0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:12 You know what a good recruiting tip is, like, where can I get a good drink around here? 0:18 Oh, boy. 0:20 Dupe making mistakes, I love it. 0:22 And so I had to train for this marathon. 0:26 Make sure you stay awake for the game tomorrow, Dupe. 0:30 OK, we got to complete the same question. 0:32 Duck, duck. 0:35 Goose. 0:38 It's goose. 0:41 Gotcha. 0:41 I didn't even know that. 0:42 Yeah, blame it on Duck. 0:48 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 1:03 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 272. 1:12 Well, Veegs, here we are back again for another podcast, and coming on a successful weekend in Madison. 1:22 Yeah, not the best start for a road trip for a gopher team in Madison. 1:27 No, Bob described Friday night as too much poking and hoping. 1:35 It is very casual Austin verbiage, and it was difficult, I think, for a lot of fans to watch because they were expecting a little bit more with the Gophers going to see the Badgers who have struggled mightily this year. 1:51 To say the least, they get down to nothing. 1:56 But I got to say these in the past. 2:01 Well, let's say past, let's say the past three to seven years down to nothing. 2:09 We didn't see many comebacks in the past. 2:12 We've seen a couple this year. 2:16 Yeah, and I think the special teams for this team really helped. 2:20 You know, you get the four and four ice that kind of changes up the pace, and then you get the power play. 2:25 And once again, there's a reason why so many people occupy Snuggerud's off wing area is because when he gets a clear look, when there's puck movement across the zone and he has time and space to shoot that puck, not a lot of goalies are going to get it in that situation. 2:44 And good confidence booster for him this weekend to get that, you know, he's cognizant that people are trying to take that away. 2:51 The teams are loading up in that area and they have to move him around. 2:55 But once again, when he's in that most comfortable spot, he can deliver. 3:00 And you know, that that nice slab shot power play goal right under the arm there, which is not easy. 3:05 There's uniform, there's pads, there's a lot of stuff going on there. 3:09 He just powered it right through. 3:11 Yep. 3:11 Good for him. 3:12 I think he's pretty pleased with his weekend overall. 3:15 That's probably so much on the forechecking game on Friday. 3:19 You know, Bob talked a lot about the guys just kind of looping in and not being straight lines. 3:24 And if you talk to Mason Nevers about the film session Saturday morning, he's like, it certainly didn't feel like we won. 3:31 The way the coaches were talking to us, it did not feel like a winning video review the next day. 3:37 Maybe not. 3:39 But one thing I've been really encouraged by, yes, Snuggerud got his lovely Ovechkin-esque goal in his spot. 3:48 But we've been seeing him do so many other things. 3:53 Assist this year up for him. 3:56 The type of goals he's scoring is up for him. 4:00 So he follows up that power play goal with a wonderful just kind of tap in by a spectacular pass by Påhlsson in the third period to give Minnesota the eventual victory. 4:17 Yeah, you know, I think that's what Snuggerud came back for was not just to be a one dimensional player. 4:23 I think sometimes we are putting him under the microscope of, you know, what is he as a player? 4:28 Is he a play driver? 4:31 We know that he's a great office of talent shooting the puck and he's developing these other parts of his game. 4:37 And I think they're not as comfortable for him to focus on. 4:41 But I asked him, what do you look at besides points and goals and wins? 4:46 And he's like, I need to be a better forechecker. 4:49 It's like I need to be able to win pucks on the forecheck, straight lines, play through contact. 4:54 I know that I also need to be able to hold on to pucks a little bit more when it's a possession play. 5:01 It's not a scoring play. 5:03 It's a possession play. 5:04 I've got to be tougher on the puck so I can buy time and space for my teammates to get open and then make that next play. 5:11 So he's saying the right things. 5:13 And I think you're seeing it on the ice as well with him. 5:16 We're pretty early in the year. 5:18 I want to see that play against Michigan and Michigan State coming. 5:22 And it'll definitely get tested this weekend with Bemidji State too, because they are a big veteran old team. 5:28 And one thing we talked about a few weeks ago might have been with Cappie or even Todd Maleski, you know, most of Snuggerud's big games and points came against non-conference play and that he didn't show up as much against conference play. 5:44 Well, these first two weekends of conference play, I kind of like what I see first of the week this week. 5:52 Yeah, putting up the points. 5:53 Yeah, what they they need him to do, especially now with the injuries that they're dealing with. 5:58 You know, he's probably going to get a little bit more ice time here the next couple of weeks instead of, you know, the 15, 16, you know, you might see him creep into that 18, 19. 6:10 So you mentioned the injury. 6:12 More players could be playing time. 6:14 We know we heard this week Falloon and Thomas not going to play this weekend. 6:19 Not the greatest, but they're going to be back sooner rather than later. 6:22 Maybe the following weekend. 6:23 But that second game, Påhlsson coming right up the ice. 6:29 People like, Oh, that was at first people. 6:31 Was that a dirty hit? 6:32 Was that a dirty hit? 6:33 I think clean hit completely Veegs just got him in the wrong spot at the wrong time. 6:40 And it looks like he's going to be out until at least January now. 6:44 Yeah, Bob accidentally let slip on his radio show that it was going to be until the second half. 6:50 And I clarified with them at availability this week. 6:52 He's like, Did I say that? 6:54 Yeah, you did. 6:56 He's like, I got to catch myself when I'm on there with Wally. 