0:09 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports fans. 0:15 Boy, North Dakota hasn't won every game. 0:18 Fire the coach. 0:19 Dave Haxdell was fired 32 times. 0:26 That one, I get to, for another old fashioned, I was told it's okay. 0:30 Oh yeah. 0:30 I tipped this on the show. 0:31 Okay. 0:34 But I think the Gophers have, skater-wise, won 19 the best roster in the country. 0:41 Got you. 0:42 I didn't know that. 0:43 Yeah. 0:43 Blame it on Don. 0:49 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoes. 1:04 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 273. 1:12 Well, Veegs, not quite the successful weekend we thought it would be, a split with Bemidji. 1:20 Initial quick thoughts. 1:22 Well, I did think Bemidji was gonna give Minnesota problems. 1:25 I thought overtime was definitely in play this weekend, and at the Sanford Center can be a difficult place to play. 1:33 And once Bemidji got a lead in that game, you saw them lock it down pretty well. 1:41 You know, they closed off the middle of the ice, so the Gophers couldn't get any scene passes until they had the extra attacker. 1:47 They got in front of a lot of shots and ate a lot of pucks, and I bet they had a lot of ice bags on their bodies after that game on Saturday. 1:55 It's just typical, serratory structure there to defuse the Gophers a little bit. 2:02 Well, before we get into that, let's bring in our guest. 2:05 He's a former Gopher. 2:08 I had him on a quick shift podcast five years ago this week, which was kind of fun. 2:13 It was just an audio only podcast, but I thought it was time to bring him back because he's doing some really cool stuff. 2:19 Let's bring him in. 2:20 Mike Carman, thanks for joining the show, man. 2:24 Thanks. 2:25 Thanks for having me. 2:26 I can't believe it's been five years since I felt like it was not that long ago when I hopped on with you guys. 2:31 Yeah, you jumped down because I know you were tweeting some things. 2:34 You weren't happy about the fans leaving early and stuff like that. 2:37 I'm like, I'm just kidding. 2:39 Now we're looking good in that area now. 2:42 Yeah, we are. 2:45 Yeah, that was definitely how it goes. 2:47 Sometimes you get a little fired up and we don't need to get into all that again because I hope we're long past those days. 2:53 But it was a thing I was frustrated with and I made my voice known the best way. 2:59 I know how at this point in life, which is using Twitter. 3:04 It definitely is a good place to do that. 3:07 Another reason I like to have you on, you've got a great podcast coming out. 3:12 But you know what? 3:12 You still pay attention very close to this team and you're at the home games a lot. 3:17 You weren't there last week, you had some vacation, but you still follow this team very closely, don't you? 3:25 Yeah, it's something my wife and I, it's funny enough it was her idea to get season tickets. 3:31 It wasn't even mine and when we did that, I remember having a conversation. 3:36 I'm like, yeah, that sounds great. 3:37 I'd love to. 3:37 I've always thought about it since I got done. 3:39 It's never really pulled the trigger, but I go just so you know, it's Friday and Saturday when they're at home. 3:45 It's our weekend if we do that and she didn't blink an eye. 3:48 She was all about it and we have a good time with it and we have our little rituals, go out for the game, have some beers, and enjoy getting to watch the team and I love getting to watch them. 4:00 I mean, I look forward to every weekend when they're at home and I don't know if I'm as dialed in sometimes as maybe you guys are with certain things that are going on with the team, but I certainly keep in touch with Gordo and Bob and try to be around as much as I can. 4:15 I really enjoy that and Derek Peltier is another guy who obviously fans will know, go for fans. 4:22 And Peltz and I have stayed pretty close since our playing days and he has the seats next to me upstairs now. 4:28 So it's kind of something we look forward to together. 4:31 I know Veegs, you ran into Mike a couple of weeks ago, didn't you? 4:34 Yeah. 4:34 And you had a guest with you too. 4:36 You brought Kyle with you to to a game at Mariucci. 4:39 I think it was his first game there since playing. 4:43 It was his first time set in foot in Mariucci since playing, not even just to see the Gophers play. 4:51 Well, you know, of course, I mean, he's played on East Coast teams. 4:56 It's not like he's been here during the season. 4:59 When would he have even had a chance to come to play, to come see the Gophers when you're still playing? 5:05 I mean, it's just not going to happen. 5:07 He had a very long career. 5:10 Yeah. 5:10 Oh, yeah. 5:10 It's seeing him. 5:12 Then obviously, EJ hitting a thousand games here recently, too. 5:15 And it's been fun to see guys like that. 5:17 And just it puts some perspective how long that time is. 5:21 Like a thousand games. 5:22 NHL is a very, very long time. 5:25 And I can't imagine still putting the skates on and being able to play. 5:30 So Veegs, let's get more into that split this weekend. 5:34 Home game here, Thursday night. 5:38 They get a decent win. 5:40 And then Saturday night. 5:44 Get down early. 5:44 Another breakaway goal. 5:46 How many breakaway goals have they given up this year? 5:48 I don't remember them making a save on a breakaway goal yet this year. 5:52 Yeah, it's not ideal to give those away to the midget. 5:55 They're going to have a hard time creating offense on their own. 5:59 And so when you allow them opportunities to have those kind of chances that they usually can't generate in a situation, and then once they get... 6:09 Hold on one second. 6:11 Can you move... 6:11 Is your phone too close to your microphone? 6:13 My phone's way over here tonight. 6:16 Interesting. 6:16 We're getting a lot of static from you. 6:19 We've got so many issues tonight. 6:25 Yeah, we're getting a lot of static from you, unfortunately. 6:33 We'll give them a second here. 6:34 Hold on. 6:35 I'm going to mute you for a second. 6:36 Okay. 6:36 Then it stopped. 6:37 There we go. 6:39 So, Carman and I were talking before the show. 6:42 This is what happens when you do it live. 6:44 Things go wrong. 6:47 Yeah, technical difficulties. 6:48 It's part of the gig. 6:51 I will say the positive of that is though you don't have to go back and edit. 6:55 I know Benny does all the editing for us, so I get away with not doing any either. 7:00 Well, let's talk about that. 7:02 You're doing a podcast with Ben Holden called When The Game Ends. 7:09 What have you done about five, six, seven episodes so far? 7:12 Five, yep. 7:14 Five episodes so far. 7:17 Yeah, I hope. 7:21 No, I turned I unmuted him for just a second and it was even worse. 7:29 And Ben's watching live. 7:30 He's going to be making fun of our live stuff. 7:32 But I the live is where it's at. 7:35 So I have my phone flipped over, so I can't see if he's been a streaming. 7:40 But yeah, it's something Ben and I go way back. 7:43 He was right when I got out of college and played for Lake Erie. 7:47 He was our announcer. 7:48 And so that's when I got to know each other. 7:50 And I was there for a year and a half before I was traded out East. 7:54 And didn't really stay in touch a whole lot with Ben. 7:57 But in the last few years, like seeing him do some Big Ten stuff, I'd sent him some messages on Twitter, things like that, and kind of reconnected a little bit. 8:05 And then I was coming to nearby in Detroit, nearby where he lives to coach this summer. 8:13 And I had kind of reached out to him and was like, hey, let's get together or whatever. 8:16 I haven't seen you in years. 8:18 And it didn't end up working out, but we kept talking that entire weekend. 8:22 And he kind of brought up to me that he wanted to start a podcast. 8:26 And I had dabbled in the podcasting before, and I think I shared this with you before I came on today, that there's a lot of hockey podcasts out there. 8:36 There's a lot of guys talking shop. 8:38 And to me, and I tried that for a little bit, but it was fun. 8:42 I love being able to talk hockey and shoot the crap. 8:47 I don't know if we're allowed to swear on here or not, but you can swear all you want. 8:50 All right. 8:51 Shoot the shit. 8:52 Sounds a little better. 8:54 But anyways, getting back to I did that for probably about six months. 8:59 It kind of fell, lost a little steam with the guy I was doing. 9:01 And that kind of fell off those things do. 9:04 But Ben, you know, he kind of brought that up to me. 9:07 And my thought was, hey, I've actually got a good idea. 9:12 What do you think about this? 9:14 And When The Game Ends was born. 9:15 Now, Ben gets all the credit for the title. 9:19 He 100% came up with that and I loved it right away. 9:23 But it's just it was something that it felt important and impactful, right? 9:29 Because not just with hockey, but any professional sport. 9:32 I've had people reach out that, you know, it's not even sports related to them. 9:36 They related to career transitions in their life. 9:39 Whatever it is that you may have been doing for a long time, or, you know, put your heart and soul and all of your effort into. 9:45 It's like, well, what comes next, right? 