0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:14 Let's get this bandwagon going, folks. 0:16 Take that, please, Mr. 0:18 Negative. 0:23 Actually unmute the mic, because I had a muted live stuff. 0:30 It's not exhibition. 0:32 Live from the Ralph. 0:33 Here we are, folks. 0:36 You know, I think there is some shenanigans happening in the goalie community. 0:40 Are you going to speak on that? 0:41 The goalie community. 0:44 No, I got to ride with the goalie nation. 0:49 Now, here's Jupiter and Vigo. 1:03 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 278. 1:10 Jekyll and Hyde Weekend, Vig's about, that's about all that could really describe it, a 5-1 loss and a 6-1 win. 1:18 Crazy. 1:20 Yeah, Friday was one of those games, you know, with the odd start time, you just kind of wonder what you're gonna get out of these college hockey players. 1:28 They're not used to that kind of routine. 1:30 And as I was watching the first period, as a reminder, the Gophers, they do this drill where they just change lines. 1:36 You know, they get on the ice, they put the puck deep, they get off the ice, the next group comes on, the group that's on the ice retrieves it, gets over the red line, puts it deep, and they change. 1:46 And that's what it looked like for the first 10 minutes of that game. 1:50 It just looked like they were just going through the motions, changing lines, and Ohio State came to play and took the W. 2:01 Well, after Friday's performance, Bob said that was the worst effort he has ever seen by a Gopher team. 2:11 Let's find out if it was better than the worst game that Jack Ramsey's ever had. 2:16 Let's bring him in. 2:18 Jack, are you glad that you may not be part of the worst team to ever play for Bob? 2:23 Yeah, like when he texted that to me on Friday night. 2:27 I don't know if he would have said we were, but I mean, of all the rosters that Bob has had under him, my senior is probably one of the lower ranking ones. 2:37 But yeah, I don't know. 2:40 How's it going, man? 2:41 How are you doing? 2:41 It's good. 2:42 It's good to see you guys. 2:43 Thanks for having me on. 2:44 It's been a while. 2:46 It feels like it's been over a year for sure, but it's good to be back. 2:50 Well, it's good to have you on. 2:52 So crazy. 2:53 I was texting you. 2:56 Okay. 2:56 I was texting you and a couple other guys on Friday night. 2:59 I'm like, Bob was not happy. 3:03 I was like, this is awful. 3:06 Gosh, I wish Kester and Nevers would be playing better. 3:11 Saturday night, Kester puts two in. 3:13 I texted you guys right away. 3:14 Yeah, I'd like to take that back now. 3:20 I saw you had the tweet on Saturday. 3:23 You're like, this is a team that can play in April. 3:26 And I'm like, yep. 3:27 Well, hold on. 3:30 During the game, that was Chris Ekas texting. 3:32 I went to a high school game Saturday night. 3:36 So I missed most of the games. 3:37 I wasn't tweeting that game. 3:38 So it was probably him. 3:40 But things, he's not wrong. 3:43 I mean, Saturday night, I thought Bobby kind of, he kind of stacked some lines and he's, they were very aggressive and it wasn't really that close. 3:56 Well, I'm pretty sure the film session on a Saturday afternoon was not very kind. 4:01 You know, you look at some of the efforts that led to the Ohio State goals on Friday, and those are effort and detail and hard work situations where college hockey players are pretty good across the land. 4:15 And if you're not ready to play and compete, you're gonna get embarrassed from time to time. 4:19 And it was almost like the Gophers thought that they could just kind of go through the motions on Friday and get away with it. 4:26 And you look at Penn State's record, they're beating a lot of college hockey teams. 4:30 So obviously that wasn't the recipe for success. 4:33 I think Saturday, you saw just a harder attention to detail. 4:36 You saw defensemen closing out rushes, getting the puck back and transitioning much quicker. 4:42 And those are the things that you have to do if you want to be a team in April. 4:46 And throughout the weekend, we did see the talent that makes this a team that's trying to get there and has a good chance. 4:54 You know, the one player I thought who had good nights both times was Sam Renzell. 4:58 You know, he was very consistent. 5:00 I think they were just trying to watch his minutes a little bit on Friday night to keep him fresh for the second half. 5:05 We saw them lean on him pretty heavily down the stretch in the first half. 5:11 Jack, I'm sure you've had series just like this when you played at the University of Minnesota or even, you know, post Minnesota before Minnesota. 5:21 And you've done some coaching now. 5:23 Do you kind of understand the coach's point of view a little bit more now that you've matured and done a little coaching yourself on this? 5:31 How much effort really makes a difference? 5:35 Yeah, yeah. 5:36 And it's like there's there's stupid luck on that. 5:40 That's hockey, right? 5:41 Nothing. 5:41 No plays are the same. 5:42 So there's a lot of luck there, too. 5:44 There's there's special teams, you know, are the rest of them and give you a couple more that night is your goalie. 5:48 But a lot of it does come from effort like you finish up a game and you go and look at video and you watch some clips and you like you think you played hard, but then you see some of these clips and you're like, what the F was I doing? 6:01 And it's just, yeah, and sometimes your brain takes a backseat and I don't know, you can you can really motivate guys with effort, you know, with a Saturday morning video session from all the stuff that they had to watch Friday. 6:14 So that's pretty easy to get them going. 6:16 I'm sure. 6:17 But, you know, kids are young. 6:19 Sometimes they don't always get it in their heads, but it just seems like, OK, if you do what the coaches want you to do, you get that effort. 6:29 Look at the results you get. 6:31 Let's try to replicate that 99 percent of the time. 6:34 Nothing for 100 percent of the time, but this up and down. 6:38 I mean, you know, the players are just as angry on Friday night. 6:43 If they could just kind of get it together, but some of that is just growing up and being young. 6:48 Yeah, there's a lot of factors that you can attribute it to, right? 6:52 I mean, they had kind of a snooze fest series the weekend before. 6:59 I don't know how much that weighs into it, but it definitely can. 7:02 It's no emotion at all, but sometimes you can see that the other way around when you have like a really high series or high emotion series, and then you kind of go maybe play Mercyhurst the next weekend. 7:10 You're like, we got to go play these guys after or something like that. 7:13 But it's, you know, maybe they're lulled to sleep and kind of still coming off that Christmas break, getting the guys back together. 