0:08 This is the GPL Podcast, part of the Poltab Sports Family. 0:16 You know, a good recruiting tip is like, we're trying to get a good drink around here. 0:25 Eat that, Todd. 0:29 Eat that, Drew. 0:33 You know, it's good to see that the Big Ten Network recognizes how to cover hockey. 0:42 The over-under for this game, it's seven. 0:48 Hammer! 0:49 Here's the hammer. 0:50 Hammer! 0:50 It's over! 0:51 Hammer in the over! 1:05 Good evening and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 263. 1:11 Veegs, hammer the over. 1:15 Hammer the over. 1:16 Yeah, not so much. 1:18 Not so fast. 1:19 If you would listen to me, you probably could have made some money on the game, because I think that was the one way to make money as a Gopher fan was to bet the under. 1:29 I kind of felt like this game, if Minnesota was playing well, it would be low scoring. 1:35 Well, it turns out even if they don't play well, it was going to be low scoring. 1:38 Yeah. 1:41 Yeah, we'll get into more of that later. 1:42 It's going to be more of a fun episode since the Gophers aren't playing this week. 1:45 But so if we're going to have some fun, we need to bring somebody everybody knows, right, Veegs? 1:51 That's right. 1:52 Tour de France champion. 1:57 We got to open with a chirp, Nick. 1:59 I mean, that's the way it works here. 2:00 Okay. 2:01 Well, let's bring them in. 2:02 Nick Angell, former Gopher. 2:05 There he is, Nick. 2:07 How are you doing tonight? 2:09 I'm doing well. 2:10 I got the kids to bed. 2:12 Hopefully we won't hear any screaming from upstairs. 2:14 So I'll try not to raise my voice. 2:16 Twin five-year-olds. 2:20 We've got a good theme with that because Veegs has been dealing with that for years on the podcast. 2:25 My kids are nine and 11 now, so it's a little bit easier, but they're on spring break right now. 2:30 So it's been a tough night in the Vego household trying to get them to wind down. 2:34 We're headed to Chicago tomorrow. 2:36 So a big week for us ahead. 2:38 I was thinking you're not like podcasting from like Cooner or something, spring break, you know, on the beach. 2:45 I did that earlier this season. 2:48 Podcasted live from the Dominican. 2:50 The show went pretty well. 2:51 You know, we didn't have really any glitches. 2:53 Did we, Veegs? 2:54 No, I mean, last year I podcasted from DC. 2:57 I mean, depending on how the Gophers do this year, I might be in Cabo for a podcast. 3:02 We'll see how that goes. 3:05 Yeah. 3:07 You told me that last week, Veegs. 3:09 I'm like, you're leaving the Friday of Frozen 4? 3:14 Got to do it. 3:16 We'll see if this team gets there, though. 3:19 Old move, Connie. 3:21 I'll see if it plays out. 3:23 Yeah, but isn't it a part of a wife business trip? 3:26 A little wife trip. 3:28 Cabo is great, dude. 3:30 You've never been to Cabo, have you? 3:32 Never been to Mexico. 3:33 Quick getaway. 3:34 Never been to Mexico. 3:35 Are you bringing the kids? 3:39 Nope, they get to stay here for a couple days. 3:41 Then it's a vacation. 3:43 If you bring the kids, it's just a trip. 3:46 That's right. 3:47 That is true. 3:49 Oh, boy. 3:51 Nick, we decided to have you on because you're back in town. 3:56 You played. 3:57 How much did you play in Europe? 3:58 You played in Europe for quite a while, didn't you? 4:00 Seven or 12 years. 4:01 I was talking to Eric Gwendel the other day. 4:06 I think I was one of the first guys to kind of go over there before it got really popular. 4:12 So, yeah, 11, 12 years, mostly in Sweden, Germany, Russia. 4:18 And so you've been back for a while, but, you know, relatively a little while. 4:22 And it seems like you and a couple of your former teammates kind of saw a void with the Gopher alumni. 4:29 And you've been talking to me about this for the past year. 4:31 I just wanted to get something together, get some kind of group, a little more organized than you were in the past. 4:37 And that's kind of what you've been doing with the Gopher Hockey alumni org, haven't you? 4:41 Yeah. 4:42 So last year there was a ton of alums that went down to Tampa. 4:48 If they had the Frozen Four in Tampa every single year, I would totally be fine with that. 4:52 I think, I mean, when they lost in overtime, I was decimated. 4:57 I literally, both teams had left the ice after the ceremony and I was still sitting in the chair because I was like, maybe they're going to call the goal off. 5:06 Maybe it was offside. 5:10 I couldn't even get out of the chair. 5:11 And I remember my wife was just kind of giving it to me a little bit. 5:14 And she's like, you know, it's not like you lost. 5:16 I don't know why you're so worked up. 5:17 Man, if you could just cut me a break for a second. 5:21 But yeah, we had a lot of alumni down there. 5:23 And it was kind of weird. 5:24 We never had this like big group of like guys where we could like get together, have a meeting room. 5:30 There was nothing really organized. 5:32 And myself, Jordan Leopold, Eric Wendel, we were all playing golf. 5:37 We got to set something up. 5:38 This is this is crazy. 5:39 We all live in Minnesota or close to it. 5:43 And, you know, majority of the guys do. 5:44 And there's some great alumni organizations out there. 5:46 You look at University of Michigan's got a really tight knit group and they have guys all over the country. 5:51 So there's no reason that we shouldn't have something. 5:53 So it was kind of setting up the website, getting the ball moving. 5:59 And once we kind of just got the ball moving, everything has kind of come to place. 6:03 So, you know, if there's fans out there, they can go to gopherhockeyalumni.org. 6:09 And they can go to the front page. 6:11 Most of it's private, but it's a pretty well done website. 6:16 It's kind of just started to get guys back and get them connected. 6:20 And now we've got our own private forum so we can kind of post and then also help each other out if, you know, guys are looking for jobs, new kids that are coming out of college. 6:29 They look for internships, mentorships. 6:31 We're there to help them. 6:32 And there's, you know, we'll bend over backwards and do whatever we can for them. 6:37 Well, I must say, Veegs and I have talked about this over the past couple of years that, you know, for a while there, you didn't see much alumni around. 6:43 It's, you know, every once in a while, somebody would come in for some special occasion. 6:48 But like you said, with the team last year, it was in Tampa. 6:51 I mean, Rob Stauber and his wife were on the, you know, roll right in front of me on the plane down. 6:57 Veegs, who did you run into on a bench? 7:02 Well, I know that somebody ran in and John Mayessich. 7:05 I thought it was you. 7:06 It wasn't you. 7:07 It was not me. 7:08 But I think that was Todd Molesky. 7:10 Oh, Molesky. 7:11 He's taking the trolley around. 7:13 But he was there. 7:14 I know he was with the team a lot. 7:16 I think that was fun for everybody to kind of get parts of that history. 7:20 But it's always tricky, you want to balance having the kids pay attention to their careers and their moments. 7:27 But I think when they get introduced to people from the past, it can mean a little bit more and they can hear some of the stories and maybe something for them to draw on. 7:37 And I think, Nick, your group is getting to that age where some guys have a little more free time. 7:43 They don't have the five-year-olds running around the house and they're not going to the hockey rinks for mini-mites and mite practices. 7:49 They're starting to get a little bit older. 7:51 But I think it's like that right time for this era of Gopher guys to get back together and start seeing each other again, from what I can tell. 7:59 And I think there was, you know, there was an older group that tried to kind of get some things going just with some breakfast and stuff, but there was never really anything official. 8:07 And one of the things we do now is we have a Gopher Hockey Alumni Golf Event where we sell some sponsorships. 8:13 We make a little bit of money on it and we just kind of keep it in the kitty. 