9:48 Like what and when it does come, are you ready for it? 9:51 So having been able to have those conversations. 9:55 And again, there'll definitely be a large hockey focus with guys we bring on. 10:00 But we're, you know, we're not limited to hockey whatsoever. 10:02 We already had a Will Hulion rugby star. 10:05 And just hearing how that goes across from sport to sport. 10:09 And it doesn't matter. 10:11 Like it's something that everybody goes through at different levels, whether there's a lot of off-ice challenges, you know, drugs, drinking, anything like that. 10:21 But also just the guys that have really successful transitions, too, right? 10:25 And covering everything else in between. 10:26 So it's been a lot of fun. 10:29 I am learning how to interview, which is a whole other process for me. 10:32 I can answer questions. 10:33 And as you can see, I don't know how to be quiet. 10:36 But having to having to listen, respond and ask questions is a different different beast. 10:41 You know, so I was talking to Mike before the podcast, folks, and I reminded him, I went back and listened to our first few podcasts, and they're just brutal and just doing it. 10:54 You get better and you get better. 10:58 I literally put together an outline of the show with topics. 11:01 And that's it. 11:02 I just, it's just, it's meant to be a free flowing podcast with free flowing conversation. 11:09 If we go 20 minutes, we go 20 minutes, we go an hour, we go an hour. 11:13 Just how it works out. 11:14 So, I mean. 11:17 Yeah, and that's kind of the thing too. 11:18 I think we, you know, Ben and I will have a couple of things we want to talk about. 11:22 We'll both do kind of our own independent research, and then we just kind of let it flow from there. 11:27 You know, Ben does a great job of keeping things on the rails. 11:31 Because there's times I will get completely off topic and down the road, especially if I know the guy ahead of time. 11:36 And so, having Ben there to reel it back in and ask questions, I think we're learning every time we record to feed off each other. 11:43 Like, it's not easy to record when we're doing this, right? 11:46 Everybody's in a different room, different place. 11:48 Like you don't have those cues in person. 11:51 So there's definitely a challenge there. 11:53 But I think every time we do it, I feel a little more comfortable with it. 11:56 And our rapport just keeps building and it's been fun. 12:00 Yeah, we've had Ben on the show twice. 12:02 And he's been a great guest on our show, obviously. 12:06 Definitely a professional broadcaster. 12:08 I mean, he knows it from top to bottom. 12:11 And it's good you have him guiding you through this, because podcasting is new for him, probably, except for being on podcast, but now actually producing. 12:21 It's a little different, but it's nice that he has that just broadcasting background. 12:27 Oh, absolutely. 12:28 I mean, you can hear it, right? 12:29 You know, I hope anybody that listens to us at least come check out, check out an episode and see what you think. 12:35 You know, but Ben's voice is a broadcaster to a T. 12:39 He has the delivery, the tempo. 12:41 He never falters on words like it's crazy. 12:45 And it's something that I really appreciate because it gives me something to, again, look up to aspire to. 12:50 Like I want to be able to project the way he does. 12:54 Right. 12:54 That's something he does extremely well. 12:57 He definitely does. 12:59 And we can stop being nice to him, too. 13:01 I know he's watching right now. 13:03 We don't have to be. 13:04 We don't have to be nice to Ben the whole time. 13:06 Oh, you know, I've got nothing but nice things to say about Ben. 13:10 He was very popular on our show when we had him on. 13:14 It was live just like this. 13:15 It's just we always have the best time with Ben. 13:19 So nothing but positives with him. 13:21 I always loved how one of his heroes in broadcasting was Frank Mazzacco. 13:26 And Frank Mazzacco just retired last year. 13:29 And it was he was one of his heroes. 13:32 So, you know, it's just nice to have those people around. 13:37 OK, now I see Vegoe. 13:39 Let me see if I can bring him back in. 13:44 I don't know what microphone is picking up, though, Veegs. 13:49 Now we can't even hear you. 13:50 We're hearing like an echo. 13:53 I wonder if your AirPods are still trying to connect. 14:00 Yeah, we can't even understand you. 14:02 I mean, can you understand him, Mike? 14:04 It sounds like gibberish. 14:05 I cannot. 14:06 No, I cannot. 14:08 He's trying to talk. 14:09 Look at that. 14:10 He's trying. 14:11 You know, he's funny. 14:12 He's got it. 14:12 He's got a nice microphone. 14:14 For some reason, that microphone is causing interference or something. 14:18 Yeah, well, we're hearing a lot of interference. 14:20 You know, you just you just talked about Frank Mazzocco and a man do you talk about a guy I grew up listening to and at our alumni golf tournament this summer that I made a point to go up and talk to him because we they had put together something for him as kind of like a send-off and retirement gift and all that. 14:38 And I made sure to go grab him because I was like, man, like, I, you know, I grew up listening to Frank and, you know, then getting to have Frank announce my games and be interviewed by him and now come full circle, you know, I was an alumni. 14:49 It's just I don't think there's a guy out there that can say a bad word about him. 14:52 He was he was unbelievable. 14:54 I miss our post-game meals at either, you know, campus pizza or or a couple other places we used to always go after games. 15:04 And then we just hear the stories from Frank and they were just wonderful. 15:08 All right. 15:08 Let me bring in Veegs one more time. 15:11 Are you there Veegs? 15:12 I'm trying to be here. 15:14 Boy. 15:15 Hey, there we go. 15:16 There you sound better, man. 15:18 We'll see what happens. 15:19 I've not changed anything on my setup. 15:22 Yeah. 15:22 Some days just doesn't work for you, I guess. 15:25 So well, I'm sorry you had trouble. 15:28 You're here now. 15:29 We've been talking about all stuff Mike's talking about. 15:33 Did you hear any of it? 15:35 Some of it. 15:36 I've listened to the pod a couple of times. 15:37 I think it's always interesting to hear the perspective of athletes as they're trying to find like that next thing. 15:44 You know, I think it's challenging. 15:46 You get so much into your routine and you value yourself and tie yourself to what you've accomplished to date. 15:53 When that ends, you're going to find like a new identity somehow in something that gets you motivated to get out of bed and be productive. 16:01 I know a lot of guys who get into scouting, you know, they intentionally have morning coffee with each other to try to make sure that they kind of stay in that routine of a full day of work and interaction with people because it's quite the change-up to go from playing to something next. 16:20 Yeah, the camaraderie is definitely something across the board. 16:23 Every interview, it gets mentioned at some point, you know, and not having that set. 16:27 You know, the routine is definitely a thing as well, getting out of having your day basically planned for you at all times. 16:33 But just, you know, in knowing what your routine is on game days and just like almost doing it without even thinking, right? 16:38 It's so ingrained in you, losing stuff like that. 16:41 But it's something to where, I think it was Will Hooley, the rugby player we had on who brought up. 16:50 Again, a couple of guys, I apologize if other guys hear it and they're like, oh, I said that. 16:53 But the highs are so high when you are an athlete playing at a high level and the lows are so low. 17:02 I think when you get done, it's difficult also to find something that makes you feel that same high. 17:09 What you realize is you may never get to that feeling again, just because it's a sport versus your life and your nine to five or your job or your hobby or whatever it is. 17:22 You can still enjoy that, your family, friends, all that stuff. 17:25 But the highs you feel are so incredible when you play that sometimes not being able to reach that guy's struggle with, having that euphoric feeling. 17:37 That was a cool point to bring up too and something I never even thought about. 17:41 But as soon as he said it, it resonated with me and that's what our goal is with this. 17:47 You may agree, disagree, not understand, or be able to empathize with everyone we have on, but that something's going to resonate with you each time you listen with whoever we have on. 17:59 You know, Veegs, I mean, it could be sometimes that I think athletes hold on too long playing and because maybe they don't know what to do with their life. 18:14 So I really love that Mike's talking about, Mike and Ben are talking about this because I think it's just such a valid thing that, you know, there is a time when you have to move on and you have to prepare for the next point of your life. 18:28 Well, I've talked to people who are entrepreneurs as well. 18:31 And one of the things that experienced entrepreneurs know is that when they start a business, they also need to start planning how they're going to get out of that business and move on to something next. 18:43 So it's very intentional in their brain that, yes, I'm building this company or I'm building this project that I'm so passionate about. 