7:21 I don't know if finding the chemistry is the right word, but these guys come back from World Juniors Week 2, and you get more guys back from injury and stuff that can attribute to it. 7:30 But these are all just excuses. 7:36 Steve says, stay with the lines this weekend, maybe if they stack that well, run with it. 7:42 What do you think, Veegs? 7:43 He did kind of stack it in the top two lines a little bit, and kind of went down to more of a fourth line. 7:50 It wasn't, I would say, it was more of a traditional type of thing. 7:55 On the list, this is kind of your fourth line for tonight, not who's the fourth line tonight. 8:01 Well, I think he's been trying to balance this team so much leading up to this point, especially with all the injuries. 8:07 You know, he wants to get that four line rotation going. 8:12 You know, he wants that development to happen. 8:15 As we get to this part of the calendar, though, you might start honing in on a line up that you want to take in the playoffs. 8:21 And you try to figure out other two lines that we can lean on a little heavier than the others. 8:26 And I think as your special teams start to solidify, that makes it easier, too. 8:31 Like, who are the power play guys that we want to keep together? 8:34 You know, we want to try to keep those lines together. 8:37 Who are the penalty killers? 8:38 Keep them on separate lines. 8:39 You know, these are things that you start to think about as a coach as you get to the postseason, how you want to construct your lineup. 8:45 Who are the penalty killers based? 8:46 Because they're 60th in the country. 8:49 That is a good question. 8:50 They'll get a big one. 8:52 Cal Thomas back this week. 8:54 Bob has said that Falun and Thomas are going to be back. 8:57 I think that should help them immensely on their penalty kill. 9:01 He is one of their best defenders at closing down plays, using his body, taking away the lane for passes across the middle, defending in front of the net. 9:09 You know, Cal Thomas is an elite defender. 9:12 So he should help that out quite a bit. 9:14 And we'll see. 9:15 You know, a big part of penalty kill is face-offs. 9:18 And you need your centers to win those draws to buy you that first 30, 40 seconds of penalty kill time. 9:25 And Minnesota struggled there quite a bit this season. 9:27 So maybe once Paulson gets back to full strength, you know, maybe he and Hugland are your two main centers for PK. 9:33 And we'll go from there. 9:35 But Jack, is it more than just a couple of players though for the penalty kill? 9:39 I mean, I don't remember Minnesota ever being this bad. 9:44 I mean, they started out 57th, they kind of did 75% again this weekend. 9:48 Now they're 60th. 9:51 They can move a little bit up and down, but it would take a lot to get into the top half of the country now. 9:58 Yeah. 9:58 And once we get into late March and April, your percentage doesn't matter too. 10:04 It's just all about getting hot and having everything kind of set in the right systems for the teams you're playing. 10:09 But getting guys back helps, but it doesn't really because it's more systematic breakdowns you'd say than just pointing at one guy and say, he's the reason that we're at 75% or whatever, we're at 80%. 10:22 It's not one guy coming back is not going to fix that because as good as Cal is on the PK, if a forward blows coverage and lets a puck go across the seam, Cal's not going to do anything for you. 10:33 So yeah, faceoffs are huge and getting the puck out the first time when you have the opportunity. 10:40 I remember I've seen that multiple times in games. 10:43 Like you get it, the defenseman is trying to clear 200 from behind the goal line when you can just share the clear. 10:48 So it's just these little details that they kind of got to work out and kind of getting late into the season, start working on those details. 10:55 You can't want to let the guys play at this point, but there's things that can be fixed. 11:00 I do like your point, though, Veegs, when you talk about faceoffs, because Minnesota has struggled traditionally the last five, ten years with faceoffs. 11:08 And, you know, when you're trying to kill a penalty, defensive zone faceoffs doesn't get any bigger. 11:14 When you're trying to get a goal late again, offensive zone faceoffs or on a power play, offensive zone faceoffs make a big difference. 11:22 And when they don't happen, it's kind of like, oh, we have to go chase the puck or, or whatever it may be. 11:28 It's, it's a pretty critical thing. 11:32 Yeah. 11:33 And we knew coming into the year that they're going to miss Jackson Nelson. 11:37 You know, they let him take so many draws last year. 11:40 You're hoping some other guys would step up and, you know, Jimmy Clark is one of those guys that you're hoping becomes a center to win draws. 11:49 You know, he hasn't yet become that guy. 11:51 And so I know it's something they continue to work at. 11:55 Every practice I'm at, at the end of team drills, there's Ben Gordon dropping pucks for guys in the middle of the ice, kind of coaching them up on the little things they need to change with their draws. 12:07 And it's just, it's going to be critical for them to figure it out as the end of the year comes up. 12:13 I saw a chat earlier. 12:16 Do they go with one goalie, Jack? 12:18 Or do they keep sticking with the rotation? 12:21 The big question right now. 12:23 It is, it is a good question too, because I don't know. 12:27 I don't like, I don't like the idea of going into games, Big Ten playoffs, and then in April of who are we going to, who are we going to play tomorrow? 12:37 Because I don't think it helps the goalies either, mentally figuring out who's going to go. 12:42 So it's a good problem to have in the regular season, having a good tandem, but you want to ride one hot guy, because I mean, it's a little different than the NHL too, because it's a full series, but it's a one crack at it. 12:55 I think, I don't know, it's been the same thing every Friday, Sully on Saturday, the entire season. 13:01 But I mean, even though it was an ass-kicking on Saturday, Sully had kind of 38 saves, kind of didn't stand on his head, but a heck of a performance. 13:12 And yeah, I'd like to see one guy moving toward the end of the year. 13:17 And I know Vegs, you've mentioned that you, they want to see Aerie since he's the younger guy, they want to give him as many chances as possible because he's going to be here next year. 13:28 Sully A is going to be gone. 13:30 But do you think Bob will eventually get to the situation? 13:33 Maybe he gives Sully A two games like he did Aerie earlier this season, or he gives one of them two games. 