7:00 But he did confirm it. 7:02 Feel bad for Påhlsson. 7:04 It does feel like he's become more comfortable playing with the top players, like getting more scoring chances, figuring out ways to be part of the power play a little bit more. 7:14 He's been good on draws. 7:16 It's just an unfortunate injury and no one's feeling sorry for the Gophers. 7:21 Falloon is probably the closest of the injured guys to get back. 7:25 I saw him skate a little bit this week, not with the team, but just after on his own. 7:31 He's probably close. 7:33 I think Thomas' lower body injury is one of those ones where you just have to be cautious because if you rush it too quickly, you'll have a setback. 7:43 We'll see there. 7:45 So kind of a Friday, Saturday thing. 7:47 Friday pretty much doubled up in face off, wins to losses. 7:52 Saturday much more balanced. 7:55 Saturday they came out much better. 7:56 They're putting a lot of pressure on. 7:59 I would say Wisconsin's goal lead probably kept him in that game. 8:02 They're only they're kind of hanging on to a 1-0 lead because they couldn't really score. 8:07 The Badgers come right back, get two goals late in the second. 8:11 And they're like, here we go again. 8:12 But, boy, like I've said before, us as a fan of the game, we used to be so worried when they get down, but they can come back and they did it again Saturday night. 8:25 And I think they're coming back in the right fashion. 8:28 They're not just being reckless and taking chances and flying guys out of the zone and looking to be riverboat gamblers. 8:37 They're getting goals out of their play, which is what you want to see. 8:41 They're not forcing it. 8:43 They're taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves within the game. 8:47 That is going to happen. 8:49 You just have to have players who can execute in those situations. 8:52 And so far, Minnesota has those guys. 8:56 I don't know if like five to ten years ago, if the Gophers would be winning as many of these close games as they have this year and two years ago. 9:05 This program has kind of flipped a little bit on how they can handle these situations. 9:11 It definitely is. 9:12 And so Gophers get it back. 9:14 They get it tied two to two. 9:16 We go to overtime leagues. 9:17 And I love this highlight. 9:19 So I threw it on here. 9:20 So let's take a look at Snuggerud and Ziemer teaming up for the winning goal. 9:27 Under two minutes now in overtime. 9:30 On the ice comes Snuggerud. 9:32 He's got room underneath. 9:33 And there's your goal. 9:35 They've done it again. 9:36 And the Gophers sweep the Badgers. 9:42 This building is stunned. 9:46 The Badgers got caught in a change there. 9:50 And it was Snuggerud who puts a nice feed in. 9:57 Now the other end with just a poke there was Brody Ziemer. 10:03 Knocks it right out of the air. 10:06 That was quite the play because I'm guessing Snuggerud, when he tries to float the pass on the backhand, he's kind of like, oh, geez, that's a bit too high. 10:16 And when he literally just bats it in, Snuggerud is the one that goes hits the ice and jumps right back up. 10:23 He was so happy that Ziemer was able to play that pass because it was for three and a half feet, four feet off the ice. 10:30 Yeah, Snuggerud said, Ziemer's got a little bit of a lacrosse background. 10:34 So he's like, I wasn't worried. 10:36 I just I had to get over that sliding D, you know, however high it was. 10:41 It was going to be what it was going to be for Ziemer. 10:43 And he handled it. 10:44 You know, it's even funny, I guess, at the Saturday morning film. 10:48 Bosco is very particular in telling his team no backhand passes tonight. 10:55 No backhand passes unless you're Wayne Gretzky. 11:01 So does that mean that Wayne is down? 11:03 Yeah, Snuggy, you know, he's trying to get a new stratus for your player there. 11:08 Our SID Scott Slarks ended up catching a different angle of that video. 11:13 I also threw that one on tonight because he's down there at the end of the game ready to grab somebody to put on the radio and stuff like that. 11:21 Very involved. 11:22 So he was recording from where the team enters and exits the ice. 11:27 And this is what Slarks he got. 11:48 There goes the band, just playing it for nothing. 11:50 So, Slarksy, I noticed that one was re-tweeted a ton. 11:53 So, great capture by Scott Slarks of the University of Minnesota. 11:58 Yeah. 12:00 Good result for the team battling through injuries, getting key points. 12:05 We say what we say about Wisconsin, but they have a lot of talent on the roster, and it's hard to win on the road. 12:12 And locking up five or six points is very important for BigTen teams when they go on the road. 12:19 So, I threw this out there Sunday morning. 12:23 Is five or six points a sweep? 12:27 I'm thinking myself more old school that when you won in overtime back in the old days, you win, it's still a sweep. 12:38 Because points were determined differently back then as well. 12:42 I considered this a sweep. 12:43 Well, the announcers considered it a sweep. 12:46 Some people kind of fought back on it. 12:49 What are your thoughts? 12:52 I mean, it's two wins, you know, and it's not a shootout win. 12:57 66% of a win. 12:59 Yeah. 13:00 So I still think it's a sweep. 13:01 You're just rewarding the other team for getting into the extra time for that point. 13:06 But I think you can still comfortably call it a sweep. 13:10 Five or six points is pretty good when you're on the road. 13:13 And BTN Plus did an excellent job. 13:16 I thought, you know, they didn't always say the right things. 13:19 But as you know, we spoke with Todd last week, their college kids, they're learning. 