18:51 But at the same time, it can't be my life. 18:54 You know, I still have to have a family. 18:56 I still have to be a father or a husband, a dad, you know, a son, or whatever it is. 19:03 You've got to figure out how to balance that and be able to separate from whatever you think you tie yourself to in such a big way and become who you are, which is something different than what you do. 19:16 Yeah, it's interesting too. 19:18 Like I didn't have the experience of having, you know, kids when I was playing, right? 19:24 I imagine that changes the dynamic a little bit in terms of your ability to separate. 19:30 So yeah, that's definitely something I've never, again, like we talk about it coming from an entrepreneur, right? 19:36 We're not even talking about sports anymore. 19:39 So just like the different things that, you know, across, you know, across all paths of life. 19:43 And I tell you what, for me, I wish another reason I do this or why I wanted to start doing it is because I know that transition a lot of guys struggle with. 19:53 I struggled with it. 19:54 I retired. 19:55 You know, you're talking about guys staying too long. 19:58 I left, in my opinion, way too early. 20:01 And and I did it for reasons we won't get into on this pod. 20:05 But I made a conscious decision and I wasn't ready for how that was going to feel. 20:11 I wasn't ready for what came next. 20:13 And I didn't struggle in the way that some guys really struggle and they turn to chemical dependencies and things like that. 20:20 And I'm not knocking anybody that's gone through that. 20:23 I know plenty of guys that have. 20:25 But I still struggled mentally and internally with it and trying to figure out what I was going to do next in life. 20:30 And if we have the opportunity where we can, and there's something for people to listen to, like, hey, I'm not alone in this, right? 20:37 You know, mental health is such a big thing nowadays. 20:39 And but I'm not alone in this thought process and hearing other people talk about it again, and resonate with someone and be like, hey, this is normal that I'm feeling this way. 20:52 And it's okay. 20:53 It's okay to be unsure of what comes next. 20:57 And then, yeah, hopefully down the flip side of that, prepare guys with advice from guys we have on the show about what does come next and how to be thinking about that while you're still playing and prepare your exit strategy. 21:09 That's such a good point. 21:13 Just talking about it. 21:14 I mean, we've got one thing. 21:17 Being a man, you're not supposed to talk about things. 21:19 Just keep it in and stuff like that. 21:22 And I think a lot of times that causes you even more problems because you just got to get it out. 21:28 You need to talk to somebody. 21:29 You need to discuss it. 21:30 You need to resolve things. 21:34 I think that's one of the downfalls of being a man because growing up, it's like you got to be a man. 21:40 But I love how you've started this podcast and you're starting a discussion that it's, hey, it's okay if you're not okay. 21:48 After a long career. 21:52 That's it's it's something again, I keep saying it and it's just it's become a theme of it. 21:58 I want something that from each episode to resonate with someone. 22:02 And if it if it can ever be in a position where it can help someone, like you said, like we're talking about, know that this is normal, what you're going through. 22:10 And you are far from the only one to go through it. 22:14 I didn't know we were going to get so literary, but there's a there's a book, Iron John by Robert Bly, who kind of talks about manhood and how kind of society today is modernized to a point where men don't feel comfortable talking about things like this. 22:29 And throughout history, men would have these rituals and groups and organizations to help them deal with all these challenges throughout their life. 22:39 And as we've kind of gone into this modern society, that structure isn't there anymore. 22:44 And you have more people who are feeling isolated and alone. 22:47 So good to have people like Mike involved. 22:50 And Paul Martin is Shine a Light Foundation. 22:52 He's really into the mental health. 22:54 And he struggled with the transition from being a pro hockey player to now he's ingrained with the Gopher hockey culture right now. 23:03 And I think really likes being around a team. 23:06 And it's been good for him. 23:07 And that's the other thing. 23:09 That's the other thing, too, is we're trying to make a point of it doesn't matter, like, especially a lot of people will look at somebody like Paul Martin, who played the NHL for as long as he did and made tens of millions of dollars. 23:20 And they're like, well, what does he have to be concerned about when he gets done playing? 23:24 Right? 23:24 Like, you know, he never has to work again if he doesn't want to. 23:26 Guys like that, you know, it doesn't matter. 23:29 It doesn't matter if you were playing in the lowest level of minor leagues. 23:32 It doesn't matter if you, you know, you were cut from your college team, your varsity high school team. 23:38 You know, the point being is you did something your entire life and worked for something your whole life and put all of your focus and energy into that. 23:44 And when that's gone, it doesn't matter what you, you know, some guys, the transition is peaceful. 23:51 They're ready for it. 23:52 They're good to go. 23:53 They've accomplished what they need to accomplish. 23:56 But there are there are a lot of a lot of us that it was not that way. 24:03 What a great topic, Veegs. 24:05 You feel like a failure. 24:06 Yeah, that's what I said in our first episode. 24:08 When Ben interviewed me to kick off our pocket, I said, let's start it with you. 24:12 I'm like, that's fine. 24:14 But my biggest thing was failure. 24:18 You feel like you failed. 24:20 That was something. 24:22 I told the story on that episode of my dad helping me with that process and making me put everything in perspective about not actually having failed. 24:34 So that's something too, that you feel that way and just being able to overcome that. 24:42 It's just amazing. 24:44 I'm glad you have this podcast. 24:45 I'm glad we're going to keep sending people to it so they can listen to it. 24:49 Like Veegs, you talked about there's a lot of resources out there that people can read or view or whatever to help them in whatever transition they have in their life. 25:01 Yeah, I think it's definitely a sign of strength that you are comfortable enough with yourself and the relationships you have to talk about these things and then share those experience because that's what being a human being is, is shared experience and we crave that so much. 25:16 Well, I know Veegs, you put out on Twitter today if anyone had any questions for Mike, so I'm going to check out one of them here. 25:22 Darren Bakken wants to know, what's Mike's most memorable goal in the maroon and gold? 25:30 What's your most memorable goal? 25:32 Well, I think the obvious one is the first one you score in the maroon and gold, I think is a fairly typical one. 25:39 The first one you score at Mariucci. 25:41 My first goal happened to be on the road, but first when you score at Mariucci is a fun one. 25:47 There are probably, I don't know if I can narrow it down to one, but there are two, not that I scored that many, but I think there's two that truly stand out for me, and one was freshman year, we were playing Michigan, and we lit them up pretty good. 26:05 It was like 8-2, 9-2, something like that, and I scored a shorthanded breakaway goal, kind of fighting through guys, chipping it over the goalie. 26:16 I just, I remember being so pumped up to score the shorthanded breakaway goal and against Michigan too, and so I was really excited about that one. 26:26 And then I think there's a goal that most people, you know, again, I didn't score a ton, but there's a goal that a lot of people remember and it was in our Mankato Series, the overtime winner, that was in game two. 26:39 So that was a lot of fun too. 26:41 I will never forget that one. 26:44 Well, I still give Zacharias crap about that. 26:46 I see him pretty routinely and I still bring it up just to poke at him. 26:51 Well, I've got that one. 26:53 So let's take a listen to that one. 27:02 Craig is wonderful there. 27:06 I think it's just you, I think you're the only one enjoying that maybe. 27:09 You couldn't hear that? 27:11 I can hear it. 27:12 I could hear it. 27:13 Once again. 27:17 I tell you what, I haven't heard that one in years, but it must have gone up a pipe. 27:23 There is a clear pipe sound there. 27:26 Yeah, it was a very, I shot through a defenseman and it actually ricocheted off the defenseman pad, it went straight down on the ice and straight up under the bar. 27:36 I don't know how it did it. 27:37 I won't pretend I did it on purpose, but like they said, they don't ask how. 27:43 I was just happy to be done with that game. 27:47 That was a long weekend. 