13:40 Well, Bob said that he wants to give that goalie an opportunity to see himself over two games rather than just try to guess at the end of the year who it's going to be. 13:50 I don't know if it's going to be this weekend because, you know, Aerie wasn't the problem on Friday. 13:55 It wasn't like he played a bad game. 13:57 He just didn't play a great game. 13:58 And so do you do more harm than good by sending a message into this Notre Dame series that, hey, you know, it's not good enough. 14:08 We're giving the EM Friday night and see how it goes. 14:11 You know, that's always the hard thing with goalies is, you know, the mental makeup is something you don't know very well. 14:19 It's hard to evaluate. 14:20 And is it going to do you any benefit to do that at this point of the year? 14:24 Now, if Aerie were to have a bad game, it's certainly more understandable to give Suleyere two games. 14:32 But I don't think that's happened yet. 14:35 I just don't like that it's... 14:38 You play well. 14:40 Like stats in the beginning of the year, Suleyere had the losses because they weren't putting up the goals for him in those games. 14:48 It's not his fault. 14:51 But I don't like the fact that Suleyere puts up a great game on Saturday. 14:57 And I think he rewarded the guy like, screw the Friday-Saturday script. 15:01 I'm okay with splitting up to this point, but give him the start on Friday is my point. 15:07 And if he is lights out unbelievable, then you know. 15:12 But if they win and he gives up four or something like that, a couple sketchy ones, great, we got the win. 15:18 But now, Aries is going to get the chance to roll with it. 15:21 And if he has an unbelievable Saturday, then he gets to start Friday and same thing. 15:25 Like if a guy can put two really, really good performances back together, let him keep rolling. 15:32 Either way, Vakes, he's going to eventually he'll probably make a decision on goalie. 15:36 Eventually, he'll probably stick to some lines. 15:38 It's just that time of year. 15:39 It's, it's, it's business time. 15:42 It's, it's time to, it's crunch time. 15:44 Time to go, man. 15:46 Yeah. 15:46 I mean, there's 12 games to go. 15:48 I think you still have time to give one more weekend where you stick to the script and go from there. 15:53 You know, you're always looking for more information. 15:55 I don't know if one goalie has really shown themself as the number one. 16:00 And that's what Bob always says. 16:01 It's like, I don't pick number one goalies. 16:04 You know, I, I give everybody a chance. 16:06 We go from there. 16:06 I think we see, you know, with the lines, Bob has given guys chances throughout the year. 16:12 And he's starting to narrow that pool a little bit. 16:14 You know, he's given defensemen lots of ice time. 16:17 Maybe he's going to narrow that pool a little bit where it is. 16:20 But I just don't know if we're at that stage yet with goalie where someone's clearly ahead of the other. 16:26 I think if we see anything, it won't be this weekend, like you said, but at Michigan State, that may be a good time to pick one and go. 16:35 Because it doesn't get any bigger than at Michigan State, two weeks, Veegs. 16:41 I definitely think that would be an interesting game to try Soullier on Friday and see how it goes. 16:46 And if he plays well, he gets Saturday. 16:49 Yes, if a kid wins on Friday at Michigan State, how are you going to take that guy out? 16:55 Yeah. 16:55 Right. 16:59 Well, we'll see. 17:00 Because I still think goaltending is kind of the weakness. 17:06 You look at the other top tier teams, Michigan State, Boston College. 17:12 They've kind of got what they need in goal leagues. 17:16 They do. 17:17 And I understand the fan perspective on Suleyera being a fun goalie to watch. 17:21 He's definitely more active. 17:22 He's definitely has to be more aggressive on his reads. 17:26 But he's also the smaller goalie where there are holes sometimes. 17:31 And if there's a lot of traffic, that's a goalie that's going to have to fight more. 17:35 You know, the size difference between the goalies is pretty significant. 17:39 And while Erie doesn't look as flashy as Suleyera does in that, he is the bigger, more technically sound goalie. 17:46 They're two different types. 17:48 So it's hard to compare them, you know, apples to apples here because they are a little bit different. 17:56 All right. 17:56 So split this weekend, not the greatest, but then the greatest. 18:01 So up and down, we've got Notre Dame coming in this weekend, but you're back at the booth this weekend, aren't you, Jack? 18:09 I am. 18:09 Yeah, I sure am. 18:10 I'm excited for it. 18:11 It's been, it's been quite a while. 18:13 I got my back to back weeks and now we have to shake the rust off on Friday. 18:16 You know, I didn't recognize you last time you came in because you were so cleanly shaven that you look like you were five years old. 18:26 I've been, I told my, my wife a few hours ago, I was like, where, I got to get my hair cut this week. 18:33 Can I get the haircut? 18:34 It's radio. 18:35 Is that TV? 18:37 I know, but the fricking headset, you got the long hair. 18:39 I'm like, I feel like an idiot. 18:44 I, who knows? 18:49 It'll be, it looks like it's going to be a pretty, pretty close to a sellout crowd. 18:53 And I believe it's, I don't know if it's Friday or Saturday. 18:56 I have to check. 18:57 It's kind of, there's an alumni event at the, at the game too, which I don't know if I'm going to be able to sneak out of the booth and say hi to anybody. 19:05 Probably not. 19:06 So that's too bad. 19:07 But Vegoe, you could cover for him, couldn't you? 19:10 You could go over there and help him out, cover for him. 19:12 I think Wally could probably handle all by himself if he had to make some connections. 19:17 But did you take any notes from Cappy on Saturday when he started doing play-by-play of the Michigan State-Penn State game as the Gopher-Buckeye game got out of hand? 19:27 Did you notice that, Jupiter? 19:30 I didn't. 19:32 Yeah, that's interesting, calling the game that you're not actually calling was a new one for me. 19:38 Like Red Zone, it's got all the games going on at the same time. 19:41 Yep. 19:42 You thought he was back in Chicago at the Big Ten studios. 19:46 Yeah, I had to go and watch the Gopher game back because I was at the very last Jefferson-Kennedy game ever. 19:52 Kennedy shut down their program after 60 years. 19:57 Old coach Tom Satterdahl was there and I talked to him for a little bit. 20:02 I was saying, yeah, I'm a Jaguar through and through, but it's just terribly sad to see a 60-year program go away. 20:12 Just like we saw Apple Valley and Burnsville merge, and we've had historical schools from Minneapolis and St. 20:19 Paul, and Veegs, the high school teams, are just getting smaller and smaller. 