13:25 I praised them for that call at the end of the game. 13:29 And the funny thing is, the kid responded to me on Twitter and so that was me and we appreciate it. 13:33 I'm like, you just keep doing what you're doing because you're learning, do different sports. 13:38 You never know what can happen. 13:39 You just got to keep doing it. 13:40 So hopefully those those guys call in the game, keep calling and keep getting better because that's what we want. 13:47 And that's what they want. 13:49 Well, I think that's what we're going to see in the future with a lot of these BTN Plus. 13:53 So you want these students to get better. 13:55 You know, Joe O'Donnell was one of those guys who started his radio career at college showing up at the desk of the radio station saying, hey, I want to call hockey games when I'm here in Delaware. 14:08 And they're like, all right, come on by and we'll get you set up. 14:11 And that's how he got to start 1000 minor league games later. 14:15 Now he's calling NHL games. 14:17 You somehow somehow I knocked myself out of the thing here. 14:21 Sorry about that. 14:22 I kept going. 14:23 I kept going like a pro. 14:24 Well, it's because you are like we don't have bad line changes like the badgers and overtime. 14:28 Well, that was pretty bad. 14:31 It was very odd. 14:34 I'm like, well, one thing that was significant of that overtime, Minnesota controlled it for the first two minutes, at least two minutes to 15 to 30. 14:45 They controlled it for quite a while. 14:48 Yeah. 14:48 And that's the key of overtime is possession. 14:51 And, you know, people say it can be exciting. 14:54 It was really exciting when it first came, but now we've kind of coached a little of the fun out. 14:59 And it's very much a, you know, possession game and OT. 15:03 And when you've got players like the Gophers in transition, that's a good spot for them. 15:08 Usually just don't get to the shootout. 15:13 Well, maybe they'll surprise us this year. 15:15 Maybe that's the one thing that all of a sudden they're going to be good at if they ever have it happen. 15:21 So, knock on wood, Veegs. 15:23 Who knows? 15:25 Who knows? 15:26 I do know one thing though, Veegs, we need to talk about some of our sponsors here. 15:30 We need to talk about Jimmy's and I'm really glad Jimmy's is with us. 15:35 I am too. 15:36 Every time I go to Cub, I'm looking at that Jimmy's right when I go in. 15:40 I see the apples, I see the caramel dip, I see the sea salt caramel because I like a little bit of that extra flavor in there and just pick up a tub or two. 15:49 It's great with apples, pretzels, celery, ice cream, finger, can't go wrong. 15:55 Make sure you stop by and get some Jimmy's salad dressing and dips. 16:00 Don't you be messing with my dressing. 16:06 I got to admit, I may have done the finger thing a couple of times, Veegs. 16:10 Well, sometimes you just want to check. 16:12 You just want to check. 16:13 I throw in the microwave a little bit. 16:14 You know, sometimes I don't want to get an extra spoon, you know. 16:19 But also we need to talk about lunch bucket hockey, Veegs. 16:23 Yeah, I saw lunch bucket on Instagram this week showing off some veterans jerseys. 16:27 You know, that's a couple of hardworking guys who play that Friday lunchtime retiree pickup hockey, and they're coming up with ideas for lunch bucket hockey.com. 16:37 If you're looking for jerseys, if you're looking for some brand that celebrates these pillars of the sport that are the grit and grind players, lunch bucket hockey is for you. 16:45 Check them out. 16:47 Of course, we thank lunch bucket hockey and Jimmy's for sponsoring the GPL podcast. 16:53 And we know what time it is. 16:54 It's time for Vigo's top 20, where your top three have not changed. 16:58 Veegs and they probably shouldn't because those teams just keep winning. 17:01 Actually, Michigan stayed in there as well. 17:03 Teams keep winning. 17:04 They're going to be at the top of your poll. 17:06 Yeah, you know, BC is looking very impressive. 17:09 You know, they probably have the hardest strength of schedule in the country. 17:13 And they've achieved a lot this season already. 17:16 They're probably going to be the top pairwise team. 17:20 Once we get those rankings starting to come out and matter. 17:24 But Denver, they're the champs. 17:26 They've got enough players back. 17:27 They're also taking care of business. 17:29 Minnesota is making it hard on themselves, but they're not dropping games. 17:36 Yes. 17:36 H-Straight, pretty good. 17:39 Hard to argue with that. 17:39 And isn't Denver playing CC here soon? 17:42 Is that this weekend? 17:44 It's coming up. 17:46 It is coming up soon, isn't it? 17:48 They got to be because they're going to be getting in the league play as well. 17:51 So, yeah, but it's it's CC and Western this weekend. 17:56 Another good match up. 17:57 So that's a good match up too, because I think I think Western is one of those teams where I'm waiting for them to take that jump from like the middle of the pack towards the top of the pack. 18:07 Be like a one or two seed. 18:09 But I need to see them win some games. 18:12 Of course, you got Michigan in there because they've been playing much better. 18:16 Main is good. 18:17 Beats. 18:17 I mean, Providence has been sneaky. 18:19 Good. 18:19 They just keep winning as well. 18:22 That's it's kind of movement time of the season right now for these middle teams. 18:28 You know, there are a lot of sweeps last weekend in college hockey for these teams that are in the top nine here. 18:35 Once you get that bottom 10 of the top 20, there are some struggles going on and it's hard to figure out who's going to stand out of that group. 18:43 You know, Cornell had a tie with Yale with a couple bad decisions that were made and they lost their number one vote in the US. 18:50 CHO poll this week. 18:52 OK, someone doesn't have a backbone. 