8:16 And we use it to fund just some simple events. 8:19 So, you know, wherever the Gophers are playing, we're talking that we'll probably have a watch party for the alumni and it's just, it's great to get all the guys together and coke and joe because, you know, as you mentioned, the whole program is bigger than any one player and sometimes it just takes time to realize that, you know, like when I left, I wore number 26 and before that, it was Godbout and Michaletti and, you know, I'd see 26 jerseys rolling around and, you know, after I was done and none of them ever said Angel on the back, it was all Vanec jerseys. 8:54 But you realize, like, you know, the program is bigger than you and you can give back to it and one of the things that we've talked to Bob about is in the future, possibly going in to just talk to the players and say, listen, we're here for you as mentors. 9:08 If you need anything, you know, we have to play within the confines of the NCAA. 9:12 But you know, if you need mentorships, internships, summer jobs, you know, we should be a place that, you know, you can reach out to us because every guy in there, you know, the M usually stays the same. 9:23 The jersey colors and design might change a little bit. 9:27 And just the nameplate is really the only thing that's different. 9:29 You just rent that jersey while you're there. 9:32 And your job is to, you know, do your job and do as best you can for the community, and for the program while you wear that jersey. 9:42 Well, it's definitely nice to see a lot of alumni around, I mean, a lot. 9:48 I mean, I know you guys had tickets this season for a large group, what did you have, like over 100 guys or 100 guys? 9:57 Yeah, we had over 100 guys. 9:58 And that was one of the things that we used in our kiddie, we were able to pay for those tickets for everybody. 10:04 And they wanted to bring their families there. 10:06 And, you know, the day I left Gopher Hockey, I signed up and had season tickets. 10:10 So I've had season tickets for over 20 years. 10:13 So now I've moved from like the crappiest spot to I'm right on the red line top row. 10:18 I always tell people, and you mentioned this, that I did a lot of the Tour de France and I've still got a little baby fat from some of the fat camps I had to get in. 10:26 But I tell people, listen, I had to run those damn stairs and I will never go down those things again. 10:32 So I want top row, right in the middle, seats one, two, three and four. 10:38 Those are where my seats are. 10:41 Nothing wrong with that. 10:42 Yeah, but I was telling Veegs a couple of weeks ago, I was just walking around and I ran into Brian LaFleur, a defenseman kind of before your time, old neighbor. 10:55 I had never seen him at Mariucci in the 30 years I had been going. 11:01 And I just ran into him, an old neighbor friend. 11:04 And it's things like that. 11:06 And you guys have the little, you got a small little alumni room downstairs. 11:10 It's not big. 11:11 But whenever you guys are there, that's where I see a lot of guys in there. 11:17 I mean, they're just packed in there with their families or BS and they're not getting bothered maybe by fans that can go down there and just sit back and watch it on the TV if they want, rip on the team and nobody hears you rip on the team when they do something bad. 11:29 I mean, we just honestly we more rip on each other. 11:34 Who's gotten fatter? 11:38 Who's been the least successful of anybody there? 11:41 It's just it's kind of we're just like, you know, coking and joking with the guys. 11:44 And I bring my little five year olds down there and we have access to that shooting room and my kids love just going in there and shooting. 11:51 You know, they get to grab the big kid sticks. 11:54 You know, there's a couple of sets of gloves in there and they can kind of just shoot pucks in there. 11:58 And I mean, we miss most of the game usually because they're in there shooting and you know, hey, if they're having fun and dad can watch the game on the TV, it's kind of a win for everybody. 12:08 So and Veegs, there's been a lot of changes there, haven't there? 12:13 I mean, compared to when Nick was there, the whole locker room was done. 12:17 They got this, you know, nice little alumni area. 12:19 It's quite a bit nicer than it was before Veegs. 12:22 And a lot of that's been done by alumni to give back to the program. 12:26 You know, I think one unique thing about Minnesota is they've leaned heavily on their alums to put those upgrades in place. 12:34 And for a long time, Minnesota was falling behind with North Dakota and Wisconsin and even St. 12:40 Cloud in their team areas. 12:42 And so for Minnesota to catch up and have a little bit more success recruiting, you know, they had to make those changes and alums made that possible for a lot of it. 12:52 Yeah. 12:53 I mean, when you go down there, you're a little jealous about some of the stuff they've got down there now. 12:57 Oh, it's I mean, I thought when we I mean, when when I first got recruited there, I thought this is the most unreal place I've ever seen. 13:06 And now I see what these guys have. 13:08 And I think, man, it looks like a total dump, like what we had like it was so bad compared to what they have. 13:15 But at the time, I thought we had, you know, amazing facilities. 13:18 I remember going on my official visit, my mom and dad are there, we're walking through the arena. 13:22 And like, my parents are from small, small towns in western Minnesota. 13:27 And they were just like astounded of the facilities that we had at that time. 13:31 And now, you know, you fast forward and it looks it looks pretty demure to what they have right now. 13:39 And, you know, you look at the the players room that they have with the coaches, the gameboys, the bubble hockey. 13:45 I mean, I think I think we had a ping pong table one summer. 13:49 And we thought that was the best thing ever. 13:52 And I mean, we played ping pong on it, like maybe once or twice, maybe a little more beer pong than we should. 13:56 But, you know, but I mean, now these guys have everything there. 14:01 And there you look at like the nutrition that they're able to get to, you know, where before we were just eating the normal like general student food dining, you know, have some pancakes and some pasta. 14:14 You know, it was just it was kind of campus pizza. 14:17 Oh, yeah. 14:18 Campus pizza, lots of lots of campus pizza. 14:20 But now I mean, it's it's it's the way that they have their nutrition dialed in the physical fitness, the facilities, the shooting, the opportunities that they have are are incredible. 14:31 But it's it's an arms race. 14:32 It's you know, if somebody's got a, you know, 10 person hot tub, it's like, well, then the next university needs to get a 12 person and a cold tub and a infrared sauna and a steam sauna and everything. 14:47 It's just an arms race across the board. 14:48 So I'm glad we I think they did a really good job in that when they built Mariucci, they added a lot of extra space and that they could kind of fill out that space as they needed. 15:00 Well Veegs, you know, we've heard that something like Grand Forks, they have a hyperbaric room they can go in and kind of work out to adapt to like going to Denver and CC. 15:14 Yeah, because they want to get ready to go to Denver and CC. 15:17 So they've got that room where they can acclimate in there and spend time and work out in there. 15:22 So when they go on these road trips at the NCHC, they don't have to worry about the altitude quite as much. 15:28 Nick when you were playing in Europe, did you come back at all during the summers? 15:33 I know there's a lot of guys that skate at the rink during the summer and train a little bit too. 15:38 Yeah. 15:39 So every year, usually the season in Europe is eight to nine months, kind of depends on how long you have. 15:47 And then I'd always come home for three or four months in the summer, I'd usually take one month off of just kind of relaxing. 