20:25 Yeah, it seems like St. 20:26 Paul Johnson has been on the cutting board for a while. 20:29 It's always tough, the changing demographics of hockey. 20:33 I think the more AAA type stuff that we have going on limits the player pool that chooses to continue playing hockey. 20:42 So, it's just a difficult sign of the times. 20:44 I think the community model is what makes Minnesota hockey so great and why we have so many players that love the game and play the game. 20:52 And, you know, it's not always the race to find the best 12-year-old. 20:55 You know, you're trying to get kids to be the best 18, 20, 22-year-olds that you can. 20:59 So, you know, get them to play the game and play it for as long as they can. 21:04 It's tough when you see programs like Kennedy have to shut down. 21:08 It definitely is, but it was fun to get back to the Bowington Ice Garden, saw a couple of old high school buddies, and it was a fun night because Jefferson won 6-0. 21:15 So, that's good. 21:16 Poor Kennedy, but... 21:19 Poor Kennedy, but not really poor Kennedy, so. 21:23 Twist the knife. 21:25 It's old rivalries, Jack. 21:26 I mean, you know, you've got from like 1980 through 19 probably 93 or 4. 21:33 It's like Jefferson or Kennedy went to state tournament out of one section every season. 21:39 I would go to the Met Center and see these section finals with 15,000 people there. 21:44 And I see that your Jefferson guy, Mike Crowley, is going to be playing this weekend. 21:49 Is that right? 21:50 Is he playing in the hockey day? 21:52 The hockey day. 21:52 That's next weekend, I believe. 21:53 Next weekend? 21:54 Okay. 21:54 Two weekends. 21:55 My guy, Mike Crowley, is... 21:59 I noticed Mr. 22:00 Shearhorn was asked to play. 22:01 Why weren't you asked to play, Jack? 22:02 You can't play next week? 22:04 No, I think they looked up the hockey DB of all the alumni and I don't think I made the cut on that one. 22:10 Hey, maybe I'll do play-by-play. 22:15 I need to talk to somebody. 22:16 So, Vee, you and I can get in there because I'm sure there's some weird credential thing. 22:19 I'd love to get in there and see that game. 22:23 Get some photos of it. 22:24 It looks like a fun alumni go for hockey alumni against kind of a bunch of other school alumni playing each other. 22:31 What is it? 22:32 The Friday night before Hockey Day Vee's? 22:34 I believe so. 22:35 That's kind of been one of the traditions of hockey days. 22:37 They have a little bit of a collegiate alumni game underway. 22:41 So I know ShockPeace getting excited for that one. 22:43 I was talking to Brian Deutsch. 22:45 He might be around for that event as well. 22:47 So, oh, really? 22:50 Good for him. 22:53 5.30 on Friday. 22:56 That's when they're at Michigan State, too. 22:59 Looks like it looks like, well, Paul Martin's playing, so it looks like he's not going on that road trip, Vee's. 23:03 It's prioritizing. 23:05 I guess fall that defensive core. 23:10 Oh, my gosh. 23:13 It's pretty good. 23:15 Yeah. 23:16 It's pretty quick. 23:17 You look at this list and all the forwards, if any of the forwards that I knew are invited, they're still playing. 23:27 That is true. 23:29 I'd have to look at the list. 23:30 Well, who was it here? 23:32 Let me see. 23:34 Yeah, Bonnen, Clymer, Westrom, Kowalska, Vanek's playing. 23:40 Vanek, Nate Miller, Ryan Patonley, Danny Erman, Mike Hoefel, Geier, Nate Conn and Tony Lucia. 23:48 But look at the defense, Crowley, Goligoski, Ballard, Stephens, Harrington, Vanelli, Leopold and Martin. 23:55 It's a lot of NHL games played. 23:58 But look at the collegiate alumni, get Zach Parisi there, Mark Peres, Ryan Malone. 24:04 I mean, oh, Marty Sertich. 24:07 He was so good in college, Veegs. 24:10 He was amazing. 24:11 So that looks like it's going to be a fun, Alex Stalock in goal for the Collegiate of NumbNight. 24:16 Looks like a fun thing. 24:19 So I'm looking forward, hopefully I get down there for that and we'll see how it goes. 24:26 But now we're going to talk about some of our sponsors here, Veegs, and we're going to lead it off with Cub Foods. 24:31 Tell us what's going on with Cub. 24:33 Yeah. 24:33 Cub Foods. 24:34 You know, I, I stocked up for that Vikings game on Monday night, went out to my local quarry cub. 24:40 At least the food was good. 24:41 Yeah. 24:42 I wasn't missing anything. 24:44 I go in there, everything I'm looking for hamburgers, dogs, brats, veggies, fruit. 24:50 It's all there. 24:51 If you're looking for some of that Jimmy's dill dip, Cubs your spot. 24:55 If you need some, some drinks to go along with your parties, Cubs got a lot of liquor stores now too. 25:00 So they're big supporters of Minnesota Sports, Gophers, Pulltab Sports and the GopherPuckLive Podcast. 25:06 Check them out, Cub Foods. 25:08 And of course we've also got State 1981, dreams of a dynasty, Veegs. 25:15 Yeah, fictional retelling from the South St. 25:18 Paul Packer perspective. 25:20 You know, 21 turning appearances, no titles. 25:24 Could it be the year in this fictional retelling? 25:26 Check it out. 25:27 If you're a big high school hockey fan, it's on Amazon. 25:30 gopherpucklive.com/1981. 25:33 Yep, I just added that just a little while ago. 25:35 A nice little redirect, a little easier to remember than that extremely long Amazon address. 25:40 So yeah, gopherpucklive.com/1981 to get your copy. 25:47 All right, it's time for VIG's Top 20 this week and not a lot of change at the top. 25:52 Veegs, you didn't want to move Minnesota down any after Friday? 25:57 Yeah, I mean, we had a couple of splits up top. 25:59 You know, BC also split with Merrimack, Minnesota split with Ohio State. 26:04 You know, you're starting to see a big book of business on these schools, but losses to those teams didn't really impact them very much from the pairwise perspective, from the RPI perspective. 26:15 You know, it's going to take more than just one loss, I think, to mix things up too much in the top four. 26:21 You know, we'll see what happens as we get deeper into these conference schedules, but it's really looking like these top seven teams are locking in on those top seven spots. 26:31 There's almost like a little bit of a gulf there in all the radiance between Denver and Ohio State, who I've moved up now into the top ten. 26:39 You know, they have a couple of quality wins now over Michigan and Minnesota. 26:43 I was impressed with them. 26:44 You know, they're big, they skate well, their portal additions have been good, and they get good goal-setting. 26:49 And that was their last, it was their first, you know, regular season loss was against the Gopher setting. 