18:54 You're voting for this team when they haven't played a game and then they get one little tie and I'm giving up and they've got a tough weekend coming up. 19:03 You know, I think they've got Dartmouth and Harvard, probably the two other challengers and ECAC for them. 19:09 We'll see. 19:10 You know, Quinnipiac had a bad weekend. 19:13 They dropped out of here for me. 19:15 They've got to earn it back. 19:17 Interesting to see Minnesota State creeping up just a little bit each week. 19:22 I noticed every week. 19:24 Yeah, just a little bit. 19:24 You know, they've got some impressive wins. 19:26 They've got a little bit of inconsistency of their game, but they look like they could maybe be the team out of the CCHA this year. 19:34 That league is going to have a hard time getting more than one bid, though. 19:38 There's the more I look at the interconference records. 19:42 CCHA is just not getting it done. 19:44 So, you know, unless Minnesota starts really taking care of business in their league and not dropping points to teams like Bemidji and St. 19:53 Thomas, you know, they're going to be on this bubble. 19:55 They're going to have to win the conference tournament. 19:58 Our guy Steve Larsen says Denver is at North Dakota. 20:01 So, yeah, it's speed limit and the toughness going from Lindenwood to North Dakota. 20:08 Quite the jump up this weekend for Denver. 20:11 Yeah, and same probably for North Dakota, going from Minnesota, Duluth to Denver. 20:16 Oh, the Bulldogs are not off to a good start. 20:20 They're not. 20:21 They are definitely not. 20:23 So Penn State kind of hang around. 20:26 There's your Dartmouth and Harvard, your other teams kind of sticking in there, followed by Michigan Tech. 20:30 Who's knocking on the door, Veegs? 20:32 Who's, who are you keeping an eye on to maybe break this top 20 pull for you? 20:39 You know, it's really hard for me because a lot of the teams that I was looking at, like the unions and Quinnipiacs, are just not having good times. 20:47 Ohio State, do they deserve to be where they are? 20:52 You know, tough losses, the Michigan State for them. 20:55 You know, it's hard to drop them too much, but they've got to really hang on here. 21:00 It's early. 21:00 It's early in the season. 21:01 It is most looking forward at this point of the poll to see how Cornell, Dartmouth and Harvard kind of pan out. 21:07 And those games will be on ESPN Plus this weekend. 21:10 You know, something to check out as we have a weird weekend with the Gophers playing Thursday, Saturday. 21:16 You'll get Friday to peruse around all of College Hockey if you can. 21:22 All right. 21:22 Well, that looks good, Veegs. 21:23 Another week of the Vegoe's top 20 here. 21:31 Some pretty bad news came out yesterday. 21:32 Veegs were losing a Division 1 program in AIC reported by College Hockey News. 21:43 Not good. 21:44 Could be the first of a couple schools that may decide to do this. 21:47 Some schools may even just drop it. 21:48 Who knows what's going to happen? 21:49 But some are thinking, you know, their excuse was, you know, financial and the way the NCAA is going. 21:58 Either way, this is not good. 22:00 I think it also is just a sign of problems in higher education right now. 22:06 Because I think the bigger picture for AIC is just their total enrollment for the school is not keeping up with expectations. 22:14 Yes. 22:14 So they're having to cut programs. 22:16 And do you want hockey even on the cheap is still almost a $2 million a year enterprise to keep going. 22:25 And so AIC has made the decision that they can't keep up. 22:28 And if their enrollment numbers are going to drop, they're going to have to figure out another solution. 22:35 You know, we've talked about St. 22:36 Cloud and their numbers as well. 22:38 I don't think St. 22:39 Cloud is the institution where they're going to drop hockey. 22:43 But it's just another institution that's having trouble meeting enrollment numbers. 22:47 And that kind of has a trickle down effect to athletics as well. 22:53 Well, you just hate to see it. 22:55 You know, you've seen so many programs being added the last five to ten years. 22:59 Some programs coming back. 23:02 I don't think that's going to be the case this time. 23:04 I don't think you're going to see an AIC come back. 23:11 It's just, it's just, you know, we've gotten to 64 teams or 63 teams. 23:15 And boy, I'd hate to see us keep dropping teams here, Veegs. 23:19 It's just that no matter what team it is. 23:22 Yeah, you know, the one hope for college hockey is that maybe some of these teams that are like these kind of Atlantic small programs can get replaced by bigger athletic departments that can support a bigger program, maybe sell more tickets, have a better venue. 23:41 I'm not sure what the path is here for college hockey. 23:45 You know, the major junior stuff is just in full swing right now. 23:48 All these kids committing to college programs. 23:51 The player pool is there to support small programs and the way the sport is structured, where you have these kids who come in at 17, 18 versus the kids who come in at 20, almost 21 creates a playing field where you can build a program a lot of different ways and be competitive. 24:13 We'll just see what happens though. 24:15 Andrew Carlson, USC, UCLA. 24:19 Well, we've heard UCLA is their athletic department's not in good shape at all the last few years. 24:27 One of the reasons why they wanted to come to the Big Ten and get more money. 24:31 So I don't see UCLA pumping their club team up anytime soon. 24:37 No, I mean, Arizona, they have a rink there that they just basically built. 24:42 That's pretty nice. 24:43 That would make a lot of sense. 24:45 You have a rivalry then with Arizona State. 24:47 You know, in the Northwest, Washington would make a lot of sense. 24:51 They've got the Kraken. 24:52 They've got a lot of junior hockey there, major junior hockey there. 