0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:18 Eat that tru. 0:23 So how was the flight in and out of Penn State last weekend? 0:26 Pretty good, actually. 0:27 I was home by like, shoot, I was home by Penn State. 0:37 Wow, we just got finished. 0:42 That sounds kind of weird. 0:44 Kind of sounds weird. 1:04 Good evening, welcome to The GPL Podcast. 1:07 Let's have me on the screen there instead of Veegs, but since Veegs is here, let's bring us both in. 1:12 Veegs, how goes it tonight? 1:16 It's going awesome. 1:16 I got to go to both the Gopher games this last weekend. 1:20 Youth hockey season well underway. 1:22 We've got some games coming up. 1:24 We might get some snow in the forecast. 1:26 I mean, we are into hockey season. 1:28 It was 80 yesterday, come on. 1:30 Yeah, the golf courses were busy, I think, yesterday, but not so much tomorrow. 1:35 Well, let's see if this guy has been golfing. 1:36 Cappy is joining us. 1:38 Of course, you can help us preview the Big Ten season. 1:40 Let's bring him in. 1:41 Cappy, how is the golf game going? 1:44 It's pretty non-existent, actually. 1:46 Oh, no, I was just in Florida for a month and I had no interest. 1:51 So how is the place in Florida? 1:54 Did it? 1:54 How did it? 1:55 Place is good. 1:57 Lots of trees, branches down some fences, but the house is intact. 2:03 That's good. 2:03 Most everything around is in pretty good shape. 2:06 Now, the beach areas, that's about four miles off the beach. 2:10 That's still... 2:12 That's good, though, that you're far enough away. 2:15 Yeah. 2:15 I mean, sadly, as much as people want to live down there, man, every year it seems to be getting a little more dangerous and whatnot. 2:24 So no, we're very fortunate. 2:29 Honestly, after it, the weather was fantastic, so, you know, kind of took all the humidity out and made it really nice. 2:36 But no golf for me. 2:38 No golf. 2:39 Can't fathom that. 2:41 But I don't know. 2:43 I just haven't been in the in the mood. 2:45 Because most of the time I play by myself down there and I just, you know, wasn't in the mood. 2:49 I'd rather be with some friends to do it. 2:51 Yeah, that makes sense. 2:54 I just remember you sending both Veegs and I a face. 2:56 I saw a Twitter message. 2:59 The last the last plane out, it was like the day before, right before the airport closed that you got out of there. 3:05 So I had monitored it like they announced the airport is closing that day and I already moved my flight up a day. 3:13 Well, that's good. 3:14 And they, you know, they said as long as this storm didn't change and get faster, speed up, then I think because they obviously they wanted to get everyone out. 3:22 They want to get their planes out of there too. 3:25 That airport was closed. 3:26 The Sarasota Airport was closed for at least a week after because of damage. 3:31 So yeah, fortunate that I was able to get out and then get back and enjoy, but I'm ready now. 3:38 I got a hockey, let's go. 3:40 I mean, I've been watching all, watch it from down there, but I'm ready to get into real action now. 3:46 Well, not everyone was so fortunate as you and you're in your place down there, but we're glad everything's good for you. 3:53 Veegs, things were good on the weekend for the Gophers as they swept St. 3:57 Thomas seven to one and six to two. 4:00 And they keep showing, boy, their offense is really good right now. 4:05 Yeah. 4:05 And I was talking to a lot of people at the rink about what I think is different with the offense this year. 4:11 And it's not just the transition goals. 4:13 It's the possession and it's the continuity in the line up. 4:18 And you ask these defensemen, why is it so easy for you to jump into the rush? 4:23 It's like, well, we have really solid possession. 4:25 I'm not worried about them turning the puck over and I'm able to fill spots and fill lanes and get involved. 4:32 And if you look at the Gopher defense, they're putting up a ton of points. 4:36 You know, Ryan Chesley and Sam Renzell, four goals each, both time for national leads for defensemen. 4:46 You know, we were just kind of talking before here, you know, Snuggerud having a four-point weekend and he's maybe still a little disappointed. 4:53 You know, he's not getting the goals, Veegs. 4:56 He's getting the assists, but he is still showing a lot of frustration out there when he's not putting that puck in the back of the net. 5:05 I mean, it's we can obviously see it. 5:08 Yeah, you can just kind of see he's kind of shaking his head and can't believe he's not able to beat goalies with some of these shots he's getting, but he is contributing offensively. 5:18 He's getting possession. 5:19 He's putting pucks on net. 5:21 He got what Eric Sheerhorn called an OV assist on Saturday when his stick broke and the goalie still couldn't handle the shot. 5:28 There's a rebound right there. 5:30 You know, there are things he's doing that are effective. 5:33 He's not one of those players where he's taking unnecessary chances and detracting from the overall game of the Gophers. 5:40 He's contributing. 5:41 He's just not getting the goals like he'd want or expect. 5:45 On the St. 5:46 Thomas side, Cappy, I was just amazed at how undisciplined they were the entire weekend, but more specifically Saturday. 5:53 They took two five minute majors. 5:56 Rico Blase most likely got the penalty for yelling at the refs too much. 6:02 I've seen that before in close in person. 6:04 Yes. 6:06 He was much younger and more, I wouldn't say as mature as he is now, but Italian bloods get flowing sometimes. 6:14 Yes, and it got himself into trouble. 6:17 It did. 6:17 It put him down, you know, two men, and essentially kind of three men when one of their defensemen's or players stick broke. 6:27 I mean, right now you don't want to do that against Minnesota right now. 6:33 Clearly, I mean, they are just very confident. 6:35 And from what I've watched, and you look the way the lines are set up, they're very spread out, you know? 6:42 Like, Oliver Moore hasn't done a ton, but he's not playing with Snuggeroo. 6:47 You know, like, they almost forced that a little last year, knowing that, hey, we got this young guy, dynamic centerman, let's put him with the, you know, the sophomore, we're happy to have him back. 6:56 Let's put him with him. 6:57 And I think they're, they've got the lines. 6:59 I don't know if there, is there a fourth line? 7:01 I mean, you know, I mean, you could say there was a first line right now, because they're like the most productive line in college hockey right now, I think. 7:11 But the other three lines are pretty well balanced. 7:14 And just to go back to Snugger, I'm like, he's just like him being on the ice, no matter what he's doing is a benefit, generally, especially in the offensive zone, because teams are going to be like looking for him. 7:26 And, you know, they're going to just be distracted by him, whether he's got the puck or not, knowing he could be a problem. 7:32 And I think that just alone makes him an added bonus, if you want to call it that, in the offensive zone, especially like a faceoff play or the power play. 7:41 When they see him, he's cocked and ready to go. 7:45 It's just teams are going to key on that. 7:47 It opens up other doors. 7:48 And they have plenty of other guys. 7:50 Yeah, kind of what Cappy said there, Veegs. 7:55 I think Motsko might have done it on purpose because on the Saturday line up sheet, Curth, Clark and Wood was the fourth listed line on the line chart. 8:07 Yeah, and if you want to see who is getting the most ice time, you know, we've seen that rolled out to College Hockey News where they are posting time on ice now, which is kind of a nice way to see who is actually getting the most ice time. 8:21 And from what you can tell from Minnesota, it's pretty balanced, you know, I think the disparities in ice time usually come from powerplay and special teams, not so much five on five, even strength play. 8:33 But I think the one big thing from Saturday that I took away and I wrote about it for GopherPuckLive was they tweaked their powerplay just a little bit, putting SnuggerRood down along the goal line, bringing Wood to that off wing. 8:45 And like Cappy says, when Snuggies on the ice, everybody's trying to keep an eye on him. 8:51 And so when they move SnuggerRood around, that forces other teams to kind of get out of their game plan and maybe get a little sloppy. 8:58 And Brody Lamb was the benefactor of that adjustment, because he had plenty of space to get to rebounds, even had a nice one-timer. 