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This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family.
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Oh boy.
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Duke making mistakes, I love it.
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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.
1:02
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 268.
1:10
Well, Veegs, the boys went to Vegas, and were half successful, would you say?
1:16
It's a little more than half, because when you get to overtime, we're going to use the P word, pairwise, as we've been joking about, it's important to get to OT.
1:27
You get some benefit in the pairwise for that.
1:29
So, little better than a 50-50 weekend.
1:33
Funny you mention that.
1:34
We'll get to the Omaha game in the first place, but I had somebody PM me on GPL Magic.
1:40
He says, does the loss to Omaha in Las Vegas hurt our pairwise?
1:46
Is it counted as a loss or one third of a loss?
1:50
Now, I believe it's not one third.
1:52
It's actually two thirds of a loss and one third of a win, Veegs.
1:55
Can you clarify that for us?
1:58
Yeah, once NCAA went to the three on three shootout across college hockey, they decided to award a third of a win for getting to OT and two thirds for winning in OT.
2:10
You know, it's not quite, you know, when they used to go five on five and overtime, you get a full win for winning.
2:16
You wouldn't get any bonus, I think, for going to OT.
2:18
But once they started putting in the shootouts and the different overtime rules, everybody kind of got away from awarding lots of points in overtime.
2:25
And now, it's a third and two-thirds.
2:28
I always kind of like that back in the day.
2:30
You know, if you could win in those five minutes, it's a full win.
2:33
Let's go.
2:35
Yep, just like in the tournament, that's how it matters.
2:39
So, the boys started off Friday night, late Friday night, with a 7-1 victory over Air Force.
2:45
And obviously, not the shot totals they had against Omaha, but it was a pretty good shellacking after a slow start, would you say?
2:58
I think a little bit of a cautious start.
3:00
You know, Air Force is a physical team, older team.
3:04
They controlled the faceoff circle.
3:06
You know, they're real good there.
3:08
And Minnesota finally started to get some transition offense going throughout the game.
3:14
And that was one of the big things I noticed, is the defensemen were real quick on their puck retrievals.
3:19
They were knocking it on to their forwards, and they were out of the zone quickly.
3:24
And as the game went on, I felt like Air Force kind of lost the back pressure on those opportunities and allowed Minnesota to get goals in transition.
3:33
You know, Kurth, especially, you know, Chesley Renzell getting those goals.
3:37
It wasn't really until the Hendrickson goal that you saw them get the ground game going.
3:42
And I'm sure the coaching staff, when they saw it back at score that one, they're like, yes, we need more of that if we're going to be successful this year.
3:53
Our play didn't connect that night, didn't connect the next night.
3:57
Any concerns with that so far with what you've seen?
4:01
Yeah, a little bit.
4:02
You know, that first unit trying to force the puck a little bit to Stug Rude.
4:07
I get a little concerned about them starting the power plays without possession.
4:13
That's been a concern on Saturday.
4:16
The entries weren't very clean, so they were having a hard time getting established.
4:21
So I think we're going to see some flux to the power play.
4:24
You know, if you notice at the end of the Omaha game, Eric Paulson was out there taking some draws.
4:30
Jimmy Clark out there taking some draws.
4:32
It looks like those are the kind of guys that Minnesota might have to count on to win faceoffs this year.
4:38
And I always have a hard time when you have a wing on your strong side, opposite someone like Sagerud, because it's just hard for them to handle the puck on the perimeter.
4:49
And it feels awkward sometimes.
4:52
I know that, you know, you can have a right hander in that spot, or you can have all lefties out on the power play, but it's just a little awkward when you have that little bit of adjustment.
5:05
You know, I see Ryan K talking about the draws here.
5:08
It's going to be an issue again this year.
5:09
And you know, Friday night, yes, they won 7-1, but they were dominated at this face-off.
5:15
Just dominated.
5:17
And it's not just the centers.
5:19
You know, it's the wings getting in the right position, and maybe a little bit of communication about how the centers want to take the draws.
5:26
You know, I saw someone come after OCO.
5:28
What is cheating on the draws?
5:31
Yes.
5:33
That was one of the questions.
5:35
Let me read the whole thing.
5:35
It's from Eric Raymond.
5:37
Can you talk more about what you referred to as cheating in the face-off?
5:44
Face-offs are a black hole in my hockey knowledge.
5:47
So, can you explain it to Eric there?
5:49
Well, there's two things.
5:50
There's the little grids in the circle for where the center is supposed to line up with their feet.
5:55
You know, you're supposed to have one foot on each of those little elbow marks on your side, and then there's a little space in the circle for draws where it's a white space.
6:04
And that's supposed to be where you put your stick before the draw.
6:09
Now, when you're center, you'll have things that you're better at.
6:13
You know, winning draws back, pushing draws to the boards, going forehand, getting your bottom hand over the circle.
6:21
So, you want to position your feet and your stick in the best position before the puck is actually dropped.
6:28
And great centers, you know, some of the stuff they do is they watch the Lionsmen.
6:34
They pick up on patterns of how they drop the puck, their timing, where they're dropping the puck, and you can cheat yourself to be in a better spot to take advantage of those.
6:45
I think you could notice a little bit during the game, you know, Aaron Huglund was adjusting his stick.
6:50
Sometimes guys want to have their bottom hand kind of be over the top so they can pull back.
6:54
Sometimes they want it normal and they're trying to curl around it, like almost like they're making a power turn on the face-off.
7:02
And so you just want to have a lot of different ways to win draws, and you want to put yourself in the best position.