15:54 And then it was like the two months of getting back after it. 15:57 And, you know, I know now they have the beauty league, and that seems to draw pretty good attendance. 16:03 But we had a beauty league before we just never charged for attendance. 16:07 It was guys from a bunch of different programs. 16:10 We had UND guys, St. 16:11 Cloud guys, and everybody would just leave their gear at the rink. 16:15 We tip out the equipment managers at the end of the year, and they'd wash our gear. 16:20 We left it hanging there, guys would work out. 16:24 So we had that, but we just never commercialized it and we're raising money for charity. 16:28 In fact, when I would talk to people and they said, I love the Gophers and I love watching pro hockey. 16:33 So she's, why don't you just bring your kids down to Mariucci at 10 o'clock, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and you're going to get to watch some really great players. 16:43 Your kids are going to be able to get autographs from, there's Thomas Vanicks out there, there's Leopold's, there's Paul Martins. 16:49 You know, we had some really good players that are skating every single summer. 16:52 And it was a great skate because, you know, when you're, when you're playing pro and you want to just pay five bucks and go get your hockey on at the local, you know, open skate, you find out that there's some guys out there. 17:04 It's like, they hate their job. 17:07 They hate their life. 17:08 They hate their wife and kids. 17:09 And they find out you played somewhere and, you know, they're, they're playing like it's game seven and then you catch an elbow in the corner and you're going to want to beat the guys wheels off them. 17:19 It's like playing against Napoleon Dynamite's uncle, like Uncle Rico, like I'll throw that all over the moon, you know, it's like, so this was a great opportunity for all the guys because hey, we just want to get a good drip out there. 17:30 We want to get better. 17:31 Nobody wants to get injured. 17:32 So it was, you know, it was a great skate at a good, intense pace where everybody could get something out of it and tempers weren't flaring. 17:40 So that was, that was kind of what we did in the summer. 17:43 On a lake of ice. 17:45 Yeah. 17:45 Yeah. 17:46 But we did play on both Mariucci and Ritter as well. 17:49 So we would, we would skate. 17:51 I always liked playing on the big ice because in Europe, you know, it's 200 by 100. 17:55 But all the North American guys wanted to get on the 200 by 85. 17:59 So what do you think about the changes at Mariucci this season? 18:03 They've gone down to what? 18:04 87 feet, I think, maybe 89, 89 feet. 18:09 Yeah, it's I mean, I think it's great for the program. 18:13 I could I can totally understand, like if I'm a lawyer, how they're saying, OK, we want to have 200 by 100 because that's going to have more creativity. 18:21 You know, but then I can take the other side of it and say, hey, we're we're we're really we're really training these guys to take the next step. 18:29 And I think that's something that's really changed between my years. 18:33 And I think I was kind of more in a traditional or transitional time period from like WUG to Lucia. 18:39 So like when WUG was recruiting, like everybody just wanted to wear the M, right. 18:44 And then it started changing. 18:46 I think you had, you know, St. 18:47 Cloud State coming in, Mankato, Bemidji, more competition. 18:51 So I think the way you recruited players was just a little bit different. 18:55 And the way you treat players and the way that they wanted to be treated and what their goals were. 19:00 So for me, I just wanted to wear the M. 19:01 That was that was it. 19:03 But then you started seeing more guys start to turn pro, right. 19:07 And now where you look at the lineup, it's like, which one of these guys is not going to turn pro? 19:12 Okay, it's it's it's kind of wild, right. 19:15 So you know, I think that, you know, when we had the big ice, we were maybe losing some recruits. 19:21 Some of the agents and the family advisors were saying, listen, hey, go up to UMD, go to North Dakota, go to Mankato, they're going to help develop you to the next level, right. 19:30 So I think moving that rank to a smaller size takes that argument right off the table and just say, listen, the University of Minnesota has amazing facilities. 19:40 The ice is going to be conducive to you taking that next step, which is really what I think a lot of the players that are coming into the program these days are looking for. 19:48 These guys are looking to make the next step. 19:50 It's not, hey, I grew up every single day thinking about being a Gopher Hockey player, and a lot of them do. 19:55 But I think they have future aspirations once they leave the program. 20:01 Definitely. 20:02 They definitely do. 20:03 That's why I appreciate the changes this year. 20:05 It's given me more room as a photographer along the glass, so I kind of like it. 20:11 But we need to get a little bit into the game of the game this weekend. 20:15 But first, Veegs, we need to talk about one of our sponsors, and that is Will Anderson. 20:21 That's right. 20:22 Close your eyes and think of your insurance agent. 20:25 Someone you used to know decades ago, friend of a friend. 20:28 Now ask yourself, what has your insurance person done for you lately? 20:31 Are they saving you money? 20:33 Will they answer your call? 20:34 Reach out to our sponsor, Will Anderson Insurance. 20:37 He'll insure you the same as his own family, and he'll explain it to you so that it makes sense. 20:42 And while you can't promise he'll save you money, let's just say you should sure get a quote. 20:46 And he covers stupidity. 20:49 That's great. 20:49 And he's a gopher guy, call 612-361-7283, or visit willandersonagency.com. 20:57 Of course, he's a former gopher, but we also need to talk about the Yoakum Real Estate Group VEG's. 21:03 Yeah, it's getting to be springtime here. 21:05 And that's the market for buying or selling a house. 21:08 So if you're in going to the market, don't roll the dice on your biggest asset. 21:12 Think twice and contact the twins, Sarah and Jody at Yoakum Real Estate. 21:17 And if they stand side by side, their wingspan is bigger than that other guy who buys way too many billboards. 21:23 Visit yoakumrealestategroup.com for more info. 21:28 All right, VEG's. 21:30 You know, we're kind of joking at the beginning, you know, hammer the over big game against Michigan. 21:35 A lot of goals scored. 21:36 Didn't really turn out that way. 21:39 And it was kind of more along the lines what you thought. 21:43 Well, I feel like Michigan sees Minnesota as that opponent where they have to rise to the challenge and it brings out their actual best hockey. 21:52 All of a sudden, Michigan doesn't turn the puck over in the neutral zone. 21:55 All of a sudden, they start getting pucks deep. 21:58 All of a sudden, they start, you know, forechecking and being on top of guys in the right position to be that second man in. 22:03 You know, when you play that man and a half forecheck, that first guy's there, that second guy's got to be there, too, to jump the pucks and they were able to do that to Minnesota. 22:12 And they beat Minnesota in the faceoff circle pretty soundly. 22:15 So you had the Gophers who were kind of on their heels all game and it really took them a long time to get out of it really until the last five minutes of the game. 22:23 You know, you just saw they weren't able to get to the middle of the ice. 22:27 They probably extended their shifts too long chasing offense and they just never really took control of the game when it mattered. 22:36 Nick, what is the deal with Gophers and faceoffs? 22:40 Back in your day, you could literally throw Johnny Pole out there and he's going to win 60, 70% of the faceoffs. 22:49 We've been seeing a trend over the past five, 10 years where the Gophers just have not been doing well on these faceoffs and it's not just, you know, the regular faceoffs. 