9:06 And it just gave the Gophers a lot of a different look on the powerplay. 9:11 And I thought it made them more fluid and less robotic, just trying to get the puck to SnuggerRood for those one-timers. 9:18 Now they're creative, they're making plays, they're creating chaos, and the penalty kill is lost against them. 9:24 So will they stick to that, though? 9:25 Because we've seen sniffs of that in the past, Veegs, where they've moved SnuggerRood around. 9:30 But usually, the next game or two, he's back to where he was. 9:34 They really need to stick to that if they want it to be effective, don't you think? 9:37 Well, I hope that they change it up all the time. 9:40 And other teams don't know how to game plan for Minnesota's powerplay, because if they can score like they did on Saturday and teams adjust to that, then the Gophers go back, putting Snugger higher in the zone. 9:53 Or they just kind of change it up mid-powerplay sometimes and go where the space is. 9:58 I think that's what really can make a powerplay dynamic and dangerous, is when they can adjust to all kinds of different kills. 10:06 Best player, best powerplays you see usually are not the stagnant, okay, this guy's got to be in this spot, this guy's got to be here. 10:15 Watch Michigan powerplay the last couple years. 10:18 It's not shame as case, he has to be up at the top. 10:21 He moved around, Luke Hughes, those guys were moving everywhere. 10:24 Those guys, defense would be on the goal line. 10:27 They didn't care where they were and they snapped it around and teams get lost because they get out of their structures. 10:32 They're like, I'm supposed to be in front of this guy. 10:34 Oh wait, he's down there. 10:36 Now I move it and it's a split second of not knowing where you're supposed to be and it's a skilled team will bury you. 10:42 So exactly on Vig's point is you don't want him to be different guy in a different spot every time. 10:48 And I think over time, it just almost happens organically where, okay, he might end up back in that spot, but so what that maybe scores the goal, maybe gets the assist or maybe he's the decoy. 11:01 So Brody Lamb with the big hat trick, the natural hat trick, all power play goals, Veegs, that was kind of your headline of your article in GPL was, the play of the power play. 11:13 And obviously what went into that is, St. 11:16 Thomas' not disciplined play. 11:20 Yeah, the Tommies, I think we're expecting a little bit more out of this weekend. 11:25 You know, they were the coaches pick to win the CCHA. 11:28 They brought in a lot of older grad transfer type guys to fill out this roster and compete. 11:36 And their students were there on Saturday, filling up the lower bowl. 11:40 They were loud. 11:40 They were ready to go. 11:42 St. 11:42 Thomas scored the first goal both nights, and the games just slipped away from them. 11:47 And the frustration came out. 11:49 You know, I asked Rico about that after the game. 11:51 He's like, yep, we're going to learn from this unacceptable. 11:55 We will move on and learn. 11:57 And the flip side, Moscow is happy with his team not getting into the mud. 12:02 You know, they they played above it and they scored on the power play, which is what you want your team to do in college, because you can't get caught up in these little tick for tack things all the time. 12:12 You know, these games are pretty important for pairwise, I think, for Minnesota to make sure they get both wins. 12:19 And if you drop a game or a point or go to overtime, you know, that's going to impact you at the end of the year. 12:25 And Minnesota took care of business and looking at their pairwise potential, you know, they took essentially seven of nine points from their NCHC games, playing Omaha and Duluth. 12:38 Now they take six from CCHA, and they took three from Atlantic Hockey. 12:43 So they're doing pretty well in these non-conference games, which is so important. 12:48 And I think that self-discipline is, was coming from the players. 12:52 You know, I could hear on the bench Friday night, guys, don't get, I could hear guys talking, don't get into that, don't be baited into this stuff. 12:59 Let them be the undisciplined team. 13:02 And I think that's kind of key, Cappy, is when the team is telling each other to do this, you know how important it is to them. 13:09 Yeah, I mean, sometimes it just clicks early in the season. 13:12 Now, like, obviously they've had a lot of success. 13:15 So it's easy to be positive and they're beating these teams and that's great. 13:20 And you know, there'll be some bumps in the road. 13:21 It ain't going to be perfect all season, but you get a team like the Tommies there, you know, they know how good Minnesota is. 13:29 They know they're kind of the little brother right now. 13:31 And you know, they're trying to be, what, physical with a skilled team like that. 13:36 But then you go a little too far and then you start losing. 13:40 And then the frustration builds. 13:41 I mean, when you get beat 13, what, 13 to three, it, you know, it festers in you. 13:47 And I'm sure Rico, Rico's a good coach. 13:49 As much as I give him crap about it, you know, he can be fired up on the bench and he was a good coach at Miami, but he'll get them going. 13:56 I just think Minnesota's caught something early in the season, you know, just good vibes. 14:03 Like I said, like the lines almost, like you said, everyone's playing a lot. 14:07 So, you know, where's the fourth line? 14:10 You don't really see it. 14:11 I think Jimmy Clark has just been a... 14:14 Yes. 14:14 I just, I loved him at the end of the year. 14:16 Well, I loved him all year. 14:17 You could see it was like, almost like a red shirt. 14:19 Like we're going to play him, but you could see his development in a year. 14:25 And then, you know, you bring in the big 91 and I love it. 14:28 So, you know, the Tommies will be there, but the Gophers, I, it's really tough. 14:34 So I did a BC game, the Michigan State game. 14:37 That was their first game of the year, and they looked really good, but in a different way. 14:41 Like their roster is not as good as Minnesota's from one to 19 skater-wise. 14:48 They've got those six, seven studs. 14:52 I haven't seen, I saw Denver play. 14:54 I like them, but I think the Gophers have, skater-wise, one in 19, the best roster in the country. 15:01 Well, I like to hear that. 15:03 That's just from the early, what I've seen. 15:06 So a lot of learning from this weekend, Veegs, learn to stay disciplined yourself, and even on the St. 15:10 Thomas time side, they need to play more disciplined and they could be successful if they just play smarter. 15:18 Yeah, I think St. 15:19 Thomas will be a better team as the year goes on, but they just ran into a buzz saw with Minnesota. 15:25 They've got so many guys playing well together right now. 15:29 Aaron Hughlin doesn't score a lot of goals, scores a spectacular spin around goal. 15:34 I would extend the lead on Saturday. 15:36 I think he could score more goals, but he plays like this discipline two-way game, which I think is going to help him in his professional career down the road. 15:46 I think he could score more. 15:47 I mean, you saw that goal, you just talked about it. 15:48 I think he could score some more goals. 15:51 It sounds like that line might be a matchup line for Minnesota, Matzko is kind of hinting about that on his coaches show this week, you know, with Nevers and Hugland. 16:01 That is just a foundation of a line that's going to be really hard to play against. 16:05 And Middlestad's done a good job playing a checking role. 16:08 Faloon is looking like a really good late ad for Minnesota, as they added him late to the recruiting process. 16:15 He's physical, he's big, he competes. 16:18 You know, those, whoever those three are, are going to be tough to play against. 16:23 And Vegs, you know, you talk about that Hugland goal. 16:26 It was almost, it was a surprise to the crowd because he just did that first one way and then the other way and flipped it so fast. 16:34 I was at the top of the main bowl shooting and it was right in front of me. 16:39 And the crowd was almost, it was like a gasp, then a cheer. 16:43 It was kind of an odd thing that happened. 16:45 Then people were like, it's in the back of the net. 16:48 Yeah, I mean, it just looked like he was gonna slow up the play, wait for someone to join the rush and then one second later, it's in the net. 16:57 Well, it was pretty good. 16:58 Obviously a successful weekend. 17:00 Just keep building, keep building. 17:02 But now we need to hear from some of our sponsors. 