26:54 They had, they were like 9-0-1-1 or something like that. 26:57 Yeah, they're pretty good. 26:58 They've beaten a lot of the teams they need to beat and, you know, got some big wins here the last couple of weekends. 27:04 I noticed Boston University has been kind of up and down. 27:07 You know, they're up in the top five early, you know, down into the teams, back up around 10, down, back up. 27:12 They seem to be kind of all over the place. 27:15 Yeah, I mean, for a lot of our Western people, they're a lot like Michigan. 27:19 You know, they have a lot of young talent. 27:21 The discipline isn't always there for them. 27:24 Their special teams play, their power play has not been performing this year, despite all the talent that they have. 27:30 So we'll see what the Terriers have at the end of the year. 27:33 But we saw a lot of teams in the middle of the top 20 have some tough losses this last weekend. 27:39 You know, I dropped Colorado College and North Dakota out of my top 20, they're just struggling. 27:44 It's going to be hard for either of those teams to make the tournament unless they go on a real tear or win their conference tournament. 27:51 That's fine for North Dakota. 27:52 That will send Minnesota to Fargo then be a lot easier to go to Fargo. 27:57 But you know, you get that big drop by St. 27:59 Cloud to St. 28:00 Cloud lost their goalie. 28:01 So, that's hurting them so far. 28:04 Yeah, tough weekend for the Huskies. 28:07 The NCHC is on some thin ice here. 28:09 You know, it's looking like Hockey East could get five, six bids in the tournament if NCHC keeps having these issues. 28:16 You know, you look at the standings for that league, you know, one to eight is separated by six points. 28:23 That is not something you're used to seeing in that league. 28:26 So pretty interesting stuff. 28:29 How do you think Minnesota looks here, Jack? 28:31 Third spot, probably about right for them right now? 28:33 Or what do you think? 28:36 It feels right. 28:38 It's kind of tough to gauge. 28:41 We're in this BigTen bubble, if that makes sense. 28:43 Like really not impressed with the non-conference games this year at all. 28:50 There wasn't really any challenges there. 28:53 I think I was looking at it and we've only played two teams in the top 10 in the pairwise and we're 500 against. 29:01 It's Michigan State and Ohio. 29:03 So we haven't really played anybody. 29:07 There's some years where it's a question mark like that until we get to tourney time. 29:14 We'll see as we go down the stretch now that we get a few good games, we'll get Michigan again, Michigan State and we'll play these better teams. 29:22 But I like fun non-conference games and I know there's kind of no reason to play them too. 29:28 Well, I mean, actually probably better if you're playing these really high caliber ones, but their strength of schedule as well as looking up is 13. 29:35 That seems a little low for a Gopher team. 29:39 Yeah. 29:39 Well, a team like Duluth is usually a bit higher, Veegs, you know, that's hurt them. 29:45 Omaha has been better. 29:47 Or Omaha has been better recently. 29:49 They played them, you know, in Vegas, lost to them. 29:53 But yet, you know, now they sweep CC. 29:57 Just a lot of a lot of craziness actually last weekend, you know, like you said, the BC loss, Minnesota State lost to Northern Michigan, which had one win on the season. 30:09 College Hockey was a little goofy last weekend. 30:12 Little goofy. 30:12 It was probably one of those reminders of why it's such a great sport to watch is because, you know, you never know what you're going to get with some of these teams, especially at this point of the year, you know, where things are a little unsettled with the teams as they come back together after break. 30:27 You know, maybe guys come back from injuries, guys who were playing aren't playing, guys who maybe don't have their legs are now in a situation where the other teams are going. 30:36 It's different. 30:37 I agree with Jack, you know, it wasn't a great non-conference scheduled this year for Minnesota. 30:42 But part of that is some of the teams that they wanted to schedule, didn't want to schedule Minnesota this year. 30:48 As you build schedules in College Hockey, especially coming out of COVID, there's a bunch of scheduling issues that had to be hashed out and figured out. 30:56 And looking at the scheduling agreements that Minnesota signed for this year, a lot of them were in September. 31:02 I know people get upset about Minnesota being late on their schedule release. 31:07 Some of these games weren't finalized until just before the season, you know, with schools like St. 31:12 Thomas and Mercyhurst. 31:13 You know, it's challenging sometimes to build schedules. 31:18 So what must have been Monday or Tuesday last week, Jack, you sent me a text. 31:24 You're like, Steve Johnson had a liver transplant. 31:30 Shearhorn texted me just a few minutes later, you guys right back back. 31:32 And then Nick Angel's texting me, you know, I put up a little story on them. 31:39 The fans and the community has really come through, haven't they? 31:44 Yeah, yeah, big time. 31:46 And it's been awesome to see as he's coached with him at Minnetonka, so known about it for quite a while. 31:57 And it's kind of hard, especially for that guy, to like to keep it under wraps while you're dealing with this thing, when there's so many people in your life that you know would support you. 32:05 And obviously, they had everybody's come out of the woodwork completely to step up, especially the GoFundMe. 32:11 I'm sure his phone has been blowing up nonstop, so that was really good to see. 32:15 But he's... 32:15 Yeah, and as I'm just showing the GPL home page right now, showing we've got a button at the top. 32:20 You know, we had a little article on it, a little further. 32:23 Yeah, there's Steve's article. 32:26 Just trying to make people aware of it if they haven't been... 32:31 I saw Paul Martin put in a big donation yesterday, which was just awesome. 32:36 It's just been... 32:37 It's been so great. 32:39 Look at that there at the... 32:41 Let me see if I can share this tab. 32:43 There we go. 32:44 Up to 93,000 now. 32:47 Wow. 32:48 These, the hockey community never fails to amaze us. 32:53 Yeah. 32:53 I mean, you know, Nick Angel talks about that, being part of the Gopher Hockey Alumni Association and being a part of this group is a special thing. 33:01 And people step up for each other and help each other out. 33:04 And, you know, Steve is a really good-natured person and a real giver, you know, hearing about his journey about becoming a gopher and then his next step of his life has been really cool to listen to and follow. 33:18 And this surprising step back is just something, nothing he did to make this happen. 