22:59 It's the faceoffs when they're starting to power play or when they're killing the power play that they're losing and it's really starting to hurt them. 23:08 I mean, I wish I had the magic answer to that, you know, just the pill, yeah, no, you just you got to work on this in the practice and it's just, it's just going to fix itself. 23:16 You know, I think obviously faceoffs are reactionary. 23:20 But I also think your line mates have to be helping you out a ton, right? 23:24 Like if you're having a tough day in the faceoff slot, and hey, I was a defenseman. 23:28 So, I mean, I think I took professionally like three faceoffs and that was like on a five on three back when they used to kick the center out and they were like, who wants to take it? 23:36 And I would go in and I would literally just say, hey, listen, I think help me out here. 23:41 And I would just try, you know, if you're having a tough day in the faceoff, guys got your number, you've got a different technique than you. 23:47 You got to rely on your wing mates to help you and say, listen, I'm going to just tie this guy up and I need you. 23:51 I'm going to try to scrum it up and we're going to kick it back. 23:54 And, you know, I don't know what system, exact system they're running. 23:58 I haven't watched it like intensely. 24:01 It's something that maybe I'll watch the next game. 24:04 But I think faceoffs just aren't about the sentiment. 24:07 I think your wingmen help you out a ton there as well. 24:12 Well, I know the coaching staff often talks about like that faceoff intensity, like you have to be ready to jump and help, especially down when you have so many defensemen in the defensive zone who cover that wall guy and come back for pucks to the middle. 24:25 They have to be active at helping get pucks one and wheel it behind the net. 24:30 And you just saw Minnesota too many times, they weren't able to get to that puck first, and Michigan was just ready to go. 24:38 And I think it's just one of those weekends where Minnesota thought it was going to be maybe a little bit easier, and they didn't have that intensity. 24:46 And Justin Close probably wants that first goal back. 24:51 You know, it's kind of that soft shot from distance, they mishandle, it comes right to the front, Michigan player beats the check to the net, it's one nothing, Gophers probably got lucky to have that second goal overturned on the offsides. 25:05 You know, I always want inconclusive evidence on the video review, that was pretty close. 25:10 You know, the camera angle is not straight down the blue line and they still got the call. 25:14 So they got some chances to get back in the game, it just never came their way again. 25:19 And I think, I also think face-offs, like if your team wins face-offs, it's a pretty good determiner of how the game's gonna go. 25:28 Because you think about like what a face-off is, that is one-on-one, it is an intimate, quick experience where it's just you and I, and who's gonna win this right off the bat. 25:38 And if you're kicking the crap out of somebody all day on the face-off circle, that gives you more motivation and intensity to keep kicking the crap out of that guy and the boards, and in the corners and in the tough areas. 25:49 And it's probably one of the most intimate times where it's just a one-on-one outside of a shootout, where it's just you and I, who's gonna win it. 25:58 And if you're losing it, that's when you gotta rely on your wingmates to jump in and help you out a little bit. 26:04 And I do think Michigan did a good job after winning draws. 26:08 They maintained a little possession. 26:10 So the Gophers always had to work that first 30, 40 seconds of their shift. 26:15 And I think one of the problems during the game was the Gopher players out there wanted to get some offense at the end of that shift. 26:22 So they've already been out there 40 seconds defending and they wanna go play offense, but now because they're tired, they're late. 26:30 And so you'd like to see Minnesota try to find a way to get a regroup, get a new group out there with possession and then go on the attack. 26:38 And that's been an issue I think with the Gophers this year sometimes is they just, they're chasing that offense a little bit. 26:44 We've talked a little bit about it with the more snugger Pitlick line. 26:48 You know, they can have some long shifts. 26:51 And I think that Michigan game was definitely one where that happened. 26:56 So now they get an extra week off VIG, something they haven't had in quite a few years. 27:01 Michigan goes on, they're gonna be playing at Michigan State. 27:05 Obviously Michigan State has done nothing really in the Big Ten until it kind of started pushing last year and now they're at the top this year. 27:13 What do you think happens between those two teams on Saturday night? 27:17 I think if Michigan plays the way they did against Minnesota, they're gonna be in pretty good shape and probably should be the favorites in this game. 27:24 Michigan State hasn't played great down the stretch this last month or so. 27:28 They had to deal with the bye week and the rust going into their game last weekend and it was a tight game. 27:34 And so you have a team that's never really been through this before and is all first experiences for them. 27:41 Whereas you have Michigan, they probably want regionals to be played at Mary G the way they've played there the last three years. 27:48 I mean, they're home at the right time. 27:50 I think Gavin Brinley, probably the best player in the Big Ten should be a Hobie finalist, but he's not for some reason. 27:56 Yeah, that's kind of weird. 27:58 I really like his game. 27:59 I like record majority. 28:01 Seamus Casey, also a great player. 28:03 And I think Michigan's got some pretty good depth. 28:06 They just have to play the right way. 28:08 So I think if anyone's looking out there for value, probably Michigan. 28:17 Who knows? 28:18 Who knows? 28:18 I mean, how much is this going to affect the pairwise from Minnesota? 28:21 They're kind of at the mercy where they can't really, you know, cause themselves to move up without other teams making mistakes. 28:30 So they're kind of stuck right now, aren't they? 28:32 Just to wait and see. 28:33 It feels like they're locked in at eight. 28:36 There are some scenarios where they dropped to nine, but as Bob says, you know, the difference between two and three is you're just wearing a different color jersey, especially if you're around eight, nine, 10. 28:46 So they're going to be playing the same teams anyway. 28:48 It'll be interesting to see how the seedings work out because we've got a lot of teams from the Big Ten probably in there, a lot of big teams from Hockey East and a lot from NCHC. 29:00 I have to ask you, Nick, what are your thoughts on the college hockey scene? 29:08 Since you've been gone. 29:09 Seriously, I mean, we've gone from a WCHA that was holy cow lights out to, you know, we've got more teams now, we've got more teams in Minnesota, we've got St. 29:20 Thomas, we've got Augustana, we've got all these new leagues. 29:23 It's kind of crazy and it's taken a while for any of it to really kind of take hold, especially here in Minnesota. 29:29 Yeah, I really, I think the Big Ten is starting to catch on. 29:33 I was not a big fan. 29:35 I mean, we're Minnesota people. 29:37 So that just kind of means we think East Coast people are, West Coast people are weird and I don't trust East Coast people. 29:46 So like we kind of just liked our little central area that we had with all the great teams here in Minnesota and Wisconsin and North Dakota. 29:52 And then, hey, we take the trips out to Denver and CC and an occasional trip out to Tech and Alaska. 29:57 And that was an amazing conference. 30:00 I understand the economics of why they did that. 30:05 And I think it certainly affected the fan base. 30:09 If you look at what happened to Mariucci, some people said it was the netting that they put up, but I mean, I don't really think that has much to do with it. 30:19 I mean, it was always fun to see if people could catch a 90 mile an hour deflected slap shot up in section 22. 