17:07 Are you a hard worker? 17:09 Then you need a soap that works just as hard as you do. 17:12 Look no further than Duke Cannon and their seasonal selections, including Trophy Game, Buck Moon and the ever popular candy corn. 17:22 Grab yourself Duke Cannon's big-ass brick of soap today and try it out yourself. 17:27 Climb aboard the Duke Cannon train and get the best in men's hair care, beard care soaps, deodorant and cologne. 17:36 Smell like you give a damn with Duke Cannon. 17:39 Work harder, smell better. 17:42 It's tailgating season and Cub Foods is your go-to grocery and liquor store. 17:49 Why scurry around town picking up all your game day needs when you can go to one store? 17:55 Look no further than Cub to grab your hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, chips, veggie platters, deli cold cuts, party trays and desserts all in one place. 18:06 Be sure to hit up Cub Liquor before you head out to grab drinks all your tailgaters are sure to love. 18:13 Go to your local Cub on your next shopping trip for all your tailgating essentials. 18:19 And of course we thank Cub Foods and Duke Cannon for sponsoring The GPL Podcast. 18:25 All right, segment number two here is now Vigo's Top 20. 18:29 And of course you still have Denver at the top. 18:31 Until they lose Vigo, they shouldn't move anywhere. 18:34 Yeah, I mean, they've taken care of business. 18:37 They welcomed Wisconsin. 18:40 Little bit of a scare the first night and then the next night not so much. 18:44 I heard Hastings talking to Adam O'Don on their podcast this week. 18:50 And Hastings knows he has a lot of work to do with this team. 18:53 They've got one line right now that's going for them. 18:56 And the rest is kind of a struggle. 18:58 And so when you go to Denver and you play that team, you're going to be in for a long weekend. 19:05 BC, Minnesota moves back. 19:08 BU down a little bit. 19:11 Some people probably disagree with you. 19:14 I guess I was looking ahead to some of the matchups this weekend. 19:17 Cornell will get to see if they could stay number one. 19:22 Someone is still voting Cornell. 19:24 Minnesota's got the one vote. 19:26 Denver's got the rest. 19:28 I definitely was intrigued by the BC Western Michigan game this week. 19:34 Western gave them one heck of a game. 19:36 They gave them the game, that gold. 19:39 Terrible turnover. 19:42 I think Western will probably make the tournament for the fourth time in a row under First Waller. 19:46 I think they've got some things going there. 19:48 They've got good young players. 19:49 They're exciting to watch. 19:51 They've got good goaltending. 19:52 That'll be fun to watch there. 19:55 St. 19:56 Cloud moving up. 19:57 They have been playing very well, except for that one loss to Michigan. 20:02 Yeah. 20:03 Taking care of business with Augustana. 20:05 Probably a team I should have had in the poll last week. 20:09 Then they go. 20:10 They get swept. 20:12 Tight games. 20:13 Probably could have gone either way for both those games. 20:17 But St. 20:17 Cloud came out on top. 20:19 I think they're expected to be pretty good this year. 20:21 Augustana. 20:22 I think they might be the dark horse in CCHA. 20:26 In North Dakota, didn't they sweep? 20:28 No, they split with Boston College, right? 20:30 They split. 20:31 They whooped them on night one. 20:33 Night two, North Dakota made some mistakes. 20:36 But you took advantage of that. 20:38 They're a talented high-end team. 20:40 I think they were shocked a little bit by the Ralph. 20:43 When the Ralph gets going, that's a tough environment for young players. 20:48 BCBU, those are young teams right now. 20:52 They're going to have those roller coaster games and series until they get things figured out. 20:58 But they're very talented. 21:00 What do you know about Providence? 21:02 I know our guy, Carl Fish, is there. 21:04 And I actually ran into Carl's mother at the game Saturday night with her Minnesota sweatshirt on, supporting her son's former team. 21:14 Apparently, she said, I think they wanted a shootout or something like that. 21:17 What's been going on with Providence? 21:18 They've been doing pretty well as well. 21:20 Yeah, they look like they could be a team in Hockey East. 21:22 I might be a little high on them, but that's where I had them coming into the season. 21:28 You know, the program that they've got there right now is pretty successful, and they're a deep team. 21:34 So I think they're going to be a tough team for anyone to play right now. 21:37 Cappy, do you have any thoughts on Vegoe's top 20 here? 21:41 I mean, mine isn't a ton different. 21:45 I had top five. 21:47 My flip was Michigan State. 21:48 I had a BU, and then I had Maine, one ahead of North Dakota. 21:55 Bottom, I had all those except for UNH, no UNH, other than that. 22:01 It's pretty close, you know, within a, I can't remember exactly where I put everybody. 22:06 I might have still had Michigan, maybe like 11. 22:10 Yeah, but it's all pretty good. 22:14 You know, Big Ten now has got six teams in the, you know, like I said, I went on a rant on a podcast. 22:20 Like I don't think that there should be rankings until November, but you know, Augustana, I mean, just all those games were pretty even. 22:29 Like St. 22:30 Cloud is not winning any pre-beauty contests, but they're getting Ws. 22:35 So you got to give them credit for that. 22:36 But Augustana is close. 22:38 I, you know, like you said, Dark Horse, man. 22:41 They, I mean, I got to imagine playing in that rink, which they haven't, they've been on the road for most of everything they've done, right? 22:47 I mean, they swept Omaha in Omaha, which I see Omaha has gone premieres as well. 22:54 They were in mine too. 22:56 You know, it's, half the people that vote on this don't pay attention enough. 23:01 They just watch their East Coast stuff, or people out West just do their West Coast stuff. 23:06 Because there's no way you'd have Omaha out of Augustana last week. 23:10 You can't. 23:11 This early in the season, you're only getting it based on your reputation of them being a brand new school. 23:16 You can't go, you can't go into someone else's, unless, I mean, even if Omaha was number two in the country and Augustana was in rank in the second week of the season, you go into their barn and you sweep them in in the second night, you beat them four zip. 23:30 You know, but it's not a big deal. 23:32 The pair wise will figure it all out. 23:34 But Augustana is setting themselves up pretty good right now. 23:37 You know, pretty non-conference game. 23:40 You know, you mentioned your podcast there. 23:42 I see you're doing something with Ben Holden. 23:44 Ben Holden is busy. 23:45 He's doing stuff all over the place on podcasts these days. 23:48 Tell us about what you're doing. 23:49 Yeah, we're just doing, it's just all about hockey. 23:52 NHL, college, if there's junior stuff, it's just something for us to talk hockey and have fun with. 24:00 We'll see what happens with it. 24:01 But I love Ben. 24:02 I wish I was doing more games with him. 24:04 We have a good time when we do him. 24:06 So he came to me wanting to do this. 24:08 He's doing another one with Carmen, former Gopher. 24:12 We're going to have Carmen on in a couple of weeks talking about that. 24:15 It's kind of like a post career podcast. 24:18 I like that idea. 24:20 Yeah. 24:20 Where did you go after you're done and you're getting NHL guys to, you know, Colby Cohen was on last week. 24:26 So I thought it's a cool idea. 24:28 So he's just trying to branch out, keep himself busy. 24:32 You know, because right now the way that, you know, I love, you know, this year is you look at the TV schedule and the Gophers have their least amount of games ever on BTN. 24:41 But this is the most games that Big Ten Networks ever had for Big Ten Hockey, which is the opposite of what you thought coming in. 24:51 Well, we did. 24:52 But you should notice there's none till December except for the one game we did, which means it's all post-football, which makes sense because there's so many teams. 25:00 And you have volleyball with so many teams right now. 25:03 Yes. 25:03 The other sports, but they, we've got a ton of games. 25:06 There's what, 20, 30 games, 31, I think, with the playoffs. 25:09 There's a ton. 25:11 It's going to be fun. 25:12 December, there's a ton of games now because you have three consecutive nights that first week. 25:17 And then you have a double header and a single game the next week. 25:20 And then it's the break. 