7:08
And, you know, the rules this year are that centers can be kicked out for cheating.
7:13
It's probably a good thing if you're getting kicked out early in the game, because it means you're trying to push the line a little bit and figure out what the linesman will let you get away with.
7:24
Now, one question I have on face-offs.
7:30
A lot of guys can be great at face-offs, but it's not just the person, the center taking the face-off.
7:37
It's who gets the puck and who gets the possession.
7:41
Is that something the team needs to work on as well?
7:43
The forward is a defense getting possession of the puck?
7:46
Or do you see that area looking okay and it's just the center right now?
7:50
Well, I think sometimes if you're having a hard time, winning draws clean, maybe the other guy is doing a good job.
7:55
You're tying you up.
7:57
You have to start saying, okay, this is going to be a little bit more of a rugby scrum.
8:01
I'm going to have to get in there, tie up the other player's stick before the puck even hits the ice and position my body so that my wing coming from behind me has a path to the puck.
8:12
And not only that, but they have a person to move that puck to.
8:16
As you skate to that drone, you look for that loose puck, having possession isn't always the easiest thing to do.
8:21
So you got to figure out who you're going to knock it on to.
8:23
Is it going to be a D?
8:24
Is it going to be the other wing coming a little bit deeper?
8:27
Are you trying to push it ahead?
8:28
There's a lot of things that experienced teams can do really well in the faceoff circle to get possession off of them.
8:37
So, good success against Frank Ceraturi's Air Force team Friday night, 7-1.
8:43
In the other game, I do believe Omaha beat UMass in overtime, didn't they?
8:47
Did they have two overtime win victories this weekend?
8:49
So, luckily, if you had B1G+, you could have seen all four games this weekend.
8:56
They actually had all the other games on.
8:59
Obviously, it was a low quality broadcast.
9:02
They were trying to mix in radio with the in-house feed.
9:07
And sometimes, I even sent Pat a text, like, be careful, they're not always turning off your microphone.
9:14
And hopefully, he never responded.
9:16
So, hopefully, you saw it.
9:18
So, the production wasn't that great.
9:19
But for me, Veegs is always we can see the game.
9:22
So, that was definitely a plus.
9:26
So, then we go to Minnesota versus Omaha for the championship of the Ace Breaker Tournament.
9:34
And boy, we just couldn't score.
9:38
And boy, was their goalie good.
9:41
The shot total was 54.
9:43
People would say maybe that was it the Penn State guys keeping track of stats?
9:47
No, it wasn't.
9:49
I saw Ryan Thompson and Rob Schiel were there for the Gopher Stats team to keep track of stats.
9:55
So, it was 54 shots.
9:59
One goal on 54 shots in a 2 to 1 overtime loss to the Mavericks.
10:06
Yeah, I think Minnesota got lucky against the Mavericks in the regional last year because it was one of those tight games and Minnesota got some bounces that they didn't get on Saturday night.
10:17
You know, I thought they had over 80 shot attempts on Saturday.
10:22
So, they had a lot of puck possession and Omaha only had, I think, what, 18, 19 shots again.
10:28
You know, that's becoming kind of a trend with this group is that they're not giving up very many shots.
10:34
I think Moscow said he only credited Omaha with four scoring chances the entire game.
10:41
And it's two goals, you know, so they they weren't getting a lot of quality looks.
10:47
So I felt like Minnesota had a good first period.
10:51
You know, they had good pressure, good net presence, lots of danger shots.
10:57
You know, Omaha's goalie, the Slovakian, Lasatsky had a great weekend.
11:03
You know, he played well against UMass as well, and he's played well for Omaha in the past.
11:08
And he was just someone that Minnesota was having trouble with.
11:11
I think during the second period, Minnesota again had lots of puck possession, maybe not as good a shots as they did in the first, but they kind of pushed back again in the third and got more pressure.
11:23
The thing that Minnesota didn't really get to were second and third chances around the net.
11:30
And whether that's goaltending or the experience of Omaha, keeping them away from getting those second chances, they just weren't there.
11:38
And I think that's such a critical thing in these tight hockey games is to do that.
11:43
And, you know, if Minnesota is going to go far this year, that's going to be a quality they're going to have to figure out.
11:51
Definitely do.
11:52
I just want to take a quick look at the scoring here.
11:58
Bring this down a little bit.
12:00
Actually bring it up.
12:02
I see the end part of the game, Veegs.
12:04
You know, it's all Omaha.
12:06
Three penalties, two goals, second half of the game.
12:10
Minnesota couldn't take advantage of any of those three power plays, and they were over the weekend on the power play.
12:17
Yeah, I think we saw against St.
12:19
Cloud, the Gophers got some offense from their defensemen shooting the puck from the point.
12:25
I don't know if we saw that much against Omaha.
12:28
You know, everything was trying to get to Snuggerud, and then the other units just didn't really have a lot of zone time or pressure.
12:35
And so there's going to be some adjustments coming to the power play.
12:39
You know, I got to practice one day this week, and, you know, we're seeing some different looks.
12:44
Paulson was out there with, you know, what you might call the top guys of Wood and Snuggerud and Renzell.
12:51
But I just think they need to have more shooters dangerous on the power play for them to be effective.
12:57
How do you think Suleyer did?
13:00
I was a little, especially that overtime goal.
13:03
I'm like, it seems like he had good vision on it.
13:06
Did he get sniped?
13:07
It was far side.
13:07
We couldn't see it as well on the TV angle.
13:11
But I mean, I felt like all the goals that the Gophers gave up this weekend were shots that the goalie saw and didn't make a save on.