33:25 And so to see the support to help him get through it is really neat and special. 33:29 It's kind of fun to go through and see all the names of people that are helping him out. 33:33 I like that. 33:34 Especially for a gopher hockey fan to see that it's really neat. 33:39 Yeah, I've seen names all the way back to the 70s, at least players. 33:42 There might be a few that I didn't even know that I passed by, but it is... 33:46 I haven't looked at the list lately, but it is a very cool list, so... 33:50 If people haven't checked in, I know Steve posted kind of a little update recently about his journey and how things are going and, you know, things are looking good after the the surgery and their recovery. 34:00 He'll be in Rochester for a little bit to be closely followed. 34:03 You know, these organ transplants are always kind of dicey. 34:07 You're never quite sure how your body is going to react to that new organism trying to join it. 34:14 Pretty crazy that he walked out of the hospital. 34:17 I think it was three days, four days, you know, walked out on his own out of the hospital. 34:23 I just have a hard time fathoming that. 34:26 Yeah. 34:26 I mean, obviously the medical procedures have become much better. 34:32 You know, things that used to stay, used to stay overnight and multiple two, three nights, you're out a couple of hours. 34:39 There's a liver transplant. 34:42 That's still like, just shocks me that he was able to walk out of there so quickly. 34:47 Yeah, like major, major organ like crazy. 34:52 We were. 34:54 We were playing Montemita last week and like it was an easy pregame speech to the, you know, to the team that Golds really is talking about is like, if you can't get up for this one, like, I don't know, you just had one of your coaches who wishes he could be here more than anything. 35:11 Just walk out of the hospital after getting in Oregon, you know, transplant like you should be able to get up for this one. 35:20 And just amazing. 35:20 And you know what? 35:21 We're going to have another organ transplant on the show next week. 35:24 Vig's Pat McClelland, he's going to be joining us. 35:26 I bet you he can give quite a bit of insight on that type of procedure. 35:32 Yeah. 35:32 And just, you know, a reminder for everybody, if you're, you know, interested in being an organ donor, you know, you can really renew your life. 35:39 Just check it off, check it off and check it out. 35:42 You never know. 35:43 You don't. 35:45 Well, before we get to Notre Dame Veegs, we do have to talk about a couple more sponsors here. 35:49 Let's talk about Jimmy's. 35:53 Jimmy's, as I was saying in my cub read earlier, they've got the dill dip. 35:57 If you're trying to eat healthy, you got to party. 35:59 I recommend it. 36:01 If you're a friend of John King, he might send you a dill pick along the way. 36:05 You never know. 36:05 It's the holiday season as we celebrate 2025. 36:10 Check it out. 36:11 It's more popular than ranch. 36:13 I mean, check out this dill dip. 36:15 It's great. 36:16 Local family, local Minnesota company supports us. 36:19 Check them out. 36:20 Don't you be messing with my dressing. 36:25 And of course we can't forget lunch bucket hockey, man. 36:29 Yeah, lunch bucket hockey, hard working grit and grind players, just like Nick Michael who got his first goal with the Gophers the other week. 36:36 Those are people that do anything for their teammates. 36:38 And if you want an apparel brand that matches that kind of ethos, check out lunchbuckethockey.com. 36:45 I've seen some of the custom jerseys they've done on Instagram. 36:48 Check them out on there. 36:49 They're pretty consistent with showing their stuff. 36:52 I saw some hockey yak jackets with some lunch bucket stuff the other day. 36:56 Cool, cool stuff. 36:58 Another couple of local guys who wanted to start this company from the ground up, support them. 37:04 And of course, we thank Lunch Bucket Hockey and Jimmy's for sponsoring the GPL Podcast. 37:11 Notre Dame this weekend, Veegs. 37:13 This is the last hurrah for Jeff Jackson. 37:18 One heck of a coach. 37:19 He's accomplished a lot over the years. 37:21 He says he's not done with hockey. 37:23 He's just done with this phase of his hockey. 37:26 And to see them pull out a win against Michigan this last weekend, maybe a little surprising, but also at the same time, not surprising. 37:34 You know, Michigan can be undisciplined and Notre Dame can take advantage of that. 37:39 I think Minnesota, after their shock with Ohio State on Friday, will be a little more prepared for this weekend. 37:47 It's home games. 37:48 It should be a good matchup. 37:50 Notre Dame always brings a lot of fans to Mariucci as well. 37:53 So could be a good atmosphere. 37:55 Oh, Jack, you know, the Don's going to be there. 37:57 The Don's always there when Notre Dame is there. 38:00 Oh, yeah, he's got all the ties to it. 38:02 Yeah, it is weird. 38:03 I mean, Notre Dame, they always have so many Minnesota ties, so many Minnesota players on their rosters, which is definitely fun for the players to go up against, you know, high school teammates and high school rivals to get those games. 38:17 So it's going to be sold out, I think. 38:19 So it's going to be me rocking. 38:21 They always put up a good fight. 38:23 They always seem to play us very well here, Veegs. 38:27 I don't remember them sweeping Minnesota, sweeping Notre Dame very often, even here. 38:34 Seems like we've had better luck at Notre Dame than here. 38:37 Yes. 38:38 So they've played very well on the road against this team at home. 38:41 It's always something doesn't quite go right. 38:44 I think there's a little bit of extra bounce in the Irish step when they play at Mary G. 38:49 There are Minnesota players. 38:50 Like Jack says. 38:52 Yeah, there are a lot of players that want to show that they made the right choice by by going away and then they get to come back and play in front of their friends and family and old coaches and things like that. 39:01 And it kind of gets them going. 39:03 Now, I think this year's Notre Dame team isn't kind of your typical Jeff Jackson team. 39:08 They do seem looser and they're ended up losing more games on the scoreboard this year. 39:14 But there is kind of a change of the guard, I think, at Notre Dame. 39:17 You're looking at some of their commitments. 39:19 It's some major junior guys who are going to be coming there next year. 39:22 It's definitely a different feel with the Irish this year. 39:26 And I have some notes here about Thomas and Faloon, question marks. 39:29 But you kind of already said it. 39:30 It looks like they're going to be back this week. 39:33 Yeah, they're expecting them to go. 39:35 So I think they were cautious with them last week. 39:39 And now they want to get them going. 