25:21 And then you guys won't care as much, but then the Wrigley thing is great because that gives them another three or four. 25:26 And then the women's game. 25:29 So I don't know how they're doing it, but you know, you were worried about it and they, there's more. 25:35 And they're not using Minnesota, which is generally their biggest ratings boost. 25:41 I had heard some rumblings that Minnesota wanted actually a little less coverage because it gave them more flexibility in their local market here to play games at times they wanted to. 25:53 I'm sure. 25:54 I'm sure. 25:55 But also the Big Ten wants their marquee team on the network. 26:00 I mean, that nobody gets to say like this day and age. 26:03 I love Minnesota and how they love to have that. 26:06 But nobody gets to say that anymore in college sports. 26:09 Do you think the Golden Gopher Football gets that? 26:11 Or Ohio State Football? 26:12 I mean, the networks want them because they rate well. 26:16 I mean, Minnesota Hockey's wanted on anywhere because they rate well and tons of people watch. 26:21 So I love that. 26:23 But you gotta spread the wealth a little bit. 26:26 But Veegs, it is giving us, starting in late November, early December, a lot of five o'clock Saturday games, which I am more than happy to go to. 26:37 I love that. 26:39 Yeah. 26:39 Yeah. 26:40 And I think it's for the Gophers is just trying to get more families growing to be fans. 26:47 So that five o'clock game helps for that. 26:49 So it will be a little bit of a change. 26:53 So I wanted to get in your thoughts, both of your thoughts on the rest of the Big Ten this year. 27:00 We've seen it already. 27:03 Hastings is struggling at Wisconsin after losing some marquee players. 27:09 And I know Veegs, you've talked about, he wants to have his type of guys, his type of players, personalities, everything like that. 27:19 He's trying that and it might take him a little more time than he thought. 27:26 Well, I think at Minnesota State, he had the benefit of having these older guys come into the program who could still score goals in these tight games. 27:35 If you take a snapshot of what Wisconsin's done so far, I want to say they have five or six even strength goals through six games. 27:44 And you can't play that way if you want to win. 27:48 And he's, you know, chased off, I think, four drafted players who transferred out, looking for a different place to showcase their talent. 27:57 And he's had to fill that. 27:59 And I think it's been hard for him to get enough players to be competitive and even strength. 28:04 And you can have the best defensive structure in college hockey. 28:08 But if you're only getting one or two goals a game, you're going to be in trouble. 28:12 And they have a tough schedule this year. 28:17 You know, they're playing against good teams. 28:19 That's not something necessarily that Minnesota State did all the time. 28:23 You know, he had sort of a softer schedule to ramp up and get guys playing in the right mindset and gaining some confidence. 28:30 And it's just kind of a shock to the system right now. 28:33 And I didn't have Wisconsin in my top 10. 28:37 I don't think I had him in my top 20 at the start of the year. 28:41 I was kind of expecting this to happen this year based on looking at their returning players and their recruits coming in. 28:47 And I thought it was going to be a struggle. 28:51 The coaches didn't agree with me. 28:52 They were still pretty high in the conference and national writers put them higher in their top 20s. 28:57 And it's a bit of a fall from grace. 28:59 But I expected Penn State and Ohio State to be better than Wisconsin this year. 29:04 But Cappy, excuse me. 29:09 I don't think anyone saw Lindenwood coming in. 29:12 Owen Bartoszkiewicz in goal and almost sweeping to Badgers. 29:17 Badgers made a nice comeback and won it in overtime. 29:22 Nobody saw that. 29:25 Yeah, I don't know. 29:26 First games of the year. 29:29 I mean, North Dakota lost their first. 29:31 It was exhibition, but it's their first like game, you know, game action. 29:36 But yeah, I looked at their roster going into Saturday night against Denver. 29:43 So I'm doing their games. 29:44 I'm going to be in South Bend this weekend. 29:47 Peacock doing the Wisconsin Northern Aims Series. 29:50 So obviously I've watched those games and I'm looking at their roster and their first line has got some nice numbers. 29:58 The bottom nine had zero goals. 30:02 Zero goals and nine forwards on a, look, small sample, but five games. 30:08 That can't, nobody's going to win with that. 30:11 Unless you're D or scoring six, seven goals, eight, whatever, you can't win like that. 30:18 And there's returning players in that bottom nine that you're like, Tassie is a good player, Fitzgerald. 30:27 Those guys have done nothing. 30:28 Leskoski had over 40 points at RIT. 30:32 You know, so I think he's, you're looking at those players and hoping they repeat from other places, but they're coming from different conferences. 30:43 Everyone's getting mashed together and you hope it gel. 30:46 And it still might. 30:47 Like I almost think this is a, almost maybe could be a good thing. 30:51 They were great last year, surprised early team, right? 30:54 And then at the end they slipped away. 30:56 Maybe it's the opposite this year as this team grows. 30:59 And obviously goal-tending, last year was, he didn't, I talked to him before the season. 31:04 He did not know if McClellan was going to play or Grammy. 31:07 And McClellan ends up winning the Richter Award. 31:10 Like you can't bang on that every year. 31:13 And I think Sharifoni is a solid goalie. 31:15 And I think Grammy is pretty good too. 31:16 But man, there's a lot, a lot of work to be done there. 31:21 And I can't wait to see Friday, how this starts, because I can imagine, they actually played really well at Denver on Friday. 31:30 And it was 2-2 in the third period. 31:32 They had the lead. 31:33 And I watched the first two periods, I'm like, okay, that's the Wisconsin I thought I was gonna see. 31:37 Like they were great, but they were, they were better than Denver for a lot of parts of that game. 31:44 And then in the third period, they made one mistake. 31:46 A guy got a shot, you know, coming down the slot, bang, 3-2, and then empty netter. 31:50 So, and then Saturday just looks, it looked like, you know, Denver found their mojo a little bit more. 31:57 But, you know, you finally saw the first two periods, like that was the best period, the best I saw Wisconsin play. 32:04 I don't know what's going to happen, be honest. 32:06 It's like a good soap opera, to be honest. 32:08 Yes. 32:08 That you're getting something interesting that you didn't expect, which happened every year in the Big Ten. 32:13 Ohio State being 5-0-1, they haven't played anybody great, if you count Wisconsin. 32:18 They were ranked then, but they're getting great goal tending. 32:23 Their veteran D are back, and they get timely goal scoring. 32:28 That's always going to be their thing. 32:29 I don't know if they're ever going to get the big offense going. 32:32 So there's just a lot going on, and it's early. 32:37 It's early. 32:37 It's not November until Friday. 32:41 Like Cappy said there, Veegs, you know, they lose quite a few first round players going to other schools. 32:49 But that also doesn't help the players that were there. 32:53 I mean, those better players elevate, you're maybe less significant players. 32:59 And now they're gone, and these guys maybe don't have something to build on to get better themselves. 33:06 Well, it definitely felt like last year they had a Wisconsin style roster. 33:11 You know, they had plenty of talent. 33:12 They had enough players, enough offensive skill. 33:16 And then you add the Minnesota State transfers to kind of bolster that group. 33:20 And that just allowed them to have success. 33:23 And now this year, you know, they lose some of that talent, they lose some of that skill, and it's going to be a lot harder. 33:30 Like, there's not going to be as much time and space for these other guys to play. 33:34 They're going to be now the focal points and they have to carry the water. 33:38 And you mentioned your Ohio State team there, Cappy, Ian, they're leading the league. 33:43 Six points. 33:45 Five points, five points. 33:46 Oh, oh, that's right. 33:47 Yep. 33:47 Five points. 33:48 They just got one. 33:49 Yeah, I mean, look, like I said, there are other games that, you know, they tie, they tied Lindenwood, right? 33:55 The first, they, they've had, their first game was rough, and then they won Saturday, and then they've won, you know, they've won since, you know, they beat teams. 