30:26 But, you know, I liked the WCHA. 30:31 I thought, you know, having those border battles every single weekend was something that gave us a distinct advantage that, hey, we played in front of full houses every single night. 30:44 And that was one of the nice things about playing at the U is we always played in front of full house. 30:50 I've helped a young kid, Carl Falk, get to St. 30:53 Cloud. 30:55 He was a transfer from Alaska. 30:58 And I told him, I was like, oh, you're gonna love St. 31:00 Cloud. 31:00 It's a great arena. 31:01 It's always packed. 31:02 And I went up there and watched a couple of games and it's not always packed. 31:06 I had just only been there when they were playing the Gophers. 31:09 So I just assumed like every game was like that. 31:12 But, you know, I do think the Big Ten is starting to catch on. 31:15 It's great to see the attendance. 31:16 It's great to see the students come back. 31:18 Because for a while, it was, I mean, it was kind of sad. 31:21 Like, I mean, I would turn on the TV and it was just, you could just see blotches of 20 and 30 pack seats that were empty. 31:28 And I was like, man, when we played the international teams, when we play like Volarenga or some team from Sweden or Germany that would come over, we would still have way more fans than what that was like. 31:39 And, you know, a couple, three years ago, they played North Dakota. 31:42 And I know the players were just like, wow, this was awesome. 31:44 And I kind of thought it was like 95% full. 31:47 I was like, man, there were still some empty seats there. 31:49 We should have seen it when it was really rocking, when that happened every single weekend. 31:54 And, you know, I think a lot had to do with the wild. 31:57 The wild have come in and they've kind of upped their production value. 32:02 You know, I work in a corporate area now and it's like, okay, if I can do a suite, I could roughly pay the same to do a suite with the Gophers or I can do a suite with the wild. 32:12 And you look at like the food and beverage for clients and stuff. 32:14 They've kind of upgraded their entertainment dollar. 32:18 But I think Mariucci now is starting to catch up and realize they had to do some changes. 32:24 So, you know, financially and athletically, I think the Big Ten is starting to make a lot more sense to people now that you're starting to see that fan base come back. 32:33 And V, I actually think for rivalries, it's been good that Minnesota has lost three straight to Michigan on Mariucci Ice because that's what makes a rivalry. 32:46 I've always loved the Michigan rivalry. 32:48 Going back to, you know, the nineties and the college hockey showcase with them and Michigan State, they were always great games. 32:56 And you had, you know, obviously the Mike Leggold, the history behind it. 33:01 And other people weren't as excited. 33:03 They're like, ah, this is not North Carolina. 33:05 This is not Wisconsin. 33:06 I'm like, for me, the Michigan rivalry has always been up there with Wisconsin and North Dakota. 33:15 I don't know if losing to them in the playoffs is helping the rivalry for me. 33:19 What always helps- 33:20 You gotta lose to have a rivalry. 33:21 You gotta have some back and forth. 33:23 Yeah, you do gotta lose to have a rivalry. 33:25 That's true. 33:26 But I think what makes Michigan so fun to see Minnesota play against is the high end draft picks. 33:31 You know, when you see the Fantilles, when you see, you know, Burnley, when you see McGroarty, when you see Hughes out there for the other team, I think that really raises the eyes on that series. 33:46 And you always know Michigan's gonna have a good team. 33:49 And part of that's being in the P4. 33:51 You know, we don't even have the Pac-12 anymore. 33:54 Now we just have four conferences and the Big Ten's one of them. 33:57 And as much as people miss the old days of the WCHA, you know, they still were playing Tech and Anchorage and CC and Denver. 34:05 You know, they still had those games on their schedule. 34:08 You know, in the Big Ten, every team is going to be competitive. 34:12 Every team has a $5 million plus budget to spend on their hockey program. 34:17 So you're going to have that high quality. 34:19 There's a reason players want to transfer into Big Ten schools because they get to fly on chartered planes everywhere and have catered meals and stay at nice hotels. 34:27 Those are all the kinds of things that make the people in Naples wary about giving too many advantages to the schools by hiring fourth and fifth assistant coaches or having unlimited scholarships or having NIL come into college hockey. 34:42 It's the fear of programs like the Big Ten and that really separates it. 34:47 I don't think we'll ever have anything like the WCHA Final Five again, but you know, the students who are packing half the rink weren't going to that. 34:56 So we've seen that kind of turnover in fan base. 34:59 And I think that's what makes Minnesota special is when you have all those students in the building. 35:05 And we've seen these games against Michigan where the student section bleeds out from their usual three and maybe five sections. 35:11 And that just adds an incredible atmosphere. 35:14 In the last couple of years, these students coming out of COVID have made Huntington Bank Stadium special. 35:21 They've made 3M Arena at Mary G special. 35:24 Yeah, that first Big Ten Championship game against Michigan, Nick, when they had five student sections, basically that whole third of the end. 35:35 I had never seen anything like that in all the years of the new Mariucci Arena. 35:40 Yeah, it was I was at that it was rocking. 35:43 That was that was an amazing game. 35:45 I mean, you know, for what it was, you know, like the atmosphere. 35:51 I really like the result, but no, I I do think like it is it is so huge that the student section is part of it for us. 35:59 And, you know, as a player, a lot of times we say we don't really hear the fans. 36:04 And when you're on the ice, a lot of times you don't. 36:07 I can always say the times I heard the fans the most were when I was on the bench and on the power play. 36:14 You know, it's a five on three, you're trying to work the puck around and you got the guy that like had, you know, played Sega 98 and, you know, you can just hear shoot and you got 10,000 people just hear shoot. 36:27 And you almost just kind of like tighten up. 36:30 It's like, hey, this is not 1998 Sega, you know, with Cam Neely and the Bruins here. 36:35 Like, we're going to work this thing around, give me a second here, but it is awesome when the fans are there and you start to feel that energy and that excitement. 36:46 The only time I would say it was better for me as a player outside of watching that Michigan game was the National Championship game at the XL. 36:54 That was, that was when you feel the sound. 37:01 And I will say, actually, one of the funniest things, here's not a bad story, and I hope Mr. 37:07 O'Leary doesn't give me any hassle about this, but I remember I was a senior and guys are a little nervous, right? 37:15 I mean, it's 19, 20,000 fans at the X National Championship. 37:19 You're on your home ice. 37:21 And, you know, they did the National Anthem, guys are kind of sitting there, we're getting ready to drop the puck. 37:25 They're doing like a TV timeout. 37:27 And I remember Mike Guentzel looked down the bench and said, Hey, O'Leary, and Pat's a big guy, 6'3, 220. 37:36 And he's a senior and he said, Hey, Pat, let's get out there and get that first collegiate hit, huh? 37:41 And I will never and guys just cracked up and it was such a great moment and Guentzel was so good about like, he could kind of give you like a little bit of crap, but he it was just such a good moment because it just loosened everything. 