39:40 They've got home games. 39:41 So they have a little more access to all the treatment stuff that they would want to help guys recover after a game. 39:47 So I think it makes sense for them to play at home. 39:49 You know, some of the other injuries that people are coming back for the previous season didn't need that. 39:55 But these guys will. 39:57 The best time to be healthy, Jack. 39:59 I mean, you've gotten through the bulk of your schedule. 40:02 You've had that nice break now. 40:04 Now let's get everyone together and let's do this. 40:07 It makes no sense that the Gophers record is what it is, but the injuries they've had this year. 40:13 Like, no sense. 40:15 And I think there are these weird sports things, like when I was a little banged up or something, like I thought I played tougher or grittier because I felt like I was playing through something and like gave me a little extra juice or something. 40:29 That could have been something in the early, or like not even the early part of the season, the whole season before they got healthy in the past few weeks of like, hey, we're down a man. 40:37 Like we got to kind of step up, et cetera, et cetera. 40:40 And so we'll see as they get healthy. 40:43 But yeah, it's pretty unbelievable. 40:45 The best ability is availability. 40:48 And we have not had that this year, but hopefully going down the stretch, we can figure out who our line combinations are and all that stuff. 40:56 What is kind of crazy, because like this year, you have not seen very many bad turnovers by the Gophers. 41:03 You know, especially their Fords, they are not turning the puck over as they exit the zone, as they cross the opposing blue line. 41:10 And then against Ohio State, you know, everybody's back healthy. 41:13 There's a couple of bad turnovers that get them going the wrong way. 41:16 There's a bad penalty, you know, that erases a five minute major. 41:20 You know, there's just a couple of things that you haven't seen them do all season, and then they pop up all kind of together in a game where you feel like you should start rolling. 41:32 Well, I think a really important thing this weekend, Veegs, is the penalty kill and staying out of the box. 41:40 That's kind of the one thing this year that's been a little different than the last three or four years. 41:46 They've kind of led the league in, you know, lack of penalty minutes, but this year they're up a bit and it's hurting them more because they're not as successful killing them off. 41:56 Bob is usually pretty quick on the discipline with penalties. 42:00 You know, he prides himself on running a program that doesn't take penalties. 42:04 Maybe when you're shorthanded not is able to get that message across. 42:08 You're just trying to get through the schedule. 42:11 I wonder if that might be part of it as well. 42:14 Oh, I hope so. 42:15 Because boy, it's been killing them, Jack. 42:19 It really has. 42:21 Yeah. 42:21 And it's weird if it's something to point to. 42:25 I would love that. 42:27 I need to go for stats to break that down. 42:30 What number of penalties do they have for each type? 42:34 Is it a bunch of hookings? 42:35 Is it a bunch of trippings? 42:36 What is it? 42:36 Because that could tell you something there. 42:39 I don't know necessarily what more penalties means, but I'd love to see the breakdown of what they are. 42:46 Vegas is already searching. 42:47 I could tell he's on his... 42:49 I don't know if I'm going to... 42:50 I can't quite do go for game notes and get to that level of detail. 42:55 I don't have the spreadsheets. 42:57 Hey, go for game notes. 42:58 If you're watching right now, make sure you tag us. 43:04 Let us know or come into the chat or something. 43:07 It's funny. 43:08 It's funny. 43:08 Earlier, we talked about that college game and here I've got Drew, Drew Cove, sending me, Hey, go to this site and get credentialed like maybe I'll just because I was just looking as like the Gophers are still at 7.6 penalty minutes a game, which is 54th in the country. 43:27 So it's not that they're taking a ton of penalties because I heard when he said that I was like, I still don't know if they're taking a lot of penalties. 43:35 Her penalty kill just hasn't been very good. 43:37 Yeah. 43:38 Yeah, somebody said 11th best, I think it was, but that's a far cry from. 43:43 Moscow's teams are usually top three, right? 43:46 I think the past three years, there's like one, two, and one or something like that. 43:50 So yeah. 43:55 Got to stay out of the box. 43:57 And when you do go to the box, how you said, it's just, well, what we saw last weekend, Veex, Friday night, two goals on the five-minute kill. 44:07 That was the end of the game right there. 44:09 It was. 44:11 Yeah. 44:12 I mean, Friday night, once they gave that up, it just looked like the game got away from them. 44:16 It looked like they played Whipple and Gruba quite a bit in the third period, just to lessen the minutes on everybody else. 44:23 And I heard Bob say, that's a garbage can game. 44:28 Not that he kicked it during, but that he threw it in the garbage can afterward. 44:32 Let's move on. 44:34 You just have to flush that one and go forward. 44:38 Too bad the Vikings did the same thing last night. 44:40 Fourth quarter, and it's just, we're not going to win. 44:48 Drinking now. 44:51 It still hurts, Jack, right? 44:53 Well, you know what? 44:55 If Bob will get to say the same thing, Don used to always say, when there's a lot more media, media availabilities, and at the end of games, the Viking season must be over because a lot more people are here. 45:08 There was a pretty big crowd for availability last week, too, so I don't know if he already used that joke. 45:13 That does pick up on January, but we have had a couple of games post-game. 45:19 Two that I can think of. 45:21 One had no people. 45:22 Well, actually two had no people. 45:24 And then when I was there, I was by myself one time. 45:30 And then Veegs, Veegs, you're like Mr. 45:32 Coach, you're never there anymore. 45:34 You're at your kid's stuff. 45:36 I have a busier year this year. 45:37 You do. 45:38 So you're a busy boy. 45:40 Peewee and the UTEN has been a little bit busier. 45:43 But we've got the big three weekends here coming up and hopefully a home playoff weekend for Minnesota. 45:52 It's been a weird schedule. 45:54 I think finishing with Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Ohio State at home isn't kind of the glitzy matchups that you'd hope for. 46:02 I think, you know, sneaking in those Michigan State, Michigan series at the end of the first half was was tough, especially with Minnesota not really having their full roster. 