24:57 That would make a lot of sense as another market for college hockey. 25:02 You'd love Nike and Phil Knight in Oregon to jump in the tank here, but they seem very reluctant to. 25:11 And it's going to be hard for some programs to add a sport right now. 25:15 With the revenue sharing that's coming up across college hockey, they've got to come up with $22 million of revenue is now also going to be an expense because it's going to be. 25:25 And that's just it. 25:26 If anything happens, I think teams will wait or schools will wait. 25:30 Let's wait five years to kind of see how things settle first. 25:34 Yeah. 25:37 Tough, tough, tough industry right now. 25:39 What's going to happen? 25:40 So I know last week or so, a lot of people jumped over to blue sky social beings, you know, we're always taking the Twitter questions. 25:48 And I thought, you know, this week, let's hit up some blue sky people. 25:51 Not many people there yet. 25:53 But just another social platform out there. 25:55 And I put out a couple questions. 25:58 Of course, radio fall in this wants to be funny. 26:02 He comes back home. 26:03 What's Pat McAulay like? 26:04 And we wanted real questions. 26:06 So we've got to look after. 26:07 Look down when I when I talked to Pat, because, you know, you got to make sure. 26:14 Or we sit down at a table. 26:16 But Jim from Blue Sky was saying, which goaltender do you think is playing better? 26:21 I think that's a pretty good question, Vs. 26:24 I mean, people keep saying, Oh, Aerie is not playing well. 26:27 Aerie is undefeated. 26:31 I think when you look at Aerie, obviously the game at Minnesota Duluth was a little concerning. 26:38 Maybe some of the goals you could say Thomas are ones you'd like back. 26:43 Suleir doesn't have as many of those kind of goals on his resume so far, but I don't really think either goalie has proven themselves to be far and away better. 26:54 I think it's a pretty close battle. 26:56 I think if I had to pick one right now for a big game, it would probably be Suleir, but that's basically because of his experience more than anything I'm seeing out of their games. 27:08 You know, both goalies look very comfortable, move around a lot, play the puck a lot. 27:13 You know, I don't see a lot of weaknesses in their games right now. 27:16 It's just I think areas still kind of feeling out the traffic and the pace more so than Suleir. 27:22 And I also think, you know, Bob said, now I want to wait till November. 27:25 Well, it's November. 27:26 I I just don't see him making any real changes the first half of the season. 27:30 We might not see anything really until January if we see anything at all. 27:35 The only thing I could see would be like against Michigan State or Michigan. 27:39 If one of them plays really good on the Friday, they might get a Saturday or if one of them has a tough Saturday, the next one might flip because we've seen airy pretty much every Friday, I think, so far in Suleir every Saturday. 27:54 So a lot of Thursday, Saturday this week. 27:55 But, you know, it's kind of been that routine. 27:59 Yeah, play the young guy first, the older guy second. 28:02 All right, going back to blue sky here, Varner, who's obviously on Twitter, seen a lot of questions from him in the past. 28:09 What's up with the populace, but rather timid icebox at 3M at Mariucci. 28:17 He thinks they've been a little quiet and a little maybe not as rambunctious. 28:25 I don't know. 28:26 I think the students have been pretty good. 28:28 Yeah. 28:29 I mean, since the pandemic, the students at venues for Minnesota have just been phenomenal. 28:36 Way up. 28:38 So I don't have too many complaints, Varner. 28:40 I'm sorry. 28:43 You know, I missed the Penn State Series because I was sick. 28:47 So I've only been to Mariucci for the media day, and I guess it would have been the St. 28:53 Thomas game. 28:54 So that's the only time. 28:55 So I'll be back there tomorrow. 28:58 And then they're back on the road. 28:59 So not many games at Mariucci so far this year, besides that full Penn State Series. 29:05 Yeah. 29:05 I mean, that could be part of it as well. 29:07 You know, competition for fans and maybe just not getting into the routine yet. 29:12 Children got to learn the routines and the chants and the animosity that they can show to visiting teams. 29:19 And I think it's helpful for Minnesota to kind of have a backloaded hockey schedule. 29:23 It allows football to kind of to play out their season. 29:26 There's just one more game with the Penn State. 29:28 I know that Gopher Athletics is trying to do buy one, get ones to sell out that game. 29:35 I know they're also doing buy one, get ones for tomorrow for the Bemidji State game. 29:39 So they're trying to keep a good atmosphere there. 29:43 They definitely are. 29:44 And yeah, the speed limit and everything's going to change, if those two first weekends of December, when the Michigan teams are in town back to back. 29:56 I know you've been anticipating that for a while, too. 29:58 It's like, let's see how good this team is when those two teams come in back to back. 30:04 It's hard not want to hurry up again, but you can't do that. 30:08 And hope the positive for this team is they're not doing that. 30:12 They're doing the work to get there. 30:15 Mason Evers talked about it in the Wisconsin series. 30:18 We did have a little bit of feeling out period on Friday. 30:22 We got to stop doing that. 30:24 We've been doing that in the past. 30:25 Did against Penn State. 30:26 Did a little bit with St. 30:27 Thomas. 30:29 That's us growing as a team and being hard right from the start. 30:35 All right. 30:35 Well, I just kind of wanted to mention Blue Sky since it was so new and we took a couple of questions. 30:39 Maybe we'll keep doing that in the future. 30:42 Both Vegs and I are on there. 