27:50 We've got Wilkie wondering, he loves that, if you remember, a lot of players were 16, but he also kind of wants to hear any stories from that Cato series because obviously that was an epic series besides three overtime games. 28:07 Is it Mark Pohl that got injured in that series? 28:10 Was that that series? 28:13 Tommy Pohl. 28:14 Tommy Pohl, sorry. 28:15 Tommy Pohl, no. 28:16 I mean, Johnny, that was just brutal. 28:21 The, you're testing my memory here because it was that year, 1000%, but I'm not sure if it was in the regular season when we played them or if it was in plans. 28:31 But yeah, I was standing right on the bench directly in front of him, like when that happened. 28:35 And that was a pretty gruesome sight. 28:38 I mean, I'd like, you know, for those listening, I mean, that's one of the, I don't know if he's the reason, but he's definitely a factor in the rubber boards being there and not having the dashers for the paddler. 28:51 Yeah, those things, you hit those in any part of your body, they'll pass on. 28:55 It's not going to feel good, let alone smashing your head off them. 28:59 And that was crazy. 29:00 Absolutely crazy to see. 29:03 Yeah, and then it was scary, because they had to airlift them over to Mayo, and it just, oh, it was crazy. 29:12 I'm looking at some questions. 29:14 Yeah, as far as that, as far as that actual weekend goes, I don't remember a ton of specifics. 29:21 I tell you what, though, I have never been more tired. 29:25 I think normal three-game series, three games in three days would be nine periods. 29:30 I'm pretty sure we played 14 periods. 29:34 It was 13 or 14. 29:35 Yeah. 29:37 It was something that, again, you're in the moment. 29:40 You don't realize how unique that weekend was until years later. 29:45 At the time, you're just, thank God, we survived and it kickstarted us into a little mini back-ended playoff run to get us into the NCAAs. 29:55 Yeah, it was a fun time for a team that definitely underperformed that year, and we all know that it was good to get that weekend done down there and go on a little bit of a run anyways. 30:10 It was definitely fun. 30:13 But before we move on, we need to listen to one of our sponsors here and get Veegs to get ready and hopefully his audio is good. 30:20 But Veegs, tell us about Jimmy's. 30:24 I mean, we've got some snow falling right now, but I think it's still caramel season. 30:28 I mean, everyone likes it and the leaves may be covered with snow, but get your Jimmy's Caramel Dip delicious with apples, pretzels, celery, ice cream, even on your finger. 30:38 Any way you want, can't go wrong with Jimmy's Caramel Dip. 30:41 Pick up a tub or two because you're not going to want to put it down. 30:44 Caramel is coming. 30:46 Jimmy's Salad, Dressing and Dips. 30:52 And of course, we have Lunch Bucket Hockey, Veegs. 30:57 Yeah, I've been seeing some lunch bucket hockey themed jerseys on the social media. 31:02 You know, if you're looking for something that just shows your hardworking grit and grind players, you know, the guys that would do anything for their teammates, check them out at lunchbuckethockey.com. 31:12 You know, there are a couple of local guys who had a great idea during Friday night lunchtime hockey, and they started this company and they love your support. 31:20 So stop by their website. 31:21 And if you need any gear, they're your guys. 31:24 Of course, we thank Lunch Bucket Hockey and Jimmy's for sponsoring The GPL Podcast. 31:31 It's time for Vegoe's Top 20. 31:33 Quite a bit of change on the poll this week, Veegs. 31:37 Yeah, we saw some unexpected losses. 31:39 You know, Minnesota and BC, obviously dropping some games to Bemidji and a Yukon. 31:45 You know, those are things you don't really expect to see happen. 31:49 And Denver just keeps rolling. 31:51 I was looking at their results this season, and they have only had one one goal game. 31:57 They haven't gone to OT. 31:58 I mean, they're just rolling. 32:00 I don't think their strength of schedule is quite as good as BC and Maine and BU and Western Michigan and Michigan. 32:08 But, you know, they're taking care of business and they're defending champs. 32:11 So they're going to stay up top. 32:12 And they haven't lost forever. 32:15 Yeah, it dates back to last year. 32:17 It's like over 20 games already. 32:19 The other team that's new in my top eight is Western Michigan. 32:22 You know, they had a big series here and they took care of business with Colorado College. 32:28 I think they're going to be a team to watch at NCHC. 32:31 I think they've got a big trip with Denver here in a couple weeks. 32:34 Yeah, we're watching that one. 32:38 Just going down the list here. 32:40 You know, obviously some teams are up and down. 32:42 You Mass Lowell staying strong. 32:45 Cornell, they had another iffy weekend. 32:50 I can't really see much else here. 32:52 It's who's on the border. 32:54 Yeah, I mean, it's hard to tell. 32:56 I feel like the top 11 or 12 is pretty strong, maybe even 13. 33:01 Like those teams are starting to separate. 33:03 And then you just see a mismatch of teams after that. 33:07 You see a lot of teams that are around 500, or they haven't played really many difficult games yet, or they've played some deep, decent teams like Ohio State and got swept. 33:18 So it's really hard to see here at the bottom of the top 20, who's going to be in there. 33:23 A lot of teams get in there and then they lose a game. 33:26 So we'll start to see. 33:27 I think the pairwise is starting to come into focus a little bit, at least in terms of conference. 33:33 You're going to see NCHC with three teams in that top 10. 33:36 You're going to see three hockey teams in that top 10. 33:40 Big Ten, you're going to see two or three. 33:43 So it's an important time of year, I think, right now. 33:47 What's with the Big Ten right now? 33:49 I think Wisconsin's played eight games, Michigan's played two. 33:53 That's... 33:55 I know we're always kind of in balance, but that's a lot. 33:59 I think one of the things with Michigan is their non-conference was a little bit more involved this season and just trying to get those games in. 34:05 And so they just kind of backloaded their schedule with Big Ten. 34:09 You know, you got the Gophers here. 34:10 They'll have their Alaska series coming out before break. 34:13 So it'll even out in the end. 34:17 All right, Mike, you never had to deal with the Big Ten. 34:20 It was always WCHA for you. 34:23 So I'm guessing you might have a little bias towards WCHA. 34:27 But what are your thoughts on the Big Ten after 10 years now? 34:31 It's definitely gotten better with the competition. 34:34 You know, I'll tell you one thing. 34:36 I've come completely full circle on it. 34:39 I like most people hated it when it started. 34:43 I could not believe it. 34:44 But I'm like, this is terrible. 34:45 Not only because of breaking up the old WCHA, but just that, you know, at that time, the Big Ten wasn't super strong either, like Minnesota or Michigan, just walking through it every year. 34:57 And it's kind of like, well, this conference is weak, weak, weak. 35:00 It's just, you know, the games aren't exciting. 35:01 There's not the rivalries. 35:03 I think those rivalries have started to develop with some of the schools. 35:06 I think it's helped strengthen, you know, the Michigan Michigan State rivalries because before we just play them, you know, the Thanksgiving weekend every year. 35:13 And so it's helped strengthen some of those. 35:17 I love it now. 35:18 I think it's it's proven itself in a very short period of time to be very quality, good hockey, and anybody can beat anybody on any night, which is which is what you want to see. 35:30 I mean, do I miss seeing North Dakota and UMD and St. 35:33 Cloud and all those teams four times a year? 35:35 Yeah, absolutely. 35:36 To not be more disappointed, North Dakota is not on the schedule this year. 35:40 But I'm here for the Big Ten. 35:42 I think it's been, and I know there are people that will say Big Ten is ruining College Hockey now, so all the money going into it. 35:49 But I think it's been great and I'm happy to see the fan base come back. 35:56 We talked about that at the beginning a little. 36:01 It wasn't just weird, it was a little bit scary to be like, is this what the new future of Gopher Hockey is? 36:08 Because of all the history and teams that have come through here and programs and all the highlights, to have it be a thousand people at a game in Mariucci is just incredible and not in a good way. 36:21 So I'm happy to see everything come back the way it is and I think I like how most people have adjusted to it now. 36:27 And really, Bigs, I think it was adjust or die. 36:32 You know, that's kind of what's going to happen in College Hockey. 36:36 We already see it. 36:37 AIC is going away, at least from Division 1. 36:41 We might see this with some other schools. 36:44 So I think the Big Ten has put themselves in a really great position to succeed, not just five years from now, but 10, 15, 20 years from now. 36:53 Well, you often see it in the transfer portal to some of the Big Ten players, like they want to go to another Big Ten program sometimes. 