13:19
The first one from Omaha was a power play turnover rush.
13:25
But Suleyer saw the shot.
13:29
And in the overtime, yes, there's not a lot of back pressure on the shooter coming in to shoot.
13:33
But your goalie sees the puck and you hope that they can make those saves.
13:39
And, you know, I always heard the phrase, if you want to be an all American, you got to save a few breakaways.
13:45
You got to come up with some saves on odd man rushes.
13:49
And, you know, I don't think it's why they lost the game per se.
13:53
You know, they should have got more goals and not let it get to OT.
13:57
But it definitely wasn't a strength.
13:59
And I don't think anyone stood out this weekend between Aerie and Suleyer.
14:03
Steve Larson, will Bob still rotate?
14:05
I'm thinking, let's say, Aerie starts Friday, probably will.
14:11
And he has a spectacular game.
14:13
I think that's an instance where he may not rotate Figs.
14:17
He actually may come back with them the next night.
14:19
Or is he really going to wait?
14:22
I think he's going to wait.
14:23
You know, Bob has said when we brought up goalie controversy type questions that he doesn't want to make any judgments on these guys until he gets out of the month of October.
14:33
You know, maybe if someone were to stand on their head and get a shutout, you might consider.
14:37
But I think that just gets away from what they want to do long term is what happens if he comes out the next night and loses that confidence.
14:45
I think you want to give that goalie, you know, the confidence of the shutout or something or a great night on Friday and let them come into the next weekend and give both guys chances to stay engaged.
14:55
Because Sully has got a lot of big game experience.
14:58
Airy doesn't yet.
14:59
I think you want to slowly bring him along if you can.
15:03
So the Omaha goalie had a great weekend, but then there's a familiar name goal.
15:11
He also had a pretty good weekend in Madison.
15:15
No one, Bartoskevich, beat the Badgers and almost beat the Badgers.
15:23
Yeah, it was funny reading Todd's game story from the weekend.
15:25
He's like, the Badgers were minutes away from one of their worst opening weekends of recent memory, but they got bailed out with some plays at the end.
15:35
Bartoskevich had a good weekend for Lyndenwood.
15:37
He did.
15:37
It was good to see that for him.
15:39
Yeah, for sure.
15:40
I'm sure that meant a lot for him to get those two starts and play well in both games.
15:47
I'm just looking at some of the questions here.
15:48
If you see a win, if you get a win in Duluth, which barely ever happens, the last five games I've been to, Veegs, it's like Minnesota is 2-1 and 2.
16:01
The last five games I've seen there, I don't know if I've missed any games, but it's...
16:08
And I feel like there's some shootout losses in there that maybe make people feel bad.
16:12
But just remember, in these non-conference games, the shootouts mean absolutely nothing other than making a team feel bad and one team feel good.
16:22
Yes.
16:23
Gosh, I want to say...
16:24
Let me get back to Twitter here real quick.
16:27
Okay.
16:27
Give me a second here.
16:30
Talking about that.
16:31
Oh, yes.
16:32
Darren Bakken wants to know, thoughts on Wood after three games.
16:37
For me, I think he looks pretty darn good.
16:41
Well, I think Matthew Wood is always going to look good in transition.
16:45
You know, the Connor Kurth goals and his assists on Friday night against Air Force.
16:49
Those are the kinds of plays that you can expect out of him.
16:53
You know, moving the puck well, moving to space, filling the lanes, doing things that players can do on the rush.
17:01
What I need to see is more of that Beckett-Hendrickson type work below the goal line and winning second pucks.
17:09
I know he's kind of out of position on the power play from where he's used to.
17:13
You know, he says he's comfortable doing whatever Bob wants him to do.
17:17
But, you know, you got to find a way to make an impact when you're in that spot as well.
17:22
You can't just be comfortable there.
17:23
You've got to produce.
17:28
The power play has got to get better.
17:29
It really hasn't been good in the last couple of years, Veegs.
17:32
I mean, at times they do.
17:34
But then there's times when they have these big droughts.
17:39
And that's not very positive for me.
17:42
Yes, early season.
17:43
But we kind of saw this last year as well.
17:46
Yeah, I mean, the power play looked great when you had Matthew Nice and Brock Faber and Jackson LeCombe winning second pucks and second chances.
17:57
But this last two years, it's almost like they've been good by accident and by individual talent and moments where they shine.
18:08
It's not through consistent pressure and what you'd call a beautiful power play where they dominate possession.
18:14
It's almost like just the individual skill stands out.
18:18
If you want a power play that's going to click at 25 percent, you've got to be dynamic, you've got to move the puck and you've got to put pressure on the other team.
18:27
I think we're still waiting for that out of Minnesota.
18:29
You know, they don't have that tremendous puck moving defenseman who is super agile, can float around the zone like Hudson did for BU last year, or like we saw with Lacombe even up top.
18:44
So it's something that they've got to develop and get more comfortable with.
18:49
Cory really is really over the Gophers.
18:51
Last Gover win at 2011.
18:53
That was a sweep, 2-5-4 wins in 2011.
18:56
Then they didn't play up there a lot.
18:59
And I think the home and home sometimes makes it tricky because, you know, if you win at Marriott and then you go to Amsoil, obviously the Bulldog team would be a little more motivated than the Gopher team.
19:10
So it'll be fun to have a true series in Duluth this year.
19:15
Because I want to say that was the last true series, was the 2011-2012 season.
19:23
So it's been a while.
19:25
Last two games, I've attended our ties.
19:29
So we shall see.
19:32
We shall see.
19:33
Well, Veegs, we need to talk about one of our sponsors here.