30:43 Just give it a quick search for us. 30:45 And it's not hard to find us. 30:47 So but one thing we need to talk about again here, Vegs, is our sponsors and I'm going right to Cub Foods. 30:56 I mean, Cubs just got everything. 30:57 They've got stores all around the metro and they are investing in the Twin Cities. 31:03 They are local Minnesota. 31:05 They sponsored the Pulltab Sports Studio. 31:07 They're on PJ Flex headset. 31:09 They sponsor a lot of go for athletic stuff. 31:12 If you're looking for a go for promo like the Red Baron stuff, Cub Foods is the place for you. 31:17 If you're getting that one last tailgate in, make sure you head there to grab your hamburgers. 31:22 You know, those pub burgers are great. 31:23 Hot dogs, brats, chips, veggie platters, cold cuts. 31:26 And if you need a couple of drinks for your party, a lot of now have wine and spirits attached. 31:33 Definitely, definitely. 31:34 And now we have a new sponsor, VEG State, 1981, a book that's available on Amazon now. 31:43 Yeah, I mean, the high school season just kicked off this week. 31:47 They're all dreaming about getting to Excel and starting a dynasty. 31:52 And this is one that looks at 35 years of Minnesota State Hockey Tournament history written from the unique perspective of the Curse South St. 32:00 Paul Packers in their 21st Tournament appearance as they strive for their first ever championship. 32:06 So check out this book. 32:07 It's on Amazon. 32:08 It's about hockey. 32:09 It's about Minnesota. 32:11 Support them. 32:13 That's kind of a unique thing, Veegs, you know, just from the viewpoint of a of a of a Packer guy, because we know they are the most cursed team in the state tournament. 32:25 I mean, they are up there. 32:26 They're right there with White Bear Lake, probably, and the struggles they've had. 32:30 You know, they've had some really great teams and great players come through, but just at least they've won some games. 32:35 Well, we know White Bear Lake. 32:37 Maybe not so much. 32:39 Yeah, so that'll be fun to check out off to look into that. 32:43 Definitely have to check it out. 32:45 Home at home with Bemidji State this weekend. 32:49 Well, tomorrow and Saturday Veegs. 32:54 I mean, you get one of the Sertori brothers and this time it's Tom Sertori coach coming in. 33:01 People might not know, but he might not be as public with his personality as Frank. 33:05 But when you talk to him behind the scenes, they are a lot of life. 33:11 Yeah, it's pretty funny. 33:12 You know, you asked Bob about these two guys. 33:15 He's like, well, you know, Frank likes a microphone and likes a crowd. 33:19 Tom probably likes the back of a dive bar. 33:23 And Bob was telling a story back at hockey camp. 33:26 He was playing in between with Tom and he got a king too. 33:31 And in between. 33:32 And I don't know if you've ever played in between, but you have deck of cards or you've got a pot. 33:38 And you bet the next card is going to be between the two. 33:42 And so a king and a two, that's about as good as you can get. 33:45 You get an ace and, you know, a two, that would be pretty good. 33:48 Well, anyway, Bob Betts, the pot. 33:52 King comes out. 33:55 So he's got to pay double pot. 33:56 Oh, and he doesn't have the money. 33:59 And so I guess what happened is he agreed to work Tom's last shift of hockey camp and Tom got to go home early and Bob hadn't given the money. 34:14 Bob says that's that's about when I stopped gambling. 34:17 So that's a great story. 34:20 That's a great story. 34:21 And just par for the course for the Serratory brothers. 34:26 It really is. 34:28 So they're always fun to see. 34:29 Like, I always try to grab them at the Frozen Four and catch up. 34:34 I've talked to Tom and Frank a couple of times for stories I've done for USC. 34:39 They're just a hoot. 34:40 So one thing with Bemidji State, you know you're going to get a tough physical team. 34:46 He recruits players who want to be there, want to play that style and embrace it. 34:51 He's like, when you're 20 years old and you're playing in the NOL, and you're bussing everywhere and you got ice packs and cold pizza, that shows how much you love hockey. 35:01 And the guys that love that environment and thrive in that are guys we want at Bemidji. 35:07 Oh, Darren Bakken telling us, we leave White Bear Lake alone. 35:11 I'm not saying something that's not true. 35:15 Sorry, not sorry, Darren. 35:16 That's just kind of the way it is. 35:20 So, Påhlsson out, Falloon out, Thomas out. 35:25 I know, so Middlestead, you know, had been kind of trading off and on with Falloon, these games with John Middlestead, I should say. 35:37 We're going to see kind of the standard layout. 35:39 We've been seeing the last couple of games, especially on Saturday, or anyone else going to sneak in there? 35:44 Yeah, I was just going to look at my notes. 35:45 I had Wood Clark, Kurth still together. 35:48 Zeamer Moore was Snuggerud, Lamb, Hubel and Hendrickson, Michael, Middlestead, Nevers. 35:54 And then I saw Begley skating with the forwards. 35:57 So I think if they're looking for a guy or maybe they do want to put someone else in there, you know, Begley has really at the forwards for a very interesting, very interesting there. 36:10 Hi, you know, because I had noticed the the Clark Wood Kurth line had been broken up. 36:19 Was it Saturday last week? 36:21 I think it was Saturday. 36:22 What would they say? 36:23 I think that was just kind of jumbling with the center issues they're having. 36:27 I know Jimmy. 36:28 Yeah, that's an issue. 36:29 Jimmy Clark had some issues with health lately that he's been dealing with. 36:34 That's hampering him a little bit for ice time. 36:36 So that's one other thing to watch. 36:40 Darren Bakken asking Rude, is Rude going to play? 36:44 He means the 70 right now. 36:48 It's hard to know what they'll what they'll do with the lineup. 