37:55 It loosened everybody else up. 37:57 And, you know, then we went on to play the game and win the game, but it was it was just kind of a fun moment and I just popped into my head, just thinking about fun atmospheres. 38:07 I bet you pass not a fan of that though. 38:10 No, and you know what, and it probably wasn't a it wasn't a fair comment and everybody knew that, you know, Pat was a high end draft choice and he got put in a role that he probably wasn't recruited for and he worked and he took that role. 38:23 And it's guys like that that took roles that, you know, hey, when you're a third or fourth round, I think he was second, third or fourth rounder, and he took a tough role and just played tough every single day. 38:35 And that's the reason that you win national championship. 38:38 You have guys that will take different roles and play different positions and do whatever they can do to win. 38:46 That's kind of when you win national championship. 38:49 So taking nothing away from Pat and everybody knew it was kind of a BS line from Genner, but it was funny. 38:54 It loosened you up though. 38:57 It kind of takes a little weight off your shoulders because obviously, you're Minnesota, you're on home ice essentially for the national championship. 39:07 And 95% of the fans are cheering for you. 39:12 That's pressure. 39:13 This is not being veegs. 39:16 It's not like you got a big series. 39:18 This is one and done. 39:20 This is over. 39:21 This is literally game seven of the Stanley Cup final. 39:26 And it's hard to replicate that. 39:27 And, you know, Motska always talks about this group. 39:31 You know, they've been through back to back frozen fours. 39:35 They know what to expect and what it takes to get there. 39:38 It's just now these guys are in different roles and they're in those higher pressure situations. 39:43 And it takes a little bit of learning to prepare yourself for those. 39:46 I think Pat would probably admit that experience probably shaped him better as a coach than if he had been a scoring line player. 39:53 Because I've heard lots of guys from Wayzata come out of there and go, you know, he knows his stuff. 39:59 And we play a tough style that a lot of teams struggle to play against because he's been through that. 40:04 He knows the sacrifice you have to make as a player to win. 40:07 Yeah, exactly. 40:09 So that's even though it's a joke on Pat. 40:12 But I mean, and I'm not trying to cover my own buns here, but like, he, no, he, I mean, it's guys like that, that were the reason. 40:19 It was funny because we had our 20 year national championship reunion. 40:22 All the guys we went up and went golfing up north, had a couple of days of good fun up there. 40:28 And, you know, talking with Jordan Leopold and Paul Martin and Keith Ballard and Johnny. 40:33 And, you know, we were all sitting around the campfire having a couple of beers, just talking. 40:38 And they even said, and these were our star players, just saying, hey, it was, you know, it was guys like you, Pat, that, you know, took a role and played that role to the utmost and did it better than anybody else in the country. 40:50 And that's the reason you win championships, because every team has great players. 40:53 And those great players are going to make great plays and score a ton of points and get a ton of goals. 40:57 But you need, you know, it's not five men on the team. 41:01 It's, you know, you've got you've got your whole team that has to contribute. 41:08 Well, I want to get into more stories. 41:12 I can feel my phone is vibrating here. 41:14 I'm sure a bunch of the alums are giving me. 41:18 You're saying too many nice things about it. 41:19 We got to get into that hassle. 41:21 We can throw them all under the bus. 41:22 Well, because, I mean, our group is so tight. 41:25 You know that, I mean, we're on a group text and I'm just looking at my phone vibrating and lighting up here. 41:31 I don't even want to read what they're saying. 41:36 You know, but it's, you know, we kind of just give each other a bunch of hassle all the time. 41:40 And that's why I said, hey, when we're down in that players lounge right now, everybody's just joking around with each other and giving each other hassle. 41:47 And, you know, that's essentially what we did that entire, you know, pickup game we did a couple of years ago with you because you had skated with us after the national championship, you and Roby came out, skated with us, Rubes. 42:00 We had a blast of a time quite a few times. 42:03 And then we had a 20th anniversary of it. 42:06 You came out a couple of years ago. 42:08 And the entire time on the ice, the time about the hockey, it's about giving each other crap and just having fun. 42:15 And if you're not having fun, it why do it at all? 42:21 And I love that Gents just took that little bit. 42:23 He knew it was going to be funny, he knew it was going to be a joke and that's what you kind of need just to relax and have fun. 42:30 I'm trying to remember one of the guys because, you know, I was going to try to get Chad to come out and just kind of relive that exact thing we skated 20 years right after the National Championship. 42:40 He was up in Duluth, couldn't make it down. 42:42 And I'm trying to remember, I think it was Keith that texted me because I said, I was like, hey, maybe I can get Wendell. 42:49 And, you know, Keith knew a bunch of the guys. 42:51 And so we'd always kind of like go a little bit. 42:53 I was like, oh, I think I get Wendell. 42:54 And his reply was, oh, yeah, the guys would love it if she could make it out. 42:59 And I just thought that was like the funniest damn thing. 43:02 I texted Eric that right off the bat. 43:05 You know, we have Jack Ramsey on the podcast and he's been on three or four times and he has no shame in saying his sister is way better than he was. 43:17 Chrissy Whiteville hit me harder than I think I've ever been hit. 43:21 It was in a no check league and she cut my legs right out from under me and I just went ass over teakettle. 43:26 And I still tell Eric about that. 43:28 And, you know, Eric lives just on the road from me. 43:30 So we see each other quite a bit and still skate together every once in a while. 43:34 Well, I do have a good memory of actually you and Keith in one of those hockey games where he thought, you know, because Keith is pretty fast. 43:41 He thought he could just go right around you. 43:43 And I recall you pretty much just kind of picking him up and just kind of tossing him off to the side. 43:50 I believe it happened at the Blueinton Ice Garden. 43:52 That was a good memory for me because it was good to see Keith get just out of the night. 43:55 Well, he's a little stronger than he was back in the day. 43:58 He was a bit lighter and now I think he's been pumping some iron. 44:04 He's been doing cross training for many years and he puts in the work. 44:08 Yeah, I mean, I think the last time I saw him was at that skate and I was like, holy Christ, when's the last time you had a carb? 44:17 I mean, speaking of that, I'm going to have one right now. 44:21 And you know what? 44:21 While you're doing that, we still need to hear from more of our sponsors. 44:27 Jake Middleton here, Director of Hair and Hygiene for the Minnesota Wild. 44:31 How did I get this important role with the team, you ask? 44:34 I'd like to think it was because of hard work. 44:36 But the truth is, I run hot. 44:38 Yep, I'm a sweater. 44:42 In my role as Director of Hair and Hygiene, I'm sort of like a player coach. 44:45 Let me pull out the grease 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have to talk about one of our favorite places though, VEGS. 45:56 Cub Foods. 45:59 Cub, you know, you think Cub, you think local. 46:01 They think sports. 46:03 They sponsor Pulltab Sports. 46:05 They sponsor the Wildlands 7th Pod, Homer Hankees on PJ Flex headset. 46:10 You know, whenever the Gophers have one of these promotions with like Red Barrens or Thousand Hills, you can go to Cub and you know they'll have it. 46:18 And they support us. 46:19 So visit your local Cub. 46:20 They're all over. 46:21 There's one probably pretty close to you. 46:24 They've got all your food and beverage needs. 