37:02 Because they like the nice hotels, they like the chartered flights, they like all the strength, conditioning, development that's possible at these big institutions. 37:11 You look at the budget for a school like Minnesota, they're spending four or five million dollars on their hockey program. 37:18 That's not the same at some of these smaller programs, even in the NCHC. 37:22 Those budgets can be more around one and a half to two and a half million. 37:26 So it's a different experience at these big institutions and big campuses as well. 37:32 Cappy's talked about this at Ohio State. 37:34 It's certainly something to play an institution like that where you have the football games at the horseshoe and you get to be a part of that. 37:42 So you brought up something there that I was planning to ask you guys and flip flipping on you for a second. 37:48 What are you guys thoughts on the transfer portal? 37:54 One thing, it's going to be much different next year since this is the last year of COVID and everyone's get their extra year. 38:02 So we wouldn't see somebody like Sully A being able to come in. 38:06 So I think that's going to calm down. 38:08 But now you've got the CHL changes, Veegs. 38:11 That's just going to add to the chaos, isn't it? 38:15 It will definitely add to the chaos because you're going to have more competition for these 20 year olds who come in to College Hockey. 38:23 You know, often times you'd see coaches go scout the NAHL or the BCHL or the Alberta Junior Hockey League and bring in some rugged, experienced 20 year olds. 38:34 Now that competition just got a lot deeper because you'll have these CHL kids. 38:39 There'll be options. 38:40 Now, as far as the transfer portal, I never thought that you should have a player on your roster that doesn't want to be there. 38:49 And so I think the portal really allows both parties to get out of situations where it's just not going to work out. 38:57 You know, you have some players who, you know, they get passed by incoming recruits. 39:02 They have an opportunity to go somewhere else and play right away. 39:05 Now, do I think it maybe makes it too easy for players to walk away from problems? 39:12 Yes, but there is a problem there. 39:15 And going to another institution, they're probably going to run into the same thing because they're running away from themselves. 39:24 And that's not great for young athletes, but I don't think that problem is going to get fixed at the institution they were at. 39:31 They might just end up not continuing to play. 39:34 Yeah, and I don't disagree with that either. 39:36 I mean, yeah, that's kind of why I brought it up is, you know, you see some of these guys, they've been on three teams in four years and, you know, it just kind of jump around. 39:43 If you jump around, jump around, jump around. 39:45 Now, to your point, you know, having someone there that doesn't want to be there, that doesn't benefit anybody. 39:51 I totally agree with that. 39:53 I just, my biggest thing, and again, this is as someone who watches, you know, really as a fan now more than anything, I'm not getting into the weeds too much on things, but I truly think that there needs to be some sort of ramifications on it, or regulations, barriers in place, where maybe you get one free transfer and then you better have a set of reasons to do it again, and there's a very defined set of reasons, because I don't agree with College Hockey turning into free agency. 40:23 I think that takes kind of the purity out of the game. 40:26 I mean, NIL is already involved now, which I think is great. 40:31 To some degree, I think the NIL stuff is great. 40:33 It's an opportunity for college kids to have a little more financial freedom. 40:38 You know, some of the money they're drawn in, they see some of that back, that's great. 40:42 But you know, that's already turning, you know, going to college. 40:46 And you know, hockey for sure, but you look at football, I mean, you may as well be using your agent to sign your first NFL contract just to go to college. 40:54 Yeah. 40:55 So stuff like that, it's just, I don't like seeing college hockey or college sports in general move away from what makes college sports college sports. 41:04 So yeah, I just think there needs to be some sort of ramifications after maybe one. 41:09 And then, yeah, it's got to be pretty good reason to leave again. 41:15 Yeah, I think it's tough to legislate those kinds of things. 41:19 Yeah, they keep losing losses. 41:21 They keep losing losses. 41:22 I'm talking as a fan. 41:23 Yeah. 41:24 I mean, I think, just like the gentlemen's agreement, college hockey coaches could do something like that and institute themselves. 41:32 But at the same point, Steve Miller always told me that the day Guazdeki got fired from Denver was the minute coaches said, oh, I better really do well to keep my job. 41:45 You know, I got to do what I have to do to stay successful and win. 41:49 And if it's to skirt the edges of recruiting players who are committed elsewhere or when people jump in the portal, getting really aggressive, you know, these coaches want to win too. 41:59 And so I think it's just a different era of athletics and because there's so much money involved. 42:06 You know, the leashes can get kind of short, despite all the morals and ethics we want to talk about. 42:13 That's fair. 42:14 That's fair take. 42:14 I just like I said, I from the outside perspective, again, again, you're speaking from a very logistical, like logical thought process about why this wouldn't work. 42:24 I'm purely from like, I this is what I'd like to see. 42:29 But no, that I mean, all that makes a lot of sense. 42:31 I just I'm always curious because I, you know, I'll talk with people about it and everyone's got a different opinion at this point. 42:37 And so I just was curious to hear your guys' takes on that because it's something that is constantly getting brought up, right? 42:43 I mean, you look at the Gophers, you've got, like you said, Souleye, you know, Wood coming in. 42:47 He's an incredible player. 42:49 Yeah, we wouldn't have we wouldn't have those guys without that. 42:53 So, yeah, you can't totally hate on it, but it's just just interesting how it all plays out, I guess, with some guys. 43:00 But I do think if you're a program that's relying too much on the portal, you lose your culture. 43:06 You know, we saw some of that happened to Ohio State last year. 43:09 We've seen North Dakota go through some of that at points. 43:12 You know, when you bring in so many new mercenaries in your program that don't understand your culture, it makes it really hard to sustain success. 43:22 And you see so many negatives when programs do that and they rely on it so heavily. 43:30 Yeah, I agree. 43:31 It's definitely interesting. 43:33 I see Steve Larson asking about Gopher signings today. 43:37 It was a busy day, wasn't it, for University of Minnesota? 43:41 Yeah, well, you know, with hockey, it's always weird because those NLIs have to be signed and FedEx and, you know, Minnesota, their compliance is cream of the crop and they're not going to let anything slip until it's totally official. 43:55 But we did see a couple players sign. 43:58 Here's Matthew Grimes, you know, a big kid, kind of an unusual route to the Gophers. 44:05 Not your typical Minnesota hockey player or development team guy, but he's in Sioux Falls now for the USHL. 44:11 Big, big defenseman and he's been having a good year so far. 44:16 I couldn't even ask how to pronounce his last name. 44:20 Kwasnicka? 44:23 Mike, guess what, what do you guess that? 44:26 Kwasnicka? 44:29 Yeah, the Kwasnicka is pretty close, but I mean, I'm guessing it's one of those that doesn't look anything like we think it is. 44:34 Like the K could be silent, the V could be silent. 44:36 You never know. 44:37 So I'll just say Vosnicka just to be just to be different. 44:41 Oh, I like that. 44:43 I felt like I heard a Wayzata pod, Miles Deeth does this youth hockey podcast. 44:49 And he was talking about his decision about leaving Wayzata for the development program. 44:55 And he was basically like, yes, you are ready for this. 44:58 We would love to keep you. 45:00 You'd be great here, but you know, you should move on and get that experience. 45:04 And he's a skilled Ford, little on the smaller side. 45:07 Oh yeah, there we go. 45:09 We got Tony watching here. 45:12 He's the expert on these young guys. 45:14 All right. 45:16 Well, thank you. 45:17 Tony knows all. 45:18 Tony knows all. 45:19 He's known these kids since they were, you know, squirts and peewees. 45:24 Rombach, big dude, six foot six, 201. 45:29 Yikes. 45:30 Big, big player, Spring Lake Park, physical defenseman. 45:34 He showed up at the national team eval camp and turned a lot of heads with how much he had developed in the last couple of years as he's grown into his body. 45:46 And, you know, we've had issues, I think, with some big defense Minnesota in the past, not continuing their development path. 45:53 Once they've hit that, Rombach's only getting better these days with Lincoln and the USHL. 45:59 Big kid, big kid. 46:01 Now we go from big to little. 46:03 Yeah, full foot smaller. 