34:06 You look around the country now, it is getting harder and harder to beat teams back, like sweep teams, no matter which team you're playing. 34:13 Look at Notre Dame a couple of times. 34:15 I mean, look at Omaha. 34:16 I got swept by, you know, Augustana. 34:18 So you, there's nobody guaranteed, there's no guaranteed sweeps out there, really. 34:23 Maybe Stonehill, you know, and no disrespect to them. 34:26 But that's just a very, very baby of a, of a program starting. 34:32 And I watched Long Island, I had watched, you know, I watched Notre Dame getting ready for this week. 34:36 That team could skate. 34:38 They didn't have a ton of skill, but they put pressure on you, and they were physical. 34:42 And, you know, Coach Jackson even said it today when I talked to him, is we're not, we won a game too easily Friday. 34:48 And I, and we didn't learn a lesson from Alaska. 34:52 And we gave this team a little hope early, and then they just buried us. 34:55 And it wasn't even that close of a game in the second, third period. 34:59 So, you know, for Ohio State, they went and did a home at home at Bowling Green, gave up one goal, you know, they're goaltending, they're splitting. 35:08 You're seeing in the Big Ten, you got Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin is doing it. 35:17 And what's the third, there's teams that are splitting their net every other game right now. 35:23 And the league, Notre Dame is doing it, too, with their young guy, and they have this sake kid from Mercyhurst. 35:32 They're just doing a good job right now. 35:34 It's early. 35:37 You know, we'll see what happens. 35:38 But I think you got confidence earlier building like a good mojo, just like Minnesota is that in that locker room that you can maybe, if you struggle at some point, you can go back and say, hey, let's go back and remember those early, you know, those good vibes to get us back on track. 35:54 So I'm happy for my program. 35:56 You know, everyone picked them seven. 35:59 What do the coaches know, I guess, apparently, right? 36:02 You know, because Wisconsin, every, you know, it's hard to know. 36:06 You look at roster, you don't know if these puzzle pieces are going to fit in when you got all these transfers. 36:11 It's just how it is now and maybe it will fit. 36:15 They just don't fit right now. 36:17 I feel like the coaches have done this to Ohio State a couple of times where they've picked them at the bottom of the league and they've surprised it and been in that upper half of the league. 36:26 I think last year Rolla kind of lost his way with all the transfers coming into the program and they just weren't good fits either attitude or personality or discipline and they just didn't look like the Buckeyes that we've been used to seeing the last couple years. 36:43 This year maybe a little bit of a reset with the roster getting more of his guys. 36:48 I'll be interested to see how they do over the course of the season. 36:51 Yeah, they're not as talented. 36:54 I mean, you have a guy that's now a stud, Mason Lurie in the NHL. 36:59 His playoffs, you're like, whoa. 37:01 They had McWard and then they had up front, they had Adam Blanken on some names. 37:06 They had Goldmore Goldscar, Gustav Westlake. 37:08 They had a lot of guys that could score right now. 37:11 Last year they lost a lot of that and they don't get the big name guys to come in or the high end recruits. 37:17 They get good recruits but it takes them time. 37:19 Max Montez didn't score. 37:21 He had a goal, maybe one in the first half of the season and then he had a pretty good second half and now that's got him, now as a sophomore, he got five goals in six games. 37:31 You just hope for those, some of those guys, you're like, oh, this guy's a four-year player, to not take two and a half years to become a top six forward, say, and speed up the, you want to call it rebuild, regrowth, whatever. 37:47 So that's, you just hope for the players to gain confidence and get better faster. 37:52 And you know, you put them in the best situations and hope they produce. 37:56 Well, let's look at some of the Michigan teams here, of the Michigan State, they started kind of not great at home against BC with, well, I think it was a three or four, nothing loss, but really since then, they've really kind of rebounded and done pretty well and kind of deserved to be that top five type of team. 38:16 Yeah, I mean, they've got a great goaltender, Trey Arstien is probably one of the best goalies in college hockey. 38:22 That's going to help them stay in every game. 38:24 I do wonder how their blue line is going to hold up over the year. 38:29 They had Lev Shanoff last year, and he was a lot of their offense from the back end, special teams, he did a lot. 38:38 So I just don't know, looking at the roster, who's going to be that guy for them this year. 38:43 I haven't watched them closely enough, but that's probably my biggest question mark. 38:47 You look at Michigan and Minnesota, strength from the defense getting involved in the offenses is obviously going to be a positive for them. 38:54 I don't know if it's going to be that way for Sparty, but they do have a lot of talent up front. 38:59 Adam Nightingale has done a good job of recruiting those high end talent guys. 39:03 I think they've got some youth there, which will lead to those roller coaster games early, but that's what will make them dangerous, is good goal-tending and goal-scoring. 39:13 You called that game between BC and Michigan State at Munn-Cappy. 39:19 I know you weren't too hot on them then. 39:22 How are you feeling about them now after kind of recovering from that opening game, opening season? 39:27 Yeah, well I was surprised. 39:29 Well, no, they had actually played a week before, so this was BC's first game. 39:33 They had gone to Lake State and then swept them. 39:36 So I just thought they would come out with the advantage at least early in the game, right? 39:40 And they looked like the jumpy team. 39:43 And BC looked like they had played six games already, and I just think they're just really talented and confident. 39:49 And I think Michigan State, their first game back after winning the Big Ten there, the crowd was hyped, and they just looked jittery. 40:00 And they're not a team that can chase games. 40:04 They've got good players, but they don't have the elite. 40:08 Isaac Howard, I think, is the one guy that maybe can like really with his elite talent. 40:15 They just have a really a bunch of really good players. 40:19 And I think with Adam Nightingale, I think he's just starting. 40:21 Like I think his recruits are going to become a little different. 40:25 I think he's going to start getting a little more of those, you know, elite guys. 40:30 He's got some US National Team program guys coming in. 40:33 You know, he lost one this year because Potter wanted to play Hockey, you know, college a year early. 40:40 But he was a top high project prop, you know, high pick guy. 40:47 I, you know, Lev Shinov is just, he, he's a guy like, he didn't have a great game in the regional last year against Western Michigan. 40:55 But you know what, he made an elite play in overtime to win the game, or no, to tie the game. 41:02 When they were down a goal, he made a great pass, they tied the game and I don't, they, you're Vegoes right, they don't have that guy. 41:10 They've got a solid decor, but just not that guy that's going to jump up. 41:14 No, Sam Rinzel on the team or Chess. 41:16 I mean, I can name four Gophers that, you know, they just don't have those guys. 41:19 They have really good players and, you know, I don't know how it'll stack up in those big games. 41:25 When they're playing the elite teams, like you saw, hey, they came back in one Saturday. 41:30 I was pretty surprised. 41:31 I wasn't able to watch that game. 41:33 I was traveling on Saturday, the BC, but hey, that just shows you that the team's got some jam and they're not going to like just, you know, lay down for the good teams. 41:43 And Straml had two goals in that game. 41:45 And if he can find his way. 41:48 On Friday, he made a really soft play in the neutral zone to get BC a goal. 41:53 He is a key guy because he could be one of those game changer guys. 41:57 He's got that elite kind of size to him. 42:01 I don't think he doesn't play maybe as big as he should, but maybe Abnight Gale nudging him in that direction. 42:07 And certainly the Wild don't want to see him as a bust, like he had shown so far when he was at Wisconsin Beegs. 