46:25 Great produce, fresh milk. 46:27 Everything's going to be in stock. 46:29 Pick up delivery. 46:30 They got you at cub.com. 46:32 If you need some drinks, maybe you need a Duck Duck beer. 46:34 Maybe you're looking for a THC beverage. 46:37 There's a lot of Cub Wine and Spirit stores around now too. 46:41 And of course we thank Cub for being a sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 46:46 Bring back Nick here. 46:49 I wanted to talk about something. 46:50 We've talked with both Shear Horn and Ramsey about what it's like to be at a school when the coach changes. 46:59 And you had this exact thing happen. 47:01 You had a freshman year under the Wooger. 47:03 The Wooger recruited you. 47:06 Obviously, we all love the Wooger. 47:09 I mean, my gosh, the guy is a legend. 47:12 But you know, at that time, it was time for a change. 47:14 And how was that for your class? 47:21 I mean, I think it was really difficult, right? 47:26 I mean, you come to a university and as much as you buy the university, when you sign on, you're also buying the coach everything that they've talked to you, they promised you. 47:35 And, you know, just speaking for myself, you know, coming from Duluth, I kind of grew up a UMD Bulldog fan. 47:44 My parents had season tickets. 47:47 And I mean, I like watching Brett Hall and like these amazing players and Chris Maranucci. 47:52 And like, I was a huge UMD Bulldog fan and I could tell you what, every time the Gophers came to town, there was like a special excitement in the building where, I mean, you could just you could just feel it as you walk through the skywalk going into the old deck, and you know, people were excited. 48:12 Some people were just running to get to their seats. 48:14 I was like, man, that's pretty awesome. 48:17 I want to go to that school. 48:19 Like, there's nothing against you. 48:20 I mean, I used to go to the UMD hockey camps in the summer and everything, but that was pretty awesome. 48:25 And then you see there's Coach Wug sitting in my parents' living room offering you a scholarship. 48:31 There's no way you're not going to say yes to that. 48:35 So, you know, I went because, A, I love the school. 48:39 I wanted to go to a D1 school with a D1 program that, you know, had D1 academics, the tutoring support, everything, the facilities. 48:48 So that was important to me. 48:50 But really you signed with the coach. 48:53 And, you know, Don came from CC. 48:56 CC was one of the schools in the WCHA that did not recruit me. 49:01 So, you know, I had no relationship with Don right off the bat. 49:07 You know, and I think we all had to earn our scholarships back, even though they can't really technically cut scholarships. 49:17 They kind of can, but there's some ways around it. 49:20 But I think we all had to re-earn our place and our trust with the coaching staff. 49:25 And it was great that Guentzel stayed on, because I think he was kind of the one piece of the coaching staff that kind of stayed consistent. 49:36 And he could kind of convey what was promised to us, the way they saw us as players, as people. 49:45 But it took some time. 49:48 People always ask me what I thought of Doug. 49:51 And I said, geez, Doug was awesome. 49:54 He was a guy that I'd love to have a beer with. 49:56 In fact, he used to go to Stub and Herbs after the game and bump cigarettes for my mom back when you could still smoke in the bar. 50:03 So he'd always be looking for my mom. 50:05 Hey, Erna, I know you got those margarets. 50:08 He never had a pack of cigarettes on him himself. 50:10 But my mom always had a couple of extra smokes for Doug at the bar after the game. 50:15 Just an amazing person, right? 50:17 Where like, complete opposite with Don. 50:21 Don, I think he's a great person. 50:23 But like, as a coach, he wasn't like that friendly, warm, fuzzy kind of guy you joke around with. 50:29 And I've told people, I said, listen, we won the national championship my senior year. 50:35 And I don't think we were the best team in college hockey. 50:39 But I think we were the best coach team. 50:41 So, you know, maybe Don wasn't a guy I wanted to go grab a beer with after the game. 50:47 But if you asked me who I wanted to have be my coach, I would say Don. 50:53 So, you know, I think we earned his respect and he earned ours. 51:00 Interesting. 51:02 Very interesting. 51:03 But, you know, go ahead. 51:04 What were some of the biggest style changes that happened? 51:08 Yeah, I mean, what changed in the coaching? 51:11 Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we touched on it earlier when I said, hey, the kids had changed, right? 51:15 You know, so like, you know, where our class, we just wanted to wear the M, right? 51:21 And then you started to get guys that were like, okay, this is a stepping stone. 51:24 So the way you recruit those kids and also like, you know, when Doug first started as a coach, you know, there really wasn't a Mankato. 51:31 St. 51:31 Claude State really wasn't, you know, an option. 51:33 Just getting started, yep. 51:34 UMD was kind of like a second alternative. 51:37 There was North Dakota. 51:38 But like, when there's more schools offering scholarships, it's a lot different, right? 51:43 You know, how you allocate your scholarships and, you know, you just try to get 18 full scholarship guys and then get like seven or eight guys that'll walk on and come for free. 51:52 Or do you give 10 scholarships and then try to break up the other ones? 51:55 So I think the way you recruit is completely different. 52:03 But yeah, I mean, it was an interesting time period. 52:08 And especially we had, the one thing that really sticks out to me is we had kind of a scandal within the University of Minnesota Athletic Department with the basketball team and the cheating scandal that was going on there. 52:23 And I remember I was so proud. 52:24 I got my first year letter. 52:27 And once you get a letter, you can get your letterman's coat. 52:29 And I was so proud of that, you know, because I had seen, you know, being a little kid in Duluth, you'd see these guys coming in with these big maroon coats with a big gold M on there. 52:41 And then I got one of those. 52:42 And I remember I was at the Mall of America and somebody just walked by me and said, cheater. 52:45 I was like, I've never cheated. 52:49 And it was just, it was such a, like, like a visceral thing for me where I was like, wow, that wasn't me. 52:56 Like, I'm part of the athletic department, but that was kind of the basketball team there. 53:00 And I think Jan Gangelhoff was the tutor that was doing everybody's homework for us. 53:05 I've never even met that gal, you know. 53:07 So what was the question that you asked? 53:13 Just like the style that changed. 53:15 When you got to college, not many guys played junior. 53:18 Everybody who played for Minnesota was from Minnesota. 53:22 And then, you know, you had Grant come in as a non-Minnesotan. 53:26 You had Vanik coming in, Austria, and you had guys who had spent time in the USHL before going to college. 53:33 It seemed like a big transition for Minnesota. 53:35 Yeah, and you know, I mean, when Doug was playing, you know, somebody once said, like, I don't think they could check in the offensive zone, and guys had straight sticks, and you know, like, the style had just changed so much for those guys. 53:48 And, you know, I think Don came in and changed things up and made it completely different, where I can remember in the National Championship game, you know, we had three different four checks, and we would switch it on a dime, where it was like, okay, how are they breaking out? 54:04 Are they just going D to D and hitting the wall? 54:06 Okay, we're going to go from a 1-1-2 to a weak side lock. 54:09 That way, when they go D to D, we're going to have that weak side locked, and we're going to force them to make the pass up the middle, and we're going to have our D step. 54:17 So, like, we could move very quickly from different four checks and how we attacked off face-off wins and face-off losses. 