46:05 We probably should thank the Logan Cooley connection for LJ Mooney thinking about the Gophers. 46:10 He's been injured lately for the development team. 46:13 He took a big hit. 46:14 I think it was against Notre Dame. 46:16 Yeah, it did look great. 46:18 Let's get revenge this weekend, guys. 46:20 Yeah, so he hasn't played for a little bit, but super skilled player. 46:23 You know, he's one of those guys who could be a first round pick. 46:26 You know, the size concerns are there for him, but he's super talented. 46:33 We know this name. 46:35 Another big four, Javon Moore from Minnetonka. 46:38 You know, he did announce last year that he was signing at the Minnetonka signing ceremony, but that wasn't actual NLI. 46:46 Now he signed it and just a lot of skills to like. 46:50 You know, Jack Ramsey has talked about him just doing things that you do not expect to see out of a high school player that that's big. 46:58 So it'll be interesting to see how he continues to develop. 47:00 You know, I think some of his hockey IQ is still developing with him. 47:05 And so it'll be interesting to see how he finishes out the year in Sioux Falls with Grimes. 47:10 So is this Maceo? 47:15 Well let's go to Tony. 47:16 You know, he's a Benilde St. 47:19 Margaret's defenseman who's with the development team now. 47:22 Another big rangy blue liner. 47:25 Six five two fourteen. 47:26 Sheesh. 47:28 Yeah, scouts like these guys who are this big and can move. 47:32 Oh, there's Eric Brewer jumping in. 47:35 Maceo. 47:37 All right, that's good. 47:39 Yeah, well, Maceo, and then Tony jumps in as well. 47:43 Here we go. 47:44 Maceo. 47:45 OK, so we're good there. 47:46 That's good. 47:46 We're learning today, Vs. 47:48 We're learning. 47:48 Teddy Townsend, we can't mistake all the size coming in on defense. 47:52 So it's a skill that's a that's a that's a fun one to see. 47:57 Huge, huge dudes. 47:59 Well, I think you saw that with Minnesota's class of defenseman this year. 48:03 But it's definitely been an emphasis of the coaching staff to find some guys of a little more size. 48:08 Now we've got guys like Mooney and guy like Townsend who are a little bit on the smaller side. 48:13 But you can have that mix of size and speed and talent. 48:18 Townsend is from Eden Prairie, very skilled forward. 48:20 I was a little surprised to see him sign his NLI. 48:24 Maybe this is like the Jackson Nevers signing last year where he signed it to just get everybody else off his radar. 48:32 But he is having a good season in the USHL, which has been a little bit of a surprise for me. 48:38 Is Jackson coming next year? 48:40 That would make eight players plus a goalie? 48:45 I mean, not all these guys have to come. 48:48 When they sign their NLI, it's the university saying, hey, if you want to enroll next year, you can. 48:55 There might be some some conversations to say, hey, it might be better for you to spend another year in junior. 49:02 Like that happened with Beckett Hendrickson. 49:05 You know, at the end of the year, he was signed. 49:06 He could have come in, but they had a conversation and be like, you know, I think it's better for you to get that extra year of development and come in when you're ready, especially with bigger players. 49:16 Sometimes that happens. 49:18 But other guys, you know, they just want to get that signature locked in and stop the other coaches from recruiting them. 49:25 Is this the last year of that traditional NLI, Veegs? 49:30 Some schools are doing these contract agreements. 49:33 I've got a Freedom Information Act request on Minnesota to see just what they're sending to their players this year for hockey. 49:41 But other schools have some verbiage in there talking about revenue sharing and kind of the new contractual pieces of college athletics. 49:51 So we will see what happens. 49:54 Yeah, and then I'll change in it. 49:58 You know, everything changes. 50:01 The style of hockey changes, the rules change. 50:04 It's always change. 50:06 It is crazy. 50:06 It was headline news when I was coming up. 50:09 If you were verbal somewhere and you changed your mind because it just didn't happen, right? 50:14 It did. 50:15 But it was very, very rare. 50:17 And yeah, you were front page sports if you did that. 50:20 And now it's just everything has changed so much. 50:23 It's crazy. 50:24 But I'm sure they were saying that 15 years later when I came into school, guys that were playing before then too. 50:31 It's crazy, Biggs. 50:34 Yeah, I mean, a really good class. 50:35 I mean, a lot of people have been hard on the Gophers for not being more aggressive with the players that can verbal right now for the future. 50:43 But I think this class is just a really solid one. 50:46 A lot of, you know, pro potential in this group, a lot of thighs, a lot of skill. 50:53 And we lost you, so I know someone's asking about Hayden Reed in here. 50:59 He's a Gopher commit who is in the CHL right now, so he's pursuing that. 51:05 He still told Jess Myers that he's intending to play at Minnesota. 51:09 You know, the Gophers are still weighing in, you know, what their roster is going to look like for next year. 51:15 You know, we obviously anticipate some guys like Jimmy Stuggart are going to sign early. 51:19 You know, you've got older players who are aging out, like like Hugelin and Kester and Nevers. 51:24 So there are some gaps there. 51:26 So it's a little bit unknown just exactly how many players. 51:29 And that's really a conversation the staff doesn't have until the second half. 51:35 Hugelin is a guy I'm going to miss seeing on the ice. 51:37 I love the way he plays and I love what he brings out there. 51:40 Hayden Reed, big fan of him. 51:43 Yep, we were just talking about him being in the CHL. 51:45 Jess Myers talked to him. 51:46 So still, still, I missed him, I hit some button and I was kicked out. 51:52 We will see. 51:55 All right then, I do have concern. 52:00 Maybe Bob will think, maybe I'll use one of my CHL picks to pick up a goalie for next season because we know Sully Air is gone and they usually run with three goalies, so we know they need to pick up a goalie. 52:14 You think that's something he might consider doing? 52:18 It might be something they're doing or they might look in the portal again. 52:22 They're doing really well so far this year, and there are going to be goalies that are experienced options to turn to, obviously. 52:29 Yeah, but they won't have that extra year like Sully Air, so it's intentionally leaving a school this time. 52:36 Yeah, I think we're going to see that, and we can see some CHL goalies that are looking for a net to play in. 52:43 I think the staff wants to be the guy. 52:47 That's somewhere where the transfer portal, I think, going back to all the caveats we have to have in there. 52:52 But I think for goalies, that's a very beneficial, because how many times are goalies coming in a situation where two young goalies and one of them is going to get the spot, one of them is going to get the starting job, and the other one is a damn good goalie, but it's 1A, 1B situation. 53:08 They're not getting the playing time, and they have the opportunity to go be a starter elsewhere. 53:13 That's great to see. 53:14 Obviously, I don't think Sully Air had that problem at Penn State, I don't believe. 53:18 I don't know a ton about him, just what I looked up. 53:20 It seemed like he was kind of their guy. 53:22 But everything I've seen out of him with the Gophers, he looks great. 53:25 And it's nice to have him here. 53:27 Yeah, the one thing with Penn State is they had brought in the goalie that they have Serge have right now. 53:32 And with the understanding that they wanted that incoming player to play a lot. 53:38 And Guy Goudaouf was very effusive with praise of Sully Air about doing it the right way. 53:44 He was happy for him. 53:45 He just said, he doesn't like to see him play well against Penn State. 53:49 He said that a couple of times. 53:53 All right. 53:53 Well, we need to get the Notre Dame here real quick, Veegs. 53:56 But before that, we need to hear about Cub Foods, one of my favorite grocery stores, Veegs, by far. 54:02 Yeah, I mean, when I'm talking about Jimmy's Caramel Dip, Cub's where I go. 54:06 If I'm looking for apples to dip in that Caramel, Cub's got the wide selection. 54:11 You know, we've still got a couple of tailgates here coming up. 54:14 We got the Gophers, Penn State for their last home game of the year. 54:17 If you need tailgating supplies, head to Cub, get your burgers. 54:21 They got the pub burgers that I know Kinger really likes, brats, chips, platters, all one place. 54:27 If you're looking for a couple of drinks, a lot of them have wine and spirits there now too. 54:31 So check out Cub. 54:33 They're one of us. 54:35 And a new book we're pushing on Amazon, State 1981, kind of the first 30, 35 years of the state tournament. 54:44 You know, I didn't pick up that this is a fictional retelling of the book during our first read. 54:50 So that just adds a little bit of intrigue to it. 54:53 You know, we all are big high school hockey fans. 54:55 Well, this is looking at the state tournament from a South St. 54:58 Paul fictional perspective. 