36:50 I think, you know, they do apparently favor Begley over him right now. 36:56 Putting him in there, giving him some shifts in the last series with Penn State and here and there. 37:01 And, you know, I think they're trying to get him ready so he could fill in at forward or D at this point, because they're pretty comfortable with what they've seen ID. 37:10 They just want him to be ready for forward. 37:12 One thing about the power play is stepping into Paulson's spot. 37:15 I saw Oliver Moore. 37:17 So that's all I need to get some goals there, Veegs. 37:20 Oh, yeah, he said it's like he's got a hole in his stick. 37:26 He's got a hole in his stick. 37:27 I think because he's got one of those blades, you know, with the gap in the middle for speed. 37:32 He's got to get the full blade on those. 37:34 He's had a bunch of those in the back door, especially from Luke Middlestad. 37:38 I think Luke Middlestad has probably given him four great A's on the power play. 37:43 Maybe if it's coming from Snuggerud or Wood or Rinzel, maybe he'll find the blade. 37:50 We'll see. 37:51 Oh, that's tough. 37:52 I because you know, there was a video put out late this afternoon with Kurth, Rinzel and Luke Middlestad. 38:02 And if you haven't seen it, go look for it on the Twitter machine and the social media networks. 38:07 It's really good. 38:11 Those guys can't talk enough about the guys who don't play and how they're there every week. 38:16 Guys like Rude, guys like, well, the goaltender Wyss. 38:22 I mean, all these guys, they love these guys. 38:28 I could see sometimes in the past, you know, players are going like, these guys don't want to ever play, but these guys are really part of the team, even though they don't see the ice so much. 38:39 Well, I think they just embrace their roles. 38:41 Like I see a lot of their special team stuff on Wednesday, and those guys are jumping in there as the Scout PK, giving them a look and they're competing hard and they're trying to show that they could step in if they get the chance and maybe a weekend like this is one where they get some opportunities to play a little bit. 39:00 You know, I think, you know, Begley is the guy he can place 70 or you can play 13 forward. 39:05 So it makes sense to address him as that guy. 39:09 It'll be fun to see if Michael gets a shot and if he gets some playing time, you know, because it was kind of a question mark if he'd be back this year. 39:16 Yes. 39:17 You know, after coming from St. 39:18 John's and Alabama Huntsville, you know, he's been in school a while. 39:22 Sometimes those guys are ready to move on with their lives and do certain things. 39:27 But he came back for another year. 39:29 Everyone likes him, like you said. 39:31 So this will be a good opportunity for him. 39:33 And I have one thing on the. 39:34 Oh, go ahead. 39:35 I was going to say one thing on the powerplay with more shifting in to the Påhlsson spot. 39:40 You know, I see Zeamer slipping in to more spot on that other powerplay group. 39:46 So that's kind of what I'm expecting to see. 39:50 You mentioned Nick Michael there. 39:52 From what I know, I believe that's him kind of the little giggly voice in the background on the Scott Slark's video. 40:00 So good for him, good for him. 40:03 He was almost in the line up last weekend, but a lot of people were questioning that first. 40:08 Why do you have a couple extra players? 40:10 Well, a lot of times, you know, coach doesn't know. 40:14 Coach you know, like, God, I need to have these guys on the list. 40:17 And if one needs to be a scratch later on, they're a scratch because we got to get starting line ups. 40:25 How it's got to be produced. 40:26 Someone's got to put together. 40:27 So that's why you'd see them on this, you know, the line up list that's put out two hours before the game, because that's done even before that. 40:35 So I know. 40:36 Well, I think based on what Motsko said, Clark is dealing with some upper body tightness and just wasn't sure if he was going to be able to go on Friday and decide to tough it out. 40:48 Felt much better on Saturday, apparently, but just stuff to watch. 40:55 So what happens this weekend, Veegs? 40:57 Like you said, kind of an all odd Thursday, Saturday series. 41:02 I don't mind it because Friday night, I'll probably be watching another hockey, maybe bring my laptop out and have a nice fire. 41:08 It's supposed to be a nice evening. 41:12 But what's going to happen? 41:16 Well, I think this is a game Minnesota has been preparing for the last couple of weeks. 41:21 Mason Nevers was talking about what Ben Gordon's been promoting Bemidji State as. 41:27 He's like, they're kind of like Notre Dame, Penn State. 41:29 They're going to be physical. 41:31 They're going to be chippy. 41:32 They're going to be aggressive. 41:34 They're not going to give you much. 41:36 You're going to have to take what you can get and you're going to have to get in transition when you have chances. 41:41 That's one of the things for Minnesota is you can't be swinging and hoping. 41:47 When you get those chances, you have to get going fast because Bemidji will back pressure you. 41:53 So you can't let them catch you. 41:55 And I think in some of the series where Minnesota has gotten away in transition, it's because that back pressure hasn't been there. 42:03 You know, you look at the St. 42:04 Thomas game, the Minnesota Duluth game, the Air Force game. 42:08 There wasn't a lot of pressure so they could slow down the rush and hold on to pucks longer and find that late guy coming in. 42:14 I don't think you're going to see that against Bemidji State. 42:16 I think you're going to have to see rush chances that are that are direct and fast. 42:23 No blue line turnovers. 