19:35
And we could get the sponsor ready here because it's definitely Duke Cannon.
19:42
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19:46
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20:16
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20:21
It's good for hockey flow.
20:24
Oh, it definitely is.
20:26
Definitely is.
20:27
I picked up another one of those news anchor ones just the other day at Target.
20:32
I was looking for the beard stuff.
20:34
Target was low on stuff the other day when I was there.
20:36
So I was a little disappointed in Target.
20:38
But don't just look at Target.
20:39
You can find it at Kowalski's, Cub, your local hardware store, Duke Cannons all over the place.
20:45
I just happened to be at Target that day.
20:47
So one thing, one other place I was at a couple of days ago was Cub Foods as well.
20:52
Veegs had to get some.
20:54
Yeah, I got some light little doughnut holes again.
20:57
Tell us about Cub.
20:59
I mean, Cub is the group that really supports Minnesota sports.
21:04
Like if you're watching Go For Football, you know, they're on the headset.
21:07
And if you got a tailgate, Cub Foods is the one for you.
21:11
They got your grocery stuff.
21:12
They got your liquor store.
21:14
You don't have a scurry all over town picking up stuff all over.
21:17
Just go to Cub.
21:18
Need hamburgers, Cub, hot dogs, Cub, brats, chips, veggie platters, deli cold cuts, party trays.
21:26
It's all there.
21:26
It's all there at Cub.
21:27
Be sure to hit them up before your tailgate.
21:29
You know, we've still got some football season ahead here.
21:32
So, go to your local Cub on your next shopping trip for all your tailgating essentials.
21:39
And of course, we thank Cub and Duke Cannon for sponsoring The GPL Podcast.
21:45
Well, I'm kind of making this tradition here.
21:47
Our kind of second segment is always going to be Vego's Top 20 this week.
21:52
And tell us about the Top 20 this week.
21:54
Quite a lot of, well, Wisconsin dropped like 10.
21:56
Minnesota dropped a few and other teams moved up.
21:59
But Denver's still at the top, Veegs.
22:03
Yeah, I mean, Denver's probably at the top a little bit because of what they did last year.
22:07
You know, it's been a prognosticator this year.
22:11
Maybe it's going to be you.
22:12
Yeah, maybe it's going to be you or BC or North Dakota.
22:16
I think those all teams look really strong right now.
22:18
But until somebody takes down Denver, they're going to have that top spot.
22:23
The big games from this weekend was the Michigan State BC games, you know, a little bit inconclusive based on the results that came out of it.
22:34
But I do think BC probably looked like the better team over the weekend.
22:39
Just a couple of important goals from Michigan State, Charlie Strammell, somehow finding his game and finally being one of the big 10 stars of the week, a little bit of a surprise.
22:49
I think Cappy was saying at the end of the broadcast that he really liked BC, thought they'd look good, good goal tending in that match up this weekend as well.
22:59
Boss University 2, the fighting Hawks at number 3, and there's your BC moving up a little bit.
23:05
Michigan State, Minnesota, you dropped down from 3 to 5.
23:10
Obviously, Omaha jumps up above them.
23:15
Do you think they're balanced teams or you think Minnesota just needs to do better against that type of team?
23:21
I think Minnesota has got to prove it.
23:23
Obviously, when Omaha comes out with the win, I'm pretty high on Omaha.
23:28
I think I'm higher than anyone else in the polls out there right now, in terms of my perspective, but I think they're a veteran team.
23:35
They have a lot of seniors, they have a lot of transfers, they have a lot of grad players, they've got great goal-tending, they're a physical team.
23:42
When I saw them play Minnesota, they didn't let the Gophers get a lot of second chances, they didn't let the Gophers have as much speed and transition, and they definitely applied the back pressure that makes you successful.
23:55
And I think that's a team that's going to compete in the NCHC.
23:58
And if you're one of the top two, three teams in the NCHC, you're probably one of the top eight teams in the country.
24:05
And so, you know, as long as they keep this up and winning close games, you know, they're going to be in contention here for a top ten.
24:11
Anything else jump out to you on your list this week?
24:15
I mean, I was just surprised at Wisconsin losing to Lindenwood and almost losing the next night.
24:22
That was a big result.
24:24
You know, I'll be interested to see, you know, what happens moving forward here with CC.
24:29
You know, it's a team I like.
24:31
I like what they're doing right there.
24:34
Notre Dame got two wins early here, so we'll see, you know, if Jeff Jackson can have a swan song with the Fighting Irish.
24:41
But it's still very early in the season.
24:44
Yeah, it's going to change quite a bit.
24:47
Well, one thing I want to talk about is Mr.
24:51
Snuggerud made his return this year for his junior season, which I was surprised he would after, you know, last year, it was kind of wondering if he would come back, but he did come back.
25:03
Does he just need to break the seal to get going?
25:06
Because we kind of thought that last year, it all said he had the big CC game and a couple of big games, then he went quiet again.
25:13
What does Snuggerud need to do to get into that spot?
25:18
So when the season is over, he goes right to the blues.
25:21
What does he need to do?
25:23
I mean, I think he's got to do more than just shooting the puck.
25:26
And I think we're seeing a little bit of frustration in his game when he has these great chances and he's not scoring.
25:35
And so that was one of the things he wanted to work on with this group is being a more complete player and someone who can impact a game.
25:44
But I think just finding that part can really help him mature and maybe give him some comfort.
25:50
You know, we've talked a lot in the past to go for captains about how being the go-to guy at Minnesota can be a heavy, heavy load.