55:01 So I'm going to have to pick this up. 55:04 You know, we always talk about dream state at the end of the year. 55:06 And this is back when it was just one tournament. 55:09 One winner. 55:11 Take it all. 55:13 Oh, those were the good days, Veegs. 55:15 We're just old now. 55:19 Some of us remember the single tournament, Mike. 55:23 Can't say I do. 55:28 The only stories I remember hearing about is, you know, my dad played, you know, small northern town and they had to come across Grand Rapids on their way to the state tournament every year. 55:38 And that was a tough one. 55:40 Now, the Orange Machine are tough from up north there. 55:43 So, that's great jerseys. 55:46 I love that orange and black and white. 55:48 Oh, it's just sweet jerseys. 55:50 So, Big Weekend Veegs, Notre Dame. 55:54 Yes, they're down this year, but they seem to, well, we talked to Cappy. 55:58 They seem to win every Friday night, lose every Saturday night. 56:01 But it's never an easy place to go to go play at Compton. 56:06 No, they can shut down the game pretty good. 56:09 At Compton, when they've got their structure going. 56:11 And one of the things I talked with a lot of the players and Coach Mosco this week was, how does Minnesota manufacture goals when they're in the games like they have against Bemidji State Saturday, you know, the game with Penn State, the game with Omaha. 56:25 And he said, you know, it takes some skill in front of the net to create offense. 56:30 And it takes attention to detail. 56:32 And they just don't have enough guys who are committing to taking away the goalie's eyes, being an anchor in front of the net, and being that presence to get some goals off of rebounds or get goals off of traffic and tips. 56:47 A lot of guys right now are kind of flying by. 56:49 They're hoping to tip it with their blade on their way through the shooting lane, rather than being in the shooting lane and creating that chaos. 56:58 So I think Notre Dame is a perfect matchup for Minnesota to see if they've learned anything. 57:03 I know Moscow has been showing the guys lots of NHL clips of guys standing in front of the net and creating these greasy goals. 57:10 Because I think it's something where they're having a hard time finding current gopher clips of play like that. 57:17 I bet. 57:18 Mike, we have been kind of talking about this for, or ever since we started the podcast, a lot of times it's Minnesota teams, they want to get that extra pass and they want to get that pretty goal. 57:29 It seems like there's times when they don't realize, this is the kind of game you get a garbage goal or a couple garbage goals or deflections and just getting down and really earning it. 57:40 Yeah, and that's something too, especially this year. 57:43 I mean, you look at, you know, someone asked me the other day what I thought of the team this year. 57:48 And I go, I have a hard time finding a true like weakness or a weak player on the team, right? 57:53 Like, I mean, it looks like they've got two first lines and two second lines. 57:58 You know, they every every defenseman looks good, like, you know, it's just it's looked very good from a skill standpoint, right? 58:04 We all know they can play the skill game and they can do it probably as good, if not better than anybody in the country. 58:09 But the reality of it is that when again, some of these teams that you play in a smaller barn or they're a little bit older, a little bit stronger, a little bit tougher, they lock it down more. 58:19 They don't want to. 58:19 You're not playing Michigan and playing a racehorse hockey game. 58:23 That's where you got to go. 58:25 You know, it's winning those little battles. 58:27 It's cycling. 58:28 It's low to high, simple hockey and like you said, just going to the net and stopping and battling and having two, three guys at the net front. 58:36 And obviously, I don't think it's news to any of the guys. 58:40 I mean, these guys have all played hockey their whole lives. 58:41 They understand that's part of the game. 58:43 But you get into a pattern or a rhythm where, especially earlier in the year for the team, like things are coming easy. 58:50 They're scoring these highlight real goals every shift. 58:53 And as the season goes on, those are fewer and farther between and it's about who's going to go to those areas. 58:59 And yeah, I think this will be exciting to watch this week. 59:03 I didn't get to watch the Bemidji game last weekend, but that was my assumption is that the Bemidji older, stronger, serratory coach team made it tough on them. 59:12 And you're not going to get those highlight real tic-tac-toe plays. 59:16 Well, and I thought the Beavers are just committed to staying in shot lanes and staying in the middle of the ice and being content to let Minnesota play outside the dots. 59:26 And then when the Gophers did have scoring chances, they were trying to pick corners. 59:30 So it's either there was a shot lane or they're trying to pick a corner against a great goalie who was probably one of the best goalies in College Hockey. 59:37 Sometimes you, you know, it's hard to know when to flip that switch from making that highlight skill shot to just saying, all right, we're going to, we're going to get after we're going to put some in his feed and play that way. 59:49 So it's got to be a hard switch to flip. 59:52 A great example of that would be Matthew Wood on Saturday Veegs. 59:58 He had 10, 12 attempted shots. 1:00:01 Only one of them was on goal. 1:00:04 So can't imagine a lot of teams are playing UConn super tight, you know, so it's probably a new experience for him. 1:00:11 But still see it, you know, it still comes down to basics. 1:00:15 Now you can pick your corners when you can, but a lot of times if you're going to keep missing, hit the pads, get a rebound, get in there, get some garbage stuff. 1:00:24 That's what I like. 1:00:26 Yeah, I was asking Oliver Moore like, who's he looking at for a guy who could be a good net president? 1:00:30 It's Becca Hendrickson. 1:00:33 He's a big body who can take up a lot of space. 1:00:35 And, you know, if he can find that element of his game in college, it's going to be a big thing for Minnesota. 1:00:41 Because I do think this is the one thing that this program sometimes needs to work on is these net front goals. 1:00:49 Well, yeah, it's a flip side of having that much skill, right? 1:00:51 I mean, you know, like you're talking about picking corners and there's a time and a place for it. 1:00:57 Again, coming from somebody who didn't always pick corners that well. 1:00:59 But, you know, it's funny that you see so many guys now. 1:01:04 And it's part of what the game's morphed, too, is there's so much skill involved in the game now where guys are picking that short side high corner way more than guys ever used to before. 1:01:13 It used to be kind of the real high end guys would get it once in a while. 1:01:17 Now I feel like everybody tries it. 1:01:18 Everybody has the ability to. 1:01:20 And sometimes that's not the right shot, especially against an elite goaltender. 1:01:24 Like you guys are talking about. 1:01:25 You got to put it in his feet and then just go there and battle. 1:01:27 And hopefully we'll see some of that this weekend. 1:01:30 Obviously they have the ability to do it. 1:01:32 It's just getting in the habits of doing it. 1:01:36 So what does Minnesota need to do to be successful this weekend, Veegs? 1:01:41 If Jackson's last year too. 1:01:44 I do think Notre Dame has tried to change their style a little bit the last couple of years and they've gotten away from playing just so much trap, neutral zone, defense, they've been a little more aggressive in the board checking and so I think the Gophers need to feel out whether or not rush chances are going to be there. 1:02:03 And, you know, Minnesota can play and dictate their game however they want, but they can't just go right to getting those gritty goals if the rush chances are there. 1:02:16 Speaking of, we're using that word, our guy, Craig Floor, boy needs to be, boys need to be gritty, not pretty, and boy is that accurate, Veegs. 1:02:26 I mean, it's such a balance. 1:02:27 You know, we've seen this team score on the rush and the D get involved and when those chances are there, that's the time to pick your corners. 1:02:34 Once you get set up in the zone and you've got to get that ground game going, then it's time to be gritty. 1:02:41 Let's go. 1:02:42 I'm excited for this weekend. 1:02:45 Confidence is always a great arena. 1:02:46 It's crowded. 1:02:48 It's a great barn. 1:02:51 I think the guys we're talking about, that plays into their favor. 1:02:54 Sorry, last thing I had just thought on that is, you know, Vig, you're talking about if they start to, you know, they're trying to get in up on the four-check more. 1:03:02 I feel like that plays right into the Gophers wheelhouse, teams that want to four-check hard. 1:03:05 And so it'll be interesting to see if they do do that or if they're going to sit back a little bit more because I guess if I was coaching against the Gophers and I have a hard time like I'm not coaching anywhere near College Hockey. 1:03:16 I got Pee-wees and Bantam Age kids, but you know, I run a very high pressure four-check. 