42:26 That hasn't been a problem with this team really very much. 42:30 And when it has been, they've covered well. 42:35 They've gotten back. 42:36 They busted their butt. 42:36 Oops, let's get back. 42:38 So you know, like you showed me that like five or six years ago now, and I'm always looking for it. 42:44 And when it happens, I'm like, Oh, wait a minute. 42:49 They're covering, so that's definitely a positive for when it does go wrong. 42:55 Yeah, you just can't get to the point where you're too cautious covering, especially in a game like Bemidji State, where there probably won't be as many scoring chances as the Gophers are used to, because that's just what Bemidji has to do to try to get a win out of this weekend is they've got to close it down. 43:14 I do worry with all the injuries and kind of the shake up. 43:18 This is going to be a tough match up for Minnesota. 43:20 It's hard to just like come right out and say, yeah, six points, no problem for a series like this, especially for a team like Minnesota. 43:28 They haven't really had a night where they haven't come through. 43:33 And you just one of those is coming at some point. 43:39 True. 43:40 So are you not predicting a sweep you think and maybe maybe you get some in overtime or maybe a split type of thing? 43:47 I think we see overtime and I think we see the Gophers win a game in overtime again. 43:52 I think that three on three for this group is really positive for them if they get there. 43:58 But I do think one of these games is going to go over time. 44:01 So not all six points in the pair wise. 44:05 The mythical six points. 44:06 The mythical six points. 44:07 It seems to talk about points rather than it. 44:10 166% of a win. 44:15 Can't disagree, especially with the home and home, the home and home. 44:17 There's a there's a bonus there, too. 44:20 It's complicated. 44:23 Why did they make it so hard? 44:24 Veegs, why do they make it so hard? 44:26 Because they want to standardize the three on three. 44:29 That's what they do. 44:30 I know, but, you know, I'm just saying. 44:34 Bring back the WCHA. 44:38 Isn't this a WCHA game? 44:40 Kind of essentially wasn't Bemidji in there for a couple of years. 44:43 Yeah. 44:43 So it'll be packed. 44:45 It'll be packed on Thursday. 44:47 WCHA Minnesota team. 44:50 But I think we get the pregame and postgame though on local TV. 44:54 We do. 44:56 You can see Pat Nicoletti and Jim Regge. 44:59 We do get to see that it will be fun. 45:02 I think it's going to be a closer game in Bemidji. 45:06 I think the home game tomorrow night, it's a three or four goal game. 45:10 I don't know. 45:11 I just it's been a little while since we've seen that. 45:14 They've had a lot of close games lately. 45:16 I think they're ready to kind of break out for at least one of those games and then kind of snap back maybe on Saturday evening. 45:21 So just my thought. 45:24 Anything else, Veegs? 45:26 Are you saving things for overtime? 45:29 Well, I will not be at the building this weekend or Thursday. 45:33 I'm going to be coaching my own my own deal. 45:36 Little news update on Minneapolis Park Board and Rec Drama. 45:40 We did get our rink back in Wyndham Park. 45:43 So that was a big win for our community. 45:47 Just gave us a little bit of faith in local government where you can talk to your representatives and speak respectfully and with some heart and you can get things done. 45:59 I was so excited to see that. 46:00 I was so excited. 46:01 You said you posted on Facebook and you posted on Twitter. 46:03 I'm so happy to see that got resolved and you're going to have ice for your team and for your family this year. 46:10 Yeah, it's great for the community. 46:12 It's such a busy rink. 46:14 Would have been a shame to see it go away. 46:16 Having Mike Snee from Minnesota Wild come to the park board meeting was fun. 46:22 He's in this community engagement role with them now after spending so much time in College Hockey Inc. 46:28 I'm encouraged at the hints of things that he's talking about happening in the state. 46:34 I do think communities need to start looking at covered refrigerated rinks as an option. 46:42 Or when they do renovations to their rinks, they should be thinking about, can we extend our refrigeration to an outdoor rink at the same location? 46:52 I just think we have to rethink. 46:53 Similar to St. 46:54 Louis Park type of thing. 46:55 And I think you're right. 46:55 Yeah, similar to St. 46:56 Louis Park. 46:58 Coon Rapids has one that's like that. 47:00 You know, there's a bunch of rinks are starting to do that. 47:02 So I think it's a good way to keep up the youth hockey and grow the game because ultimately a lot of these players start somewhere. 47:11 And you never know. 47:12 I'm a big believer in that long-term athlete development. 47:16 Yes, keep them playing as long as you can. 47:18 Well, I'm really glad your team was successful and you were successful. 47:22 And the community was successful keeping you. 47:25 Did they get all the keep all the ranks? 47:27 They did not keep all the ranks. 47:29 So they have some budget issues in the parks because of inflation and other things, but hopefully long-term, they can make a plan to keep the hockey rinks going. 47:42 Better than losing all the ranks they wanted to lose. 47:44 So that's positive either way. 47:47 All right. 47:48 Well, I think that's going to do it for us, Vs, unless you've got anything else ending on a very happy note. 47:53 I love to hear that. 47:54 Yeah, it's great. 47:55 Looking forward to a big weekend of hockey. 47:57 I'm probably going to be a rink every every day here going forward until Monday. 48:02 Lucky. 48:05 Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 48:09 We'll be back next week when Mike Carmen joins us. 48:13 He's got this new podcast going and we'll talk about that and we'll preview the Notre Dame series. 48:19 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for some overtime for the rest of you. 48:24 We'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.