26:01
And it can put a drain on you.
26:04
So maybe something that Suggie can do is reach out and talk to some of these past Gopher captains and maybe get some perspective about how they battled through these segments of their career where it wasn't coming easy and what they focused on.
26:18
Because, you know, he has done the work to get a little bit bigger and stronger.
26:23
It's just being able to apply that in games a little bit.
26:26
You know, we did see him in the past when he gets into struggles, moving around on the power play and not just being on that off wing top of the circle.
26:36
You know, you can see him go behind the net and work some down low plays.
26:41
That's going to have to be something he's going to have to experiment with.
26:44
So he's not so predictable because, you know, you saw the Omaha goalie as soon as the puck went over to Snuggie.
26:50
He's coming out hard and challenging and ready for high shots.
26:55
You know, that's a goalie who's got a scouting report on you.
26:58
So what do you got to do when that's the scouting report?
27:00
Do something different.
27:02
It needs to be quicker passing as well.
27:05
If you're going to set him up, you need to move quicker.
27:09
Maybe take some chances with some more cross the grain type of passes that are a little more risky.
27:23
They need to do something.
27:24
Yeah, I mean, it's very early.
27:26
You know, we're only two games into this for real.
27:29
So I think going up to Duluth will be good.
27:32
Going on the road will be a good experience.
27:34
I think Minnesota is trying to have some balance and depth to their lineup right now.
27:39
You know, we'll see, you know, who he gets out there with.
27:42
You know, I think he might go with Eric Paulson this weekend, Duluth.
27:46
That could be really good for SnugRood.
27:48
You know, a big center who is winning draws, who possesses the puck and wants to get into that ground game.
27:56
I think that might help SnugRood maybe have a little more space out there.
28:00
Whereas I think, you know, some of the previous lines he's been working on, you know, there's not as much of that mature play going out there.
28:07
It's looking for those transition places.
28:11
You know, I just had one there.
28:12
Let's bring this up.
28:14
Max, are the Big Ten schools non-conference results in jeopardy of dooming the conference pairwise potential?
28:23
Well, you know, Michigan State got a win against BC.
28:25
That's obviously going to help.
28:29
You know, Notre Dame getting two wins, that's going to help.
28:32
But you want your team to have winning records as you go forward.
28:35
And I've always said it matters less if your team just wins, baby, just win.
28:45
I think these Duluth games are really big for Minnesota.
28:48
I think this is one of those weekends where they have a chance to kind of protect themselves from the rest of the conference by getting some good results here against NCHC teams because, you know, dropping those two thirds to Omaha isn't going to help.
29:03
So getting some points here in the pairwise, you know, getting two wins against Duluth would kind of even that out going forward.
29:11
I was noticing that the Big Ten schedule actually starts up this weekend.
29:14
It was a Wisconsin or Ohio State are playing just, and then it's two weeks until the regular kind of season starts, but they're getting an early start this weekend.
29:23
Yeah, it would be interesting to see how Wisconsin bounces back.
29:27
You know, Mike Hastings is trying to do some different things there.
29:30
He's cut a lot of weight, you know, with a bunch of guys leaving the program.
29:35
He doesn't want those transactional players.
29:38
He wants people who want to buy in and compete.
29:41
Well, when you do that, you have to perform too.
29:44
So it could be a tough season for the Badgers if they don't figure this out this month.
29:52
You know, Molesky has been talking about that a bit.
29:54
They haven't put two seasons together for quite a while.
30:03
And I don't know if the Hastings methodology can really respond very quickly to this kind of stress.
30:11
I mean, he's done it at Minnesota State for a long time, but that's with deep experience, older teams that he's had time to shape.
30:19
You know, he's trying to do this thing at Wisconsin pretty quickly, you know, with all the players he's kind of pushed out.
30:27
So it's, it's his ship to run.
30:31
All right.
30:31
We need to think about our next sponsor here.
30:33
V's lunch, a bucket hockey.
30:36
I still need to get one of those hats or some gear from them.
30:39
Some nice looking stuff.
30:41
Tell me about lunch bucket hockey.
30:43
Well, I know our friend, John King got to play with these guys this last week.
30:48
Yeah, he showed his true self.
30:51
You know, the lunch bucket hockey philosophy is not so much what you do on the ice.
30:56
It's what you do on the bench and what's, you know, stuff that you do at the bar, maybe after the game.
31:01
So that sounds familiar.
31:03
That sounds because the lunch bucket hockey player is hard working grit.
31:07
Grind players do anything for their teammates, including picking up a tab at the bar, perhaps.
31:13
So from mites to beer leaguers, everywhere in between, lunch bucket players are the hard working, unsung heroes of the greatest game on ice.
31:20
Now there's an apparel and lifestyle brand celebrating these pillars of the sport.
31:24
Get the gear to match the grind with lunch bucket hockey hats, hoodies, tees and custom jerseys.
31:30
Check out lunchbuckethockey.com today and maybe check out some jerseys for your beer league team.
31:36
You know, if you need some, go to that website, take a look at what they got and work with some guys who are, you know, they're one of us.
31:43
They're Minnesotans.
31:45
That sounds like a great idea.
31:46
But you know what else is a great idea of eggs?
31:48
Jimmy's.
31:50
Yeah, I was out there today playing a little bit of golf.
31:54
It was windy.
31:55
There was a long frost delay.
31:57
And I kind of wish I had some Jimmy's Caramel Dip with me because it's it's Caramel Dip season and it's delicious with apples, pretzels, celery, ice cream, even on your finger.
32:07
Can't go wrong with however you want to dip Jimmy's Caramel Dip.