54:26 So I think bringing in that systemized style of play, almost, we never got a playbook. 54:32 It wasn't like the NFL where they, you know, hey, you get a playbook, and then if you get cut, they had to take your playbook. 54:37 But we really watched a lot of video, and I think that made us better players. 54:44 Video was pretty tough back in the day. 54:49 That's because everyone had video on you guys, because you were always on TV, too. 54:52 Yeah, but you'd watch, you know, they, you know, we'd have our Thursday video night, and, you know, it would be a little bit about the team you're playing, their power play, some of their top players, tendencies, traits, et cetera. 55:04 And then you'd play the game on Friday, and Saturday morning always sucked for video. 55:11 Because, you know, hockey's a game of mistakes, right? 55:13 And, you know, you'd make, you knew you'd made one, you could play a great game, and you knew you made one or two mistakes. 55:19 And it was an equal opportunity out there to take guys apart. 55:27 And Getter always did it in a great way. 55:29 But you knew you were going to get lit up on Saturday video for sure. 55:33 And you just like, if you made a bad pass in the second period and gave up a grade A scoring chance, you just dreaded that portion of the video that was coming because you knew you were going to get the highlight reel. 55:43 And I mean, I think I cried one time. 55:46 I got ripped on so bad. 55:48 Like, not when I was a freshman either. 55:50 Like when I was a senior, it was tough, you know, but it was great because it held us accountable. 55:55 And, you know, and I think I remember the play. 55:58 It was in Wisconsin, and I just got viscerated by the coaching staff for the way I played a two-on-one. 56:04 And I will remember it to this day. 56:06 I will never play a two-on-one the way I played that. 56:09 You know, and that was an accountability piece. 56:11 And, you know, so not just the tactics, but you were really held accountable. 56:17 You know, when Doug was the coach, and like I said, I love Wooger, you know, the seniors kind of ran the show and they could kind of get away with anything. 56:26 And a lot of that changed, where everybody was held accountable, whether you were a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, equipment manager. 56:32 You know, if you didn't have the guys skate sharpened or didn't do a quick turnaround, if a guy blew a lace, like those guys were held accountable. 56:38 And I think it made our program better. 56:41 It's funny, I was talking to Mason Nevers once this year about what film was like on Saturday. 56:46 He's like, Saturday is the coach's day. 56:48 It's like they own that day and it's a tough, long video session. 56:52 If we didn't play well on Friday night, everybody's going to know what they did. 56:56 And it's going to be a different night, Saturday night. 56:59 Yeah, we actually talked about for our 20-year national championship because we never had a post-game breakdown after the national championship game. 57:10 And we had said, we're like, hey, we got to get Genner that tape. 57:14 And we just want him to be a savage with all of us and just put together. 57:19 And we just thought it would be great. 57:20 We never got it done, but I always thought it would just be hilarious. 57:24 To get Guentzel to kind of do our Saturday, or Sunday morning post-game breakdown from the Saturday night national championship game. 57:32 And just see what he said about the guys. 57:34 Because now it would actually kind of be funny. 57:35 You would look forward to the point you got taken apart. 57:40 Why did they get a wide open net on a power play? 57:42 What the hell? 57:44 Oh, yeah. 57:46 I'm sure he would, you know, I mentioned Pat O'Leary. 57:48 I'm sure he'd give Eric Wendell some hassle, if you remember. 57:53 We had a delayed penalty. 57:55 Sorry, Maine had a delayed penalty. 57:58 And the Maine goalie thought it was on us and left the ice. 58:03 And Eric came up the ice and didn't see that the goal was completely empty and cross-corner dumped it. 58:09 So I would have loved to see what Genner had to say about that one. 58:15 Oh, boy, that could have been, yeah. 58:18 Like you said, you can still do it. 58:22 I got to track down Genner. 58:23 Genner and Wordo. 58:24 It's kind of a name from the past. 58:27 Oh, yes. 58:28 I recommend hanging out at Stone Ridge Golf Course during the summer. 58:31 I'm sure you'll see Genner there shooting his low 70s. 58:37 You got any more for the recorded part of the podcast here, Veegs, for Mr. 58:41 Angell? 58:43 Well, I just appreciate you coming on. 58:45 We love having the alums come on and get their perspective of what's going on with the program. 58:49 What do you think is going to happen here in the next couple of weeks with this group, from what you can tell? 58:54 You know, I think guys have kind of been talking. 58:57 You know, the Penn State game was a little, like, rough, right? 59:00 I mean, if you just looked at the shots and then you looked at Michigan. 59:02 And, you know, sometimes and maybe this is just me more of like a glass half full kind of guy. 59:08 It's just like, you know, sometimes you need a wake up call, right? 59:11 And, you know, I think the way they played was not amazing, right? 59:15 There's not a lot of hustle, not a lot of grit and jam and compete out there. 59:19 And, you know, you could see it out there. 59:21 And that's maybe just kind of my old school. 59:23 You know, maybe I'm not politically correct in giving everybody a trophy these days. 59:27 But, you know, it wasn't a great effort. 59:31 It wasn't a great team effort. 59:32 And I think, you know, sometimes when you have that wake up call, it says, hey, you know, we need to play collectively much better. 59:38 Our compete level needs to increase. 59:40 And it's better to figure that out now than it is in a couple of weeks. 59:45 So, you know, wherever they get seeded, whether it's 7, 8, 9, 10, you know, I looked on Twitter, I saw your predictions, Joop. 59:53 So we'll, you know, we'll see where they land and, you know, where the regional is that they go. 59:58 But whatever happens, I expect their compete level to be, you know, much higher. 1:00:02 And that's, you know, really all you can ask for is, hey, are these guys giving us 100%? 1:00:07 Are they going out? 1:00:08 Are they competing? 1:00:09 You know, or, you know, hopefully, you know, it doesn't look like guys have already signed deals and they're ready to go. 1:00:15 You know, so, but I think they're going to come out and they're going to come play real hard. 1:00:18 And I think it's going to be a, I think I don't think anybody's really like focusing on them or saying like, Oh, hey, that's really the team to beat. 1:00:25 I think, you know, that's more on the North Dakota and the Boston teams, you know, and I think Minnesota could be a pretty good sleeper because they certainly have the talent. 1:00:34 And, you know, if you use this as a bit of a wake up call moving forward, it could be a catalyst for good things to come. 1:00:42 Can you stay with us for a little bit of overtime here, Nick? 1:00:46 I've got an extra beer here. 1:00:47 I'm good to go. 1:00:49 That's what we like to hear. 1:00:52 Well, thanks for coming on the show, though. 1:00:53 I mean, we're going to have to get you on multiple times now. 1:00:57 I'm happy to come on. 1:00:58 It's, you know, the fans don't know this, but I did text Jupe. 1:01:02 I said, hey, I'm having a blast. 1:01:05 So, well, we're glad that we had you on. 1:01:09 And of course, thank you for coming on with us. 1:01:11 That will do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 1:01:15 We'll be back next week to preview the NCAA tournaments and see where all this is going to go. 1:01:21 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for that over time. 1:01:24 For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.