42:14 Yeah, he had a lot of confidence issues at Wisconsin, just not fitting the style of Mike Hasing's team. 42:21 Abnight Gale kind of gives him a second life here to make something of it. 42:25 And he's got the opportunity. 42:26 He'll get the ice time and he's got some talent. 42:30 You know, it's just something's missing there. 42:33 Super young guy, not to cut you off, but he's only 19 as a junior. 42:37 So I think Adam Nightingale told me that three times in a couple of conversations we had just to remind us that he's still a teenager, even though he's a junior hockey-wise. 42:47 We've heard a lot of that with Wood actually. 42:49 He's only 19 year old junior. 42:51 Okay. 42:52 Must be nice to be that big and skilled. 42:55 And he's showing his playmaking. 42:57 I think everyone thought he was going to come in and score 30 and have five assists. 43:01 And Wood's, you know, kind of showing his versatility of his game. 43:05 I think that's, you know, everyone heard about him, but you don't know him that well until you get to see him day in and day out. 43:12 And you're seeing maybe a guy that's a little different, not in a bad way, just a little different than you expected. 43:18 I think the biggest thing with Wood that surprises me is how good he is at holding on to pucks and buying time and space to make plays. 43:26 That reach. 43:27 Yeah, he uses the reach. 43:28 And it's just and he changes the angle on his shot almost every time. 43:33 You know, he kind of carries the puck in different spots and can release it from different ways. 43:38 You know, he had that spectacular goal on Friday night where he just found a spot between the shoulder and the bar and he had a great quote. 43:46 He's like, what did you see? 43:48 Enough. 43:49 A puck size hole. 43:51 Puck size hole. 43:52 Confident player. 43:54 So how about a couple of quick hits on Michigan Veegs and Notre Dame? 43:59 For Michigan, you know, they're obviously a high end talent team. 44:03 I just don't know if they have the elite, elite talent that we've seen out of them the last couple of years. 44:11 You know, they don't have the Quinn Hughes or the Adam Fantilli, you know, that's going to run their team. 44:17 So I kind of wonder how their style is going to translate this season. 44:22 You know, they are going to put up points, but they're also going to give up a lot of scoring chances against. 44:28 So I'm still interested to see how Nerado handles running a program. 44:34 I've always been a little concerned as like he was just handed this job without the resume of figuring out how to run a program like Michigan. 44:43 You know, they did give him the Coach of the Year Award, but that was not necessarily his program that he built to get that award. 44:51 He just figured it out during the year. 44:53 I'll say this, just from watching them early, they're going to play it. 44:57 They're not going to be as much run and done. 45:00 Their back end might be their strength, and I mean more in a defensive style of team. 45:07 Like Tim Lovell is really good. 45:08 He's put up a lot of points. 45:09 He was a transfer, hit 36 with Arizona State, but he's not the Quinn Hughes, Luke Hughes, Seamus Casey. 45:16 He's a good power play guy, but he's not as much of a risk taker. 45:20 He kind of takes it back. 45:21 You got Jacob Truska and Ethan Edwards. 45:23 So they have more of a defensive defenseman group there. 45:27 So I think they're going to maybe win more games, 3-1. 45:31 You saw them shut out St. 45:33 Cloud. 45:34 Both those games were very low scoring. 45:36 We haven't seen a Michigan game. 45:38 They went to Arizona State, got really, they blew a 3-1 lead with a minute to go in the game, or their record looks so, I mean, that's a bad tie, if you want to call it. 45:48 But I see them, their lineup isn't as deep either. 45:53 So they're going to have to win games, you know, maybe 4-2s, instead of the 6-4 games that we love to see, you know, the offense, I love seeing their offense go, but I just think they're going to be a little different because of their roster. 46:05 And, you know, I think, I think Coach Nairl is going to be fine, because I see his recruiting classes the next two years are ridiculous. 46:13 So, you know, even if they have a little down year this year, I think it's going to flip back around pretty quick. 46:19 Quick thoughts on Notre Dame, you'll get to see them this week, Cappy. 46:23 Yeah, they're kind of a one line team right now, too. 46:27 Cole Canoobles had a great start. 46:29 You know, you watched him last year, you're like, this guy is going to be dynamic. 46:32 He just couldn't put the puck in the net early in the season. 46:36 Much like a Max Montez, Ohio State had a good second half at eight or nine goals, and it's just jump started in this year. 46:42 And they've got a couple of, you know, transfers. 46:47 Kuhlman and Murphy, you know, they bring in those Miami guy and then a Princeton guy, and then a goal. 46:55 This Owen Saykid is leading the country in goals against and save percentage. 47:00 He's only played three games. 47:01 They split, but they're going to, you know, they just got to find a little more offense. 47:07 They're going to be offensive starved again. 47:09 Even if Cole Canoble gets 40 or 50 points this year, they're going to have to find secondary scoring if they're going to want to be in the top half of the Big Ten. 47:20 All right, we'll get to Penn State here coming up in a bit, but first Veegs, we need to talk about Jimmy's. 47:28 Every time I go to Cub, I just see the Jimmy's right when I come in. 47:32 I see the Apples. 47:34 And now that we're getting closer to our winter time, it's just Apple season. 47:38 It's Caramel season. 47:39 If you don't want to have Apples, you know, pretzels, use your finger, you know, put it on some ice cream. 47:45 Caramel is great on everything. 47:47 Available in Original and Sea Salt. 47:49 Find Jimmy's at your local grocery store today. 47:53 And of course, we cannot forget about Lunch Bucket Hockey. 47:58 Got to love when there's a couple local guys who've, you know, got a couple barley pops and they're brainstorming ideas and they come up with a company like Lunch Bucket Hockey. 48:06 You know, it's the apparel brand for the hardworking grit and grind players that would do anything for their teammates. 48:13 Check them out, lunchbuckethockey.com. 48:16 If you're looking for men's league jerseys, you know, have a little bit of flair on the ice, this is the place for you. 48:23 And of course, we thank Lunch Bucket Hockey for sponsoring The GPL Podcast. 48:29 All right, we'll get to Minnesota Penn State in a minute, but I noticed that there's quite a few fun matchups this weekend, Veegs and Cappy. 48:36 UND is going to, well, number one or number 10 Cornell. 48:41 Michigan is going to BU, BC is going to St. 48:44 Cloud. 48:46 It looks like a pretty darn good weekend here, Veegs. 48:49 Yeah, I think people are a little upset on the Gophers not having a schedule like this. 48:55 And one of the reasons why is because all these teams were committed to play each other out this season. 48:59 So we're getting some great matchups across college hockey. 49:02 I'm definitely looking forward to that Cornell game. 49:08 Cornell is supposed to have a good team. 49:09 They've got great goal tending. 49:10 They've got a lot of depth returning. 49:12 You know, these ECAC schools kind of have a tough uphill battle because they start later. 49:18 They play less games. 49:19 They didn't have a lot of the transfers the extra years because of the COVID. 49:23 So they're kind of handicapped. 49:24 So it would be really interesting to see them come out of the gate right away this weekend. 49:29 And Cappy, we've got Michigan going into the Boston University. 49:34 I mean, it should be fun. 49:35 Again, they're both talented teams, but they're less firepower of a team than BU is. 49:43 So they're going to have to be the discipline team there. 49:47 And their goal-tending is a little, you know, Logan Stein's been pretty good so far, but they're kind of, you know, there's only a few teams that have a go-to goalie right now. 49:57 So it should be fun. 49:59 The new Cole Hudson is in there, and one brother is still there. 50:05 And then Iserman's scoring a few goals. 50:07 I know that's a sore subject for Gopher fans. 50:11 No, I don't think it is. 50:12 Well, whatever. 50:12 He's doing exactly what he is. 50:15 He's going to be that same guy. 50:16 I think that's why he dropped is because he's not one-dimensional, but he is a goal scorer. 