32:10
available in Original and Sea Salt Caramel.
32:13
You can find Jimmy's at your local grocery store today.
32:16
It's definitely at Cub.
32:18
Pick up a tub or two because you're not going to want to put it down.
32:21
Caramel's coming.
32:22
Jimmy Saladressen in dips.
32:25
Don't you be messing with the dressen.
32:30
You said it, Veegs.
32:32
Don't be messing with the dressen.
32:35
More companies that are one of us.
32:37
You know, they're down in Steuartville.
32:39
So I know Kinger's been down there.
32:41
Puts on the hairnet, puts together some coleslaw.
32:45
Why not?
32:47
Well, I see a tweet from, it looks like it's yesterday, Veegs, and it's kind of the theme in the chat as well.
32:55
But Jake, also known as DangledSniper, asked, will the Gophers break the curse and finally win at Amsoil?
33:03
Being a Gopher fan from the North Shore, I've gone to so many Gopher versus Bulldog games in Duluth, and we never win.
33:16
It's been a tough stretch.
33:17
It's been a tough stretch to be a Gopher fan and go up to Duluth, hasn't it?
33:21
I have fun either way.
33:23
I mean, it's a fun town.
33:25
I enjoy going up there.
33:27
I'd like to stop by my places, Hoops, Bent Paddle, OMC Smokehouse, Vickra, Northern Waters.
33:37
I mean, I just have so many fun things to do in that town, but you'd like to see some competitive hockey.
33:43
And I think one of the things that's happened in Minnesota in the last, what, maybe 10, 15 years is they play the Bulldogs early in the year.
33:53
And Minnesota usually has a young team.
33:56
They're trying to figure out how young players are going to fit in the lineup.
34:00
And they go up against these Scott Sandlin teams that are usually very defensive, very experienced and difficult to play against.
34:09
And you also have had Gopher teams that haven't had the greatest defensive cores in the past, especially defensive cores that haven't had much size.
34:18
So I think they get in this building and they just get hit on every puck retrieval.
34:23
And it's been tough for Minnesota.
34:25
And one thing with this year's team, if you look at the Gopher Blue Line, size, experience, able to handle a four-check.
34:36
So I think that's a big strength for the Gophers going into this weekend, is they have that this year.
34:41
You know, even like Leo Gruba and Whipple, those are big guys who can handle pressure and make plays.
34:49
So I think that's a little bit of a difference maker that's going to go in Minnesota's favor this weekend.
34:56
I'm just looking at some of the chats here.
34:59
Well, I've got to click the right thing here.
35:01
That would be good, Corey.
35:02
At the end of the Uchiha era, all Minnesota teams were working the Gophers, and UMD was the worst of it.
35:08
That is true.
35:10
But Chris thinks it's going to be different this weekend.
35:13
We'll be different this weekend.
35:15
Well, I think so.
35:15
I think Minnesota is a more heavy team that can handle a series with Minnesota Duluth.
35:24
I think the Gophers maybe got away from some of that against Omaha this last weekend, but I think the Gophers are going to be older, more experienced than the Duluth team they're playing.
35:35
Whereas the Omaha team, I think, still kind of had their stuff figured out.
35:39
And now that you have some film and some tape for these young guys to look at and say, okay, what do we need to do a little bit different?
35:46
You know, that's going to help Moscow's team.
35:48
And I think as much as you harp on things in practice and point out things that are going well, sometimes you can't get the attention of players until they do it in a game.
35:58
And so having that game against Omaha to kind of focus on and regroup is going to help Minnesota.
36:06
It's going to be interesting.
36:07
There's so many things, you know, I know the announcers have mentioned or Wally mentioned this past weekend, the Minnesota was the least penalized team last year, and they've kind of started out that way.
36:19
I mean, they're doing pretty well and not going to the box.
36:23
And that's kind of critical when you go to Duluth, because, oh, I think the fans are right on top of you.
36:29
They get some momentum going.
36:30
That's when you do see Minnesota just fall apart up there.
36:35
And I did not like the Brody Lamb penalty he took against Omaha.
36:39
It was kind of those selfish cross-checking penalties.
36:42
I'm sure he had to do a little extra skating on Monday as retribution for that kind of selfish play, but you didn't see any repeat stuff.
36:52
It didn't get them in trouble.
36:54
But I do think you need to be physical in response to Minnesota.
36:59
You know, we saw the Gophers against St.
37:01
Cloud, not back away from anything in an exhibition.
37:05
And I think you kind of have to have some of that or about yourself when you go into a place like Amsoil, where you're going to hear a lot of four-letter words coming from the fans and probably from the Bulldogs on the ice as well.
37:18
So it's an intimidating environment to step into.
37:22
And you know, this bigger, heavier team that the Gophers bringing this year should be able to handle that a little bit better.
37:29
Well, I've been going for the past 20 years.
37:31
I haven't gone to all the series.
37:34
But so far, the games I've seen, it is split down the middle.
37:40
It is six wins for Minnesota, six losses for Minnesota, five ties because ties were more of a big thing.
37:51
So I've seen a 500 team there.
37:54
I mean, I haven't gone to all the games, but I've gone to most of them.
37:56
So hopefully, we can get the win side a little more since I think it was the 2003, 2004 season was my first weekend up there.
38:07
I think that's when you won that jersey up at Grandma's that weekend.
38:13
That was a long time ago.
38:15
That's what I said.
38:16
20 years ago, more than 20 years ago now.
38:20
Yeah, I can shoot the floor hockey puck back then, even after a few barley pops.