46:12 So it is going to be kind of a tricky run to the finish here. 46:16 I think like Jack said, the schedule is making it maybe seem like we don't know as much about this team as we'd like. 46:23 I think we all think we know what we're seeing with the talent that they have, but it's going to take a higher level for them to go on a run. 46:33 Well give it to me then, Veegs. 46:34 What do you think this weekend? 46:35 How many points? 46:38 After the video session Saturday, I see six points in the future for Minnesota. 46:43 I think Notre Dame is a little bit disjointed. 46:46 They will have a lot of spunk to their game. 46:49 You know, those teams always do when they come to Minnesota. 46:51 But I think Minnesota's talent should carry them over. 46:56 They just have to stay out of the box. 46:58 This Pelley Kill, like Jack is saying, there's some things going on with them. 47:02 I've seen them do a couple different things on the PK. 47:05 Maybe they just have to settle in to one kind of system and one way to handle rotations at the top of the zone and take away the seed passes rather than trying to adjust it all the time. 47:16 I know Steve Miller is the mastermind of PK and he clearly knows more than I do, but it just looks like there's too many inconsistencies happening right now. 47:26 And maybe that has to do with the team not being able to practice full strength the last five, six weeks. 47:33 I was gonna say that, you talked about getting one guy back. 47:37 It doesn't change the PK that much, but having, I will say, that not having your partner out kind of hurts. 47:46 I played for Franco for four years straight as my PK partner. 47:51 So I know 100% of the time where he's gonna be, even after one year. 47:56 I know exactly where he's gonna be, I know where the stick is gonna be, I know how our rotation is. 48:00 If I go out this far, I know he's gonna have me covered. 48:02 When all of a sudden, I maybe have to go play PK with somebody else, all of a sudden, you're a little bit lost. 48:09 You have a new dance partner and it does mess with you. 48:13 That does mess with you big time. 48:14 So that could be something too, that get these guys solidified with their D partners, get them solidified with their PK partners, move forward. 48:21 Because the biggest things I see are how they rotate up top as the puck moves, and then just slow taking away passing lanes. 48:30 Because it's just that little bit of indecision that makes a difference in College Hockey these days. 48:37 So what do you think, Jack? 48:38 How many points this weekend? 48:39 You predicting a sweep just like these? 48:43 Yeah, I like, it'd be disappointing if there was anything less than six points, but I have like a weird gut feeling of overtime somewhere in there. 48:55 So that makes me, that scares me, you know, into saying like something less than six. 49:04 I hope it doesn't get the shootout. 49:07 I'm gonna say, yeah, like I think I'm all for three on my predictions on here anyway in the past. 49:14 I'm just gonna embrace it. 49:15 You just got to go with your gut though, still just got to do it. 49:18 Yeah, I'm gonna say it's a sweep and plus 10,000 odds Gophers get a win in a shootout. 49:25 That'd be so sweet. 49:29 That would be a better prediction, actually. 49:31 Yeah, they only get the five points, but they got the win in a shootout. 49:36 Yeah. 49:39 I think the place would erupt, Figs, if that were to happen. 49:43 I mean, or there could be Bronx Cheers. 49:45 I don't know. 49:46 We'll see. 49:47 Yeah. 49:50 Well, but I don't think Notre Dame's goaltending is as good as it's been the last couple of years. 49:54 So I think that's a big factor for Minnesota as well. 49:58 Well, I'm going to have to go with sweet, too. 50:00 But well, I kind of like your thought there, Jack, though. 50:02 Boy, getting off that shootout Schneid, that would be quite amazing. 50:10 That would be sweet. 50:12 Or it would be even better if it just continued. 50:16 Yeah, it's just disgusting at this point. 50:18 It's well past disgusting. 50:22 Becca Hendrickson, top of the list on the shootout. 50:24 I would agree. 50:25 On the breakaway. 50:27 We had a couple of breakaways last weekend and they couldn't get it done, Veegs. 50:33 Got to make it happen. 50:34 Got to make it happen. 50:36 Veegs, you got anything going on that we need to know about? 50:41 Not really. 50:42 I mean, with the early show, we didn't get to see availability before the show. 50:47 Just seeing Faloon and Thomas back in the lineup should be good. 50:50 One of the things to watch this weekend, I think, does he keep these lines together that will look so good on Saturday and just really dialing in on the PK? 50:59 You know, as Jack said, you know, the partners matter. 51:03 And they've had a lot of churn with how they handle PK. 51:06 You know, I think they were looking for Paulson to be one of their big PK guys this year. 51:11 You know, he misses all that time with his upper body injury. 51:14 You know, Mason Nevers, another guy that they really want to have on the PK. 51:18 Him being out and slowed maybe to come back to fitness. 51:22 That's another thing to watch. 51:24 So important for Minnesota. 51:28 Jack, you're ready for some overtime? 51:30 Yeah. 51:31 Yeah. 51:31 Bring it. 51:32 Bring it on. 51:33 I think Eric, the line things too, and looking at the lines in the past few weeks, like you're like, wow, look at this depth for lines. 51:41 It's just unbelievable. 51:43 And it is nice, but not, not everybody can play, you know? 51:48 So yeah, moving forward, they're going to have to, it's kind of hard to even stack the top nine because there's so much depth, but stack the top nine and just overwhelm with three and get that fourth in there occasionally. 52:01 I think he does this, you know, up to this point of the year to develop the depth, not really to show it off. 52:08 Yeah. 52:08 You know, it's, it's, you know, we encourage you to give you a chance to play. 52:12 We are going to give you through January, a chance to prove yourself. 52:16 Then as we get to February, you know, I'm going to start putting guys in slots. 52:21 It's time to win. 52:22 Time to win. 52:23 Exactly. 52:25 Bingo. 52:26 Well, thanks for coming on the show, Jack. 52:29 You're at five time. 52:30 You're a five timer now, just like Eric Scherharn. 52:32 You guys are just keep, keep balancing it out. 52:37 Put it, put it on the mantle. 52:39 A five timer. 52:41 Well, that's going to do it for The GPL Podcast. 52:44 We'll be back next week on our normal day Wednesday, where we're going to have Pat McCullough on the show before the Big Michigan State Series. 52:51 For those of you watching, stay tuned for overtime. 52:54 For the rest, you will catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.