50:20 He's a power play guy. 50:22 And, you know, that's probably why he dropped in the draft rankings because he's, you know, he doesn't have a lot of other parts of his game, but he's really good at some of those offensive ones. 50:31 And then, Riggs, we got BC coming in to play St. 50:34 Cloud State. 50:36 Yeah, that will be a fun one to watch. 50:37 You know, we've seen St. 50:38 Cloud play these tight games with Augustana. 50:41 You know, we got to see them against Minnesota. 50:44 Having that high-end flying team of BC coming in will be fun to watch and see how they handle it. 50:50 You know, I do think that BC team is a little top-heavy, so it will be interesting to see how St. 50:55 Cloud matches up against that, if they're able to slow that group down. 51:00 I did see that they split up that top line a little bit for some balance this last weekend, but then they put them back together. 51:06 So who knows what's going to happen there, but it should be exciting hockey. 51:10 Will the big guys make any difference? 51:13 The last school has got it. 51:16 Like Ryan Leonard? 51:18 No, the big ice. 51:19 Oh, the big ice. 51:20 At St. 51:20 Cloud. 51:21 It's like the last, the last vestige of big ice is at St. 51:25 Cloud. 51:26 It's the only place that still has it. 51:28 I think sometimes teams that are not as experienced on the big ice can lose the power play feel because they take that extra space out wide and then they're farther from the net. 51:39 So the game kind of slows down because they can use that extra space. 51:42 And again, sometimes the big ice helps the team play defensive hockey. 51:46 You know, it's kind of counterintuitive, but you have, you know, more opportunity to get to the center of the ice and play defense. 51:54 And then we've got Penn State coming in to Mariucci and where Penn State is definitely going to see their former goalie, at least one of the games this weekend, Cappy, Mr. 52:04 Souleir, he's been playing every Saturday, your second game, Saturday nights. 52:08 Yeah. 52:10 It should be fun. 52:12 I would think so. 52:13 I'd imagine they'll, I don't see Bob changing anything right now in terms of the goaltending rotation. 52:20 Penn State's the same type of team as they've always been. 52:24 They got a little better. 52:26 You know, a guy that was, got hurt late his sophomore year, Ben Schoen, missed all of last year, has come back. 52:35 He's been playing with Aiden Fink. 52:36 That's been a really good line. 52:37 I mean, I don't even want to play with Aiden Fink. 52:39 He's going to, but their biggest thing, and they had the worst goal, and I hate to say this because William Souleir was part of it, but they had the worst goal-tending in the country statistically last year. 52:51 And the guy they brought in, Arseny Sergeyev, is pretty good. 52:55 Does he have to be outstanding for them to be good? 52:57 No, I think he's got to be average to above, and I think he could be better than that. 53:04 If he is, they've got a chance to be in the, you know, you talk about the top half of the Big Ten, there's only three and a half, four teams could be in the top half, but they got a chance. 53:14 If he can, you know, win them games or not lose them games, they'll win. 53:19 They're gonna be a tough out because they, you know, they just play a certain style. 53:24 You know, they're gonna be in games, and if they can get saves from their goal-tending, which they didn't get last year, I mean, I'll give Liam some dab, you know, he's here because a year ago, two years ago, he was over time away from being in a frozen four. 53:40 So he's got the talent, he could be the guy for the Gophers, but he just wasn't last year for Penn State. 53:46 And so that's the biggest difference is in net for them. 53:48 If they get anything above average goal-setting, they're gonna have to be a tough out. 53:53 Now, Veegs, Cappy talks about Penn State's style of hockey. 53:57 How does that match up with how Minnesota plays now? 54:00 Because Minnesota can make you pay if you're not smart. 54:08 Well, I think one thing with the Penn State style is that if the shots aren't of high quality, they are almost like turnovers. 54:16 And we've seen Minnesota get out of their end very, very quickly so far this season. 54:21 So if Penn State is taking these shots from distance that the goalies can handle cleanly and get back to their D and get in transition coming out, it's gonna be a long night for Penn State. 54:34 The biggest issue for Minnesota in the past with Penn State was those shots being mishandled by their goalie and then their defense not clearing out the front of the crease. 54:45 And what we see with this group of defensemen from Minnesota, everybody except for Mike Kester is pretty big, you know, six foot plus 200 plus size. 54:55 You know, Kester is not exactly a small guy, but he looks small compared to these other defensemen. 55:00 So Minnesota is well equipped to protect their house and and not give up a lot of grade A opportunities. 55:08 And we're kind of getting used to the Gophers only giving up, you know, 20 shots a game or less. 55:13 It probably won't be that against Penn State. 55:15 But how many dangerous shots will Penn State get? 55:18 Probably not more than five or six. 55:20 Yeah, I mean, the Penn State, when they're going well, is they're getting those first shots, but it's creating a second and a third. 55:27 And you're where a team down in the zone. 55:29 And then that fourth shot is the one that goes in or, you know, where Fluky goes in because everyone gets running around. 55:36 Like you said, if Minnesota is able to get those rebounds and the way they're getting the first pass up to their forwards, if that's happening, then it's going to be feasting time for Minnesota, you know, going in transition. 55:47 So it's going to be interesting to see how that works. 55:50 I almost think it helps Penn State that now the ice has shrunk down there because, you know, the chase isn't as far to go get those second, third pucks to wear down lines. 56:00 Veegs, I remember that always being a big struggle for Minnesota playing Penn State in the past is that Penn State would get Minnesota bottled up in their defensive zone. 56:08 And there's many times Minnesota didn't have the skill to make that first quick pass and get it up and out and down the ice. 56:16 That's a lot different these days. 56:18 Yeah, it's totally different. 56:20 The other thing I've noticing about Minnesota is their wall play breaking out has been very good. 56:25 You know, players battling to make that second pass or explode out of contact and gain the neutral zone has been pretty impressive so far. 56:35 We're taking the hit to make the pass as well. 56:38 Yep. 56:39 To, you know, use their body, protect the puck and buy time. 56:42 Yeah. 56:42 And I think that's one thing I've noticed, you know, Snuggerud do better this year. 56:46 He's able to handle that contact and make that next play. 56:50 Matthew Woods really good at that. 56:52 You've seen, you know, Mason Nevers and Aaron Hublin accept contact and make plays. 56:57 So I think that's been a real strength of this team so far. 57:00 And against Penn State, it will be, it will be tested as I've, I've noticed Penn State is real aggressive at that hash mark inside the blue line area and trying to get turnovers. 57:11 And Minnesota is able to win the ice there. 57:13 It's going to vote well for them. 57:16 All right. 57:16 Let's hear some predictions on the weekend. 57:19 Cappy, you're not going to be in, you're not here calling it a game, so you can call it whatever you want. 57:25 I can see, yeah, no. 57:27 Man, I just think right now, Minnesota is playing too well. 57:34 I think they're going to sweep Penn State. 57:36 I don't think it's going to be any kind of blowouts or anything like that. 57:40 But I just think Minnesota is on a really big heater right now. 57:45 And I just don't think it's going to, like I like Penn State's team and I think they've got a goalie that's going to help. 57:51 I just, especially if they win Friday and then you got Suleir playing Saturday, I just, I don't know. 57:59 I just think that helps Minnesota, honestly, because they're going to, it's going to make, you know, that second game a little easier to bounce back, whatever you want to call it, be up for. 58:11 So that's why I think I like to go first to get the sweep. 58:14 Tight series though, no big blowouts. 58:17 What do you think, Veegs? 58:19 I think we could easily see a Friday game get away. 58:23 And Minnesota could extend the lead. 58:25 College Hockey, baby. 58:27 Yeah, I mean, I think we'll see a lot of scoring chances for Minnesota on Friday. 