38:30
I just think Minnesota matches up much better against this team.
38:33
I think Duluth is young.
38:36
We've heard, I saw some people in the chat talking about they're going to be much better at the end of the season because they're so young right now.
38:43
I think Minnesota could take advantage of their youth and an experience.
38:48
Well, that's what you have to hope for as a Minnesota follower.
38:52
I don't know if that's going to happen.
38:55
Scott Sandlin seems to somehow mature his groups very quickly.
39:00
It's just Minnesota has to stick to dictating the play.
39:04
We talked to Pat McAuletty about the Gopher team, and he's like, Minnesota needs to play fast, and they need to be aggressive.
39:11
And as much as they did that at times against Omaha, it wasn't consistent enough.
39:19
And sometimes that's resting on your laurels a little bit, and other times it's just being a little bit grittier and being a little bit more confident in your body position.
39:30
And that's something this team is going to need to do.
39:34
The one thing for Duluth, they're missing their young player plant, and he's injured for a while.
39:39
So that makes the Bulldogs a little short handed.
39:41
So if Minnesota wins, I'm sure we'll hear some Duluth people saying, well, they didn't have a full lineup.
39:51
Who else needs to step up?
39:52
You know, I saw a little piece in the chat earlier.
39:56
Mr.
39:56
Moore needs to step up.
39:57
You know, a lot of guys just, you know, it's only been two games, I guess, Vaze.
40:00
We just need some guys just get a goal, get a goal here and there.
40:03
It just kind of get everyone needs to get going.
40:08
I'm not saying it's something to do right now, but I do think that Ali Moore might need to play some wing here and there.
40:19
It might fit his game a little bit more.
40:22
wait a minute.
40:23
wait a minute.
40:29
Are you sure you're not talking about Sammy Walker?
40:32
Totally different situation than Sammy Walker's situation.
40:36
I'm just saying that if you can free up his speed a little bit more on the wing, something to consider.
40:43
I think if Paulson and Clark and Huguen start to be your three centers that you can rely on, maybe you can figure something else out that's not Olly Mawr at another spot there.
40:57
Maybe you can find John Oliver Walker.
41:01
Yeah.
41:03
Sammy Walker had a little bit different issues like his defensive zone responsibilities maybe were lacking at times.
41:11
I don't think you're seeing that with Oliver Moore.
41:13
He's very responsible.
41:15
He gets below the puck.
41:16
He supports the puck.
41:18
I just think it might free him up to put him on the wing.
41:21
I know it's something that got thrown around a little bit at times.
41:25
Is he a center in the NHL?
41:28
I don't know.
41:31
It's not looking like that easily right now.
41:34
It could certainly happen.
41:35
He's a young player.
41:38
But maybe he's going to be more effective on the wing at some point.
41:44
How much of the line is going to change this week?
41:46
Did you see anything in practice?
41:48
Yeah, a little bit.
41:50
I saw Paulson obviously playing with Snuggeroot and Lamb.
41:54
I saw Moore playing with Hendrickson and Zeamer.
41:58
Kind of a different look there.
41:59
Clark with Kurth and Wood.
42:01
And then Hugelin with Nevers and Faloon and Middelstadt kind of working in there.
42:07
So we'll see what's going to happen.
42:09
It maybe feels like we're going to have Faloon and Middelstadt kind of trade in nights here the first part of the season.
42:17
I don't think either player did enough on Friday or Saturday to really gain an advantage.
42:24
Middelstadt, the one thing he has going for is his energy is always pretty consistent.
42:30
Faloon, he's got a little bit more size and maybe a little bit more potential.
42:35
So they'll both probably get a little bit of run going forward.
42:39
Defensively, Whipple kind of seems to be that seventh guy.
42:44
I was impressed again with his physicality.
42:47
He's out there trying to make an impact on the game in limited minutes.
42:51
I did notice against Omaha, he was a little bit on his heels in the D zone.
42:56
So something to kind of watch going forward.
42:58
I think just the pace and strength of Omaha was something that made him a little cautious in being too aggressive.
43:06
We've seen a lot of defensemen at times.
43:08
The worst thing you can do is chase the puck to the wall or outside the dots.
43:13
And so I think he's being very cautious of that and taking away the middle.
43:18
You mentioned Aaron Hugel in there.
43:20
I saw Jess's post today or yesterday, mentioning how he and his bride are expecting in February.
43:29
He's been married for a couple of years now, but what a wonderful thing for them.
43:35
But did they have to do it during the season?
43:39
Well, you never know how it's going to work out and congrats to the young couples they're expecting.
43:45
I think in February is when they're expecting the baby.
43:48
So Hugelund is a very mature young man and probably ready for fatherhood.
43:54
I think he can handle the responsibilities.
43:57
He's pretty put together.
43:59
I think he can, but you know, maybe we need him.
44:03
It's a Friday night and he's in the delivery room.
44:06
It's kind of like those pro games.
44:07
How long is it going to be out and stuff like that?
44:11
We'll figure out a way to avoid a weekend.
44:13
Well, they do have the bye week in February.
44:17
So maybe that would be perfect.
44:19
Maybe they just planned it that way.
44:21
That would be pretty good.
44:22
That would be pretty good.
44:24
We'd miss him at Skate with the Gophers, but you know, he'd probably be in a more important spot.
44:31
So what is your prediction on the weekend?
44:37
I think the Gophers are going to win pretty handily on Friday night.
44:42
I think it's going to be a little bit of a surprise to the Bulldogs how much pace this team has.
44:48
You know, you saw the Gophers against Air Force.
