know how that's gone recently.
1:04:44
For those of you watching live, stay tuned for some overtime.
1:04:47
For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.
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