58:31 And the way that they're finishing right now, I could see, you know, four or five, six goals, callers for the fans. 58:38 And then Saturday, Cappy brings up a great point. 58:40 You know, if Sully air gets to start Saturday and air gets it Friday, like we've seen so far this season, it really provides a lot of focus for the team. 58:49 You can hear the guys talk about Sully air. 58:51 He wasn't made available to the media this week because that's what college hockey coaches do is they try to hide these guys when these weekends come up. 58:58 But you can tell all of them are like, he's been a great member of the team, not just on the ice, but off the ice as well. 59:04 You know, we want to win for him and it'll really focus the squad, I think, even if Friday gets away. 59:12 All right. 59:14 Where's your prediction? 59:17 Six points. 59:19 It's got to be six. 59:20 None of this five or anything else. 59:23 Six points. 59:26 Let's beat the team you're supposed to beat. 59:29 And then really, Veegs, you know, they might be building up not many teams as much competition, but I think it's true. 59:35 Winning breeds more winning, breeds confidence, and just can help because they know, you know, they're going to Madison next weekend. 59:44 Not an easy place to play. 59:46 And then they'll just kind of keep building until they've got both Michigan schools coming in in early December. 59:51 So building confidence, building wins is all good, no matter the competition. 59:59 Yep. 59:59 And Penn State's been a tough one for them in the past historically. 1:00:01 So it will definitely test them. 1:00:04 Except for last year. 1:00:05 I think whether they were 5-1-0 against them. 1:00:07 5-0 last year. 1:00:09 But that's also, you know. 1:00:11 No, Penn State. 1:00:12 I called a game Penn State won in Pugula. 1:00:16 Well, see, wait, hold on. 1:00:17 People were saying that Suleyer was 0-5 against the Gophers last year. 1:00:22 So maybe he didn't play in that game. 1:00:24 Granin played in that second game. 1:00:26 Excuse me. 1:00:28 And then obviously a playoff game. 1:00:29 I did the playoffs against them. 1:00:31 And man, that second game, Penn State was the better team. 1:00:34 And they had that offsides on that goal that actually the referee caused it because the puck hit his skate and didn't allow the puck to go all the way in. 1:00:44 And you couldn't see the, you know, the review, blah, blah, blah. 1:00:47 But no, obviously, you know, Minnesota handled them more. 1:00:53 And like I said, it was the goal. 1:00:54 Like goaltending was a big thing. 1:00:56 They didn't get it. 1:00:57 If Penn State can get some goaltending, they got a shot in at least one of the games. 1:01:01 Yeah. 1:01:02 Well, thanks for joining us, Cappy. 1:01:04 Trying to get you to catch up with Molesky. 1:01:06 You're getting closer here. 1:01:07 If we have you on a little more than just Ohio State, you might catch him. 1:01:13 Hey, you know, Todd's got his, he's got his own things to worry about right now. 1:01:18 Oh, no, no. 1:01:20 I get, I mean, like, Todd, it's funny seeing some of his articles in which, you know, he's doing stuff a lot on there, like how they're spending their money with football and how to generate revenue. 1:01:32 What was the new thing with the food, the brats and the broad story, the broad source. 1:01:36 That was a great one. 1:01:37 I'm a brat guy. 1:01:38 I want to hear all about food. 1:01:41 So, you know, he's got to focus more on Wisconsin. 1:01:43 So, if we're doing an all Big Ten thing, that's more my lane, right? 1:01:47 So, yeah, you know, whatever. 1:01:50 I love talking hockey. 1:01:52 You guys are great. 1:01:52 So, anytime is always a pleasure. 1:01:55 And what's the name of your podcast with Ben Holden? 1:01:59 Anything, anything hockey. 1:02:02 Yeah, it is something. 1:02:04 I mean, I love it. 1:02:05 I could just sit and it's like me and him are just sitting on a couch talking. 1:02:09 That is true. 1:02:10 It's just fun. 1:02:11 You know, we'll see what happens with it, but, you know, it's just, he always brings it with you like a three stars and his are always kind of obscure where mine are always like teams or players. 1:02:20 Cause that's what I, you know, Hey, hot player, hot team kind of thing. 1:02:24 He'll find some story about some guy that did something cool, which I appreciate that he does that. 1:02:29 Do we know if he's going to be calling any games this year? 1:02:32 Or is it missing basically, you know, Jason, was it just Russ Jr.? 1:02:38 He's got, I was thinking he's got about like seven or eight games. 1:02:41 I think most are like the Michigan, at Michigan. 1:02:44 That's where he lives, yeah. 1:02:45 You know, keep that, you know, that I think him and Fred will do a lot of that. 1:02:50 The whole schedule isn't fully done. 1:02:51 I got about four or five games right now. 1:02:54 I got one Minnesota game at Ohio State. 1:02:59 You know, I have a lot obviously doing studio stuff too. 1:03:02 So it's a mixed bag. 1:03:03 And then, you know, I don't know who's doing what completely. 1:03:06 I just talked to Ben because we do the podcast a lot. 1:03:09 I think it's not fully decided, maybe based because of the scheduling. 1:03:13 And I think the big, the wriggly field thing, I don't know if that's been figured out either yet. 1:03:19 So. 1:03:21 Hopefully we get our guy Vosges back down there too. 1:03:24 I actually was texting him today to ask him about that. 1:03:27 And he said he hadn't, he didn't know yet. 1:03:29 Because you know, he's been doing football last week, isn't he? 1:03:32 Doing some other things, volleyball. 1:03:34 He does everything. 1:03:35 He's a versatile guy, man. 1:03:36 I think that's, look, man, I think he got a bit of a raw deal. 1:03:40 You know, he put in a tough spot going after a legend. 1:03:44 But I think also he's his best attribute is that he's good at so many different sports. 1:03:51 Like, and then he goes all over the Olympics. 1:03:53 Yeah, I don't even know what he was doing. 1:03:55 Was it some shooting or whatever? 1:03:59 Kayak, kayak, kayak. 1:04:00 But I think in the past he did pistol or something. 1:04:02 Oh, yeah. 1:04:03 So I just think his talent is that he's so versatile. 1:04:08 I mean, I kind of joked. 1:04:09 I'm like, I think baseball, he kind of came up on baseball. 1:04:12 And last year, the White Sox lost their play by play guy. 1:04:16 And I was like, dude, you should take that. 1:04:18 I think fantastic at baseball. 1:04:21 And then the guy they brought in had a rough year. 1:04:24 I mean, the team had a rough year, obviously. 1:04:26 But yeah, but the fans were hard on the play by play guy last year. 1:04:30 And I just thought I like thought bosses would have been perfect for it. 1:04:33 But timing is everything. 1:04:35 And he was still in the Hawks at that time. 1:04:37 So all good things. 1:04:39 What one of our producers who used to do the Minnesota games is now producing White Sox. 1:04:43 And he had a rough season. 1:04:45 Chris Withers, he's you know, he's been around the scene for Minnesota for a while. 1:04:49 He's been doing the White Sox for a while. 1:04:51 And he's like, boy, that's a tough season. 1:04:54 It's just it's sad. 1:04:55 It's very reminiscent of the 2000 Blackhawks of when their games weren't on television, which they are right now because of the whole. 1:05:05 They have a brand new network now and not all the Comcast hasn't picked it up. 1:05:10 YouTube TV hasn't picked it up yet. 1:05:12 All that bogus. 1:05:13 So it's a different reason. 1:05:15 But it just, you know, old owner, old school values that hasn't isn't changing with the times. 1:05:20 That's kind of what's going on with the White Sox. 1:05:22 And it's, it's tough being a fan of them right now. 1:05:26 So, but anyways. 1:05:29 Thanks for coming on the show though. 1:05:30 Yeah, man. 1:05:31 Awesome. 1:05:32 And you'll stay for overtime a little bit here, won't you? 1:05:34 Of course. 1:05:36 Veegs, what do you have on the hopper right now? 1:05:39 Just more coverage at Gopher Hockey. 1:05:40 We'll see what happens this weekend with Penn State. 1:05:43 That should be fun. 1:05:44 It should be fun. 1:05:45 Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 1:05:50 We got to thank Cappy again, but next week we'll have Todd Maleski on as the Gophers head to Madsen for the weekend. 1:05:57 For those of you listening live, stay tuned for overtime. 1:06:01 For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.