44:52
Air Force was not ready for that.
44:54
You know, the foot speed, the pace, the transition, it was there.
44:59
I don't want to say this is an excuse for Minnesota, but they did have the shorter turn around going into Saturday, and they got through it in the first period.
45:08
But I think that frustration started to fit in and maybe a little bit of fatigue, and they took their foot off during the second.
45:15
And then during the third, when they tried to ramp it up again, I didn't think the ice was in great shape.
45:21
I think the team was kind of pressing a little bit.
45:25
I don't know if that's going to happen in Duluth this weekend, but I would expect perhaps an overtime game.
45:34
There's been a lot of those up there lately.
45:36
There's been a lot of those.
45:37
So I think Saturday is the closer game, and the Gophers will win an OT on Saturday.
45:43
All right.
45:44
Do we know if they're going to use the same rules?
45:47
So if it does get passed overtime, are they going to do a shootout?
45:51
That's always up in the air.
45:53
I can see Moscow and Sandalwood saying no shootout.
45:57
Because a couple of years ago, they didn't.
45:58
It ended up in a 1-1 tie.
46:00
I want to say 2018-2019.
46:01
It's somewhere in there.
46:02
But then last year, they did it.
46:06
And I'm like, and of course, the idiot fans and family in front of me thought they won the Stanley Cup when they won the shootout.
46:13
I'm like, because it means zip, means nothing, nothing to do with any pairwise or anything, does it?
46:23
So I don't even think, well, I mean, typically a player is not going to get hurt, but you'd hate to have like a goalie try to stretch across and pull a groin on a shootout that means nothing.
46:37
Yeah, I would like to see like rock, paper, scissors instead of the shootout, maybe.
46:42
But Chris, like should beer pong for the win with the fans.
46:48
Each team gets to pick a fan crowd and then do it that way.
46:52
I don't know.
46:54
You know, it means nothing and teams just seem to do it, but I hear a lot of coaches hate it.
46:58
So who knows what's going to happen?
47:02
Well, if it does happen, please hate it.
47:04
Coaches, we just don't need it.
47:06
There are no rules for it.
47:07
So it's an agreement thing that they'll figure out.
47:12
I think they should make some rules.
47:17
Probably was it two years every two years we get rules and stuff like that.
47:21
Yeah, it's not Vietnam.
47:22
You got rules in college hockey.
47:27
All right.
47:27
I think it's going to be something similar to what you said, Minnesota.
47:30
I think we'll kind of railroad them Friday night, get them all down and then closer game Saturday night.
47:37
Back in the old days, we would call that a sweep if they win an overtime.
47:41
If they do, I'll still call it a sweep.
47:44
It still feels like a sweep if you get the overtime, even though you do.
47:47
Yes, I would agree with that.
47:48
I would agree with that because it's two-thirds of a win.
47:52
At least it's better than 55-45, 66-33, I think is fair.
47:58
Like I said, I still kind of like the old rule, all or nothing, but that's not going to come back, I don't think.
48:04
Anything else on your mind for this episode, Veegs?
48:07
Well, I'm excited to see Shogabe for Duluth against Minnesota.
48:11
I think he's a freshman that really fits their identity.
48:14
We've talked about this in the past, where Isaac Howard did not fit the Bulldog identity.
48:21
It's just not a good spot for him.
48:23
Shogabe certainly feels like a player who's more of a fit for what they want to do in Duluth, and I think will mesh with Sandal and quite a bit more.
48:34
Dominic James is back for Duluth after not performing in the classroom last year and getting suspended, so he's back for senior year.
48:44
He's a player they're going to depend on.
48:48
I'm looking forward to it.
48:49
I'm hopefully going to be there Saturday night.
48:51
I've got a busy weekend of youth hockey, and if Minnesota wins on Friday, I'm sure we're going to have an outstanding atmosphere on Saturday and maybe I'll see the fans at Hoops or Northern Water Smokehouse during the weekend.
49:06
Those are always my two spots.
49:07
I'm not sure where I'm going to be, but I'm there the whole weekend in full fan mode.
49:11
It's going to be fun.
49:13
I think it's the only fan mode games this year for me.
49:16
The rest of it's back to business, so it will be interesting to see.
49:21
All right, well, if you don't have anything else to you, Veegs.
49:24
Well, I know we're getting in the chat here.
49:26
CHL talk.
49:28
We can take them in overtime.
49:30
We'll talk more about it in overtime, but I do sense it's not a real focus for the Gopher coaching staff.
49:36
I kind of hinted that with Rhett Pitlick going back to Minnesota State, maybe they were going to save that spot for CHL, guys.
49:44
I don't think that's really a possibility after talking to some people.
49:49
This team, we'll talk about this more as the season go on, but in April and May, they made a definite decision to stick around this summer, train together, push each other, and have more of a team.
50:05
I think when Rhett was not going to be part of that, they weren't going to let them back in.
50:11
So this group is really determined to do more than last year, and whether or not it pays off, we will see.
50:19
I think some of the pressure showed itself on Saturday.
50:23
Will that carry over into this week or not?
50:25
And I think that's a big thing to watch, is how tight the sticks are gripped, whether there's any graphite shards on the ice during the game, or do they find their rhythm and start to perform a little bit?
50:39
All right.
50:39
Well, let's do it, folks.
50:41
Big weekend in Duluth.
50:43
Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast.
50:46
We'll be back next week where we'll have St.
50:49
Thomas play-by-play guy, Sam Ekstrom, joining the podcast.
50:54
For those of you watching live, stay tuned for some overtime.
50:57
For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.
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