1:03:20 But the reality of it is that I was coaching against the Gophers, I'd probably sit back and sit back a little bit more because all it takes is two crisp breakout passes chipped by the D and you got odd man rushes you're dealing with all night. 1:03:32 So hopefully they do do that, but and honestly, they did that really well at Duluth. 1:03:38 I remember that that first night, Duluth just kept sending two guys in and all and it was out of there quickly. 1:03:45 So Duluth had to adjust because that was not working for him. 1:03:50 Well, they were just late for the dance on all their four checks. 1:03:52 And that was what Minnesota was running into the other weekend with Wisconsin. 1:03:59 You know, they're late. 1:04:01 And so you've got to be direct and you've got to be quick. 1:04:03 And, you know, high pressure is great for development. 1:04:06 And it's a great way to coach the game. 1:04:08 But, you know, eventually at some point you've got to figure out what's winning hockey for you and what college, especially, you know, these these points are important. 1:04:17 And I think for Minnesota, you know, they want to get at least four or five points out of this weekend to put them in good shape in the Big Ten. 1:04:25 And if you want to see the games this weekend, as usual, only on Peacock Stream, they do a great job. 1:04:32 High quality broadcasts. 1:04:34 I love their stream. 1:04:36 If you don't have it or doesn't come with your cable package, it's $7.99 for one month. 1:04:42 I think $7.99 is worth just one or one game, much less two games. 1:04:45 And then you could stream the rest of the month, all their other stuff and all other stuff, sports as well. 1:04:50 So it is a bargain and it is a high quality broadcast. 1:04:55 For sure. 1:04:55 Peacock does it better than probably anyone else. 1:04:59 So everyone get on board. 1:05:00 Don't complain about it. 1:05:01 You know, that's one thing that's been different since your days, Mike. 1:05:05 Fox Sports North had, they had kind of a monopoly, so they could kind of go wherever they want and do whatever they wanted. 1:05:11 But things have changed, not just with the leagues, but it's like control of TV. 1:05:16 There's just so many things out of Minnesota's control now that it's just a completely different field than it was when you played. 1:05:24 100 percent. 1:05:25 I do miss being able to slip on FSN. 1:05:27 I didn't have to know where the game was. 1:05:28 I just flip on FSN or I did that at my entire child. 1:05:31 Well, I think when I was real little, was it MSC or something like that? 1:05:35 MSC, yep. 1:05:37 MSC and then it became FSN. 1:05:40 Yeah, I mean, I do miss. 1:05:42 But the world of streaming, it's not surprising. 1:05:44 That's where we're at. 1:05:46 And now, you know, with all the home stuff being on, you know, Fox 9 or Fox 9 Plus, over the air even, you don't even need cable to get it. 1:05:53 So I think that's a bonus. 1:05:55 Kind of going back to the old Channel 29 days back in the late 80s, Veegs. 1:06:01 But, you know, I've got to keep people complex. 1:06:03 Oh, you can go to this website and see this. 1:06:05 I'm like, no, I'm going to I paid for it. 1:06:08 $7.99. 1:06:08 It's not a lot, Veegs. 1:06:11 And it's a bargain, a complete bargain. 1:06:14 As we like to tell everyone, we all make choices with our streaming. 1:06:17 So, yeah, and don't make the right one this weekend. 1:06:20 So it should be a fun one. 1:06:21 I think six points for the Gophers. 1:06:23 Oh, I like that. 1:06:25 You're going bold with the sweep. 1:06:27 Yeah, all in regulation. 1:06:30 Nice. 1:06:31 I like that. 1:06:32 How about you, Mike? 1:06:33 What do you think? 1:06:33 Big Minnesota comes out strong. 1:06:37 Yeah, I think so. 1:06:37 I think after again, not I didn't get to watch any of the games last weekend, but I'm guessing that that one ate at them a little bit. 1:06:44 And it was a good, good wake up call for him. 1:06:48 So I have I have a lot of faith in that, you know, Bob and Gordo and Polly and all those guys, they're getting they're getting the guys ready to go. 1:06:54 And and they'll be they're going to come out flying and I know they're on the road. 1:06:58 And I know it's an offer arena to play in. 1:07:00 It's a smaller sheet to write small corners, things like that. 1:07:03 I think I don't I I just don't see a way that they don't come out flying. 1:07:09 I think it's a little bit wider, but it's got the NHL corners and Notre Dame. 1:07:15 Gophers will get August Balloon back in the line up. 1:07:20 August Balloon will be back in the line up. 1:07:21 He's another big body that I think can really apply that net foot presence. 1:07:26 Cal Thomas is close. 1:07:28 I don't know if they'll put him back in the lineup, but he's close according to Bobby. 1:07:32 He's knocking on the door. 1:07:33 Oh, that's good. 1:07:35 I'm going to say sweep as well. 1:07:36 Full six points. 1:07:38 Kind of like Mike said there, I think they took that punch to the face that we've been kind of, that Bob's been talking about Veegs. 1:07:45 He's been saying, we need to get punched and brought down a couple levels. 1:07:52 It will be better for us if we do. 1:07:54 Yeah. 1:07:57 So, it's all good. 1:07:58 Better to get out of the way with early. 1:08:01 Yeah, I think you're just going to keep ramping up. 1:08:03 You know, you get the two Michigan schools coming in December. 1:08:05 It's going to be just crazy. 1:08:09 So Veegs, what you got going on? 1:08:11 I know it's been super busy for you this week, hasn't it? 1:08:14 It's just been crazy. 1:08:15 Yeah, I'm just trying to keep my head above water. 1:08:17 So we'll see what comes out on GPL here as we go. 1:08:21 You know, at the road weekend this weekend, so our recaps are a little bit limited, but stay in touch. 1:08:26 And and you also did a fellowship of the Rink podcast, didn't you? 1:08:32 Tell us about it. 1:08:33 I was down with our friend Hoppy, who's been doing a pod with Joe Smith a lot this year. 1:08:37 So Scott asked me to hop on and, you know, I was sure to get on there and talk about my bourbon and my beer choices along with Gopher Talk. 1:08:46 So, you know, check out them. 1:08:48 They've got a great pod going too. 1:08:50 He's got a couple pod schools. 1:08:52 Hang on. 1:08:53 Do you have a bourbon recommendation for me? 1:08:55 I'm a bourbon guy. 1:08:56 Well, I'd love to hear. 1:08:57 We'll get to that. 1:08:58 That's that's definitely an overtime topic. 1:09:00 Overtime topic. 1:09:01 That's for the live listeners. 1:09:02 Fair enough. 1:09:03 Yeah, definitely for the live listeners. 1:09:06 Yeah. 1:09:06 And Scott's but he's actually credential this year. 1:09:08 So we get to see him a lot there at Mariucci. 1:09:11 So it's nice to get some fresh faces in the press box. 1:09:16 For sure. 1:09:17 I was the only media person at the availability this week. 1:09:20 So, you know, we've got to get some more people coming on Tuesdays. 1:09:24 That would be good. 1:09:25 Well, Mike, thanks for coming on the show with us this week. 1:09:28 That was nice. 1:09:30 I appreciate it. 1:09:31 I appreciate you reaching out and offering to, you know, I'd love to come on and obviously talk over hockey with you guys. 1:09:36 And, you know, I appreciate giving us the opportunity to promote our podcast. 1:09:40 It's still in the infancy stages. 1:09:42 But I think Ben and I, like we've talked about on this, we've got a good thing and we want to make it something more than just a hobby. 1:09:51 So I appreciate the opportunity. 1:09:53 Yeah, it's called When The Game Ends Podcast. 1:09:57 Just search for it or check out Mike's Twitter handle. 1:10:00 And they've even got their own Twitter feed for it as well. 1:10:04 Let's go see them on YouTube. 1:10:05 It's a lot of good stuff there. 1:10:08 A lot of good stuff. 1:10:09 And I would say just keep doing it. 1:10:10 Like you said, you get better and the content gets better as you get better. 1:10:15 So well, and the other thing too that I want to point out is, you know, the whole podcast doesn't, I'm not saying they all every episode will or will not do this, but we don't just center around like a negative kind of like, you know, bring me down topics, right? 1:10:30 I mean, we we let we tell stories. 1:10:32 We get the guys talking. 1:10:34 You know, the last one we did with Billy Butters was, and I knew a lot of Billy's story, but I got even more interviewing him and the, you know, the guys he's played with and telling stories about that. 1:10:46 It's he's got some incredible Herb Brooks anecdotes. 1:10:50 So again, there's more than just talking about, again, that's the focus of our podcast, but naturally we do some background and get some good stories out of everybody, too, that hockey fans can listen to. 1:11:02 Well, that's definitely some great stuff. 1:11:03 So make sure you guys all check it out. 1:11:06 But that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 1:11:09 We'll be back next week where we have our special Thanksgiving episode with Nick Angel and Jordan Leopold. 1:11:17 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for overtime. 1:11:20 For the rest, you will catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.