0:08 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:14 The thing is, if I drink whiskey, I will not be able to function. 0:17 Perfect, let's do it. 0:20 It's happened before. 0:24 They've got the wild going tonight, and they want to have that continue. 0:32 Can you mute yourself? 0:33 Oh my God. 0:37 Oh boy. 0:39 Jupe making mistakes. 0:40 Love it. 0:41 And so, I had to train for this marathon. 0:45 Make sure you stay awake for the game tomorrow, Jupe. 0:48 Now, here's Jupiter and Vego. 1:03 Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 283. 1:11 A very successful weekend, Veegs from a defensive game, and playing a patient game, to putting our predictions to shame, which we're just fine with if they sweep an opponent. 1:27 Well, I mean, all of our listeners are basically telling us, don't pick a sweep, don't pick a sweep. 1:32 So what do we do? 1:33 We pick some other things, and the Gophers come out and deliver. 1:36 And it was a really important weekend for them. 1:38 So important to see it this time of year. 1:42 It was huge. 1:44 It was just huge. 1:46 Put Ohio State behind us. 1:48 Even if we were to get swept this weekend and they were to sweep, we would have the point percentage over them because we won the yearly series, so we'd win the tiebreaker. 1:58 So I don't believe they could finish lower than second right now, can they? 2:03 I'm going to trust you on the math. 2:04 I'm pretty sure that's the case right now. 2:07 You know, I think the coaching staff is happy to get out of that weekend playing well. 2:12 I think it's surprising for a lot of people in the conference to see the Gophers finish with Ohio State, who looked like one of the most dangerous teams in the Big Ten, and now Penn State, a team that has given the Gophers some troubles. 2:26 Lately, they've been able to pull out the weekends against the Ninty Lions, but is one of the hottest teams in College Hockey that they'll face at Pegula this weekend. 2:36 So let's go over. 2:37 Four-one win Friday night, a, you know, as kind of, you know, Chris Eckes described in his GPL article, kind of a defensive game. 2:49 But I think it was really valuable for Minnesota to get out of a game like that without really being in trouble. 2:56 I know it was putting Pat McAulety into a little bit of a doze during the game on Friday night. 3:02 The broadcast, he kept mentioning how boring it was for him. 3:05 But to see Minnesota play a game like that and not get impatient, not get bored themselves, they were focused throughout. 3:15 And while it was a four-one finish, I think it was a much tighter game throughout. 3:20 And I was pleased to see them not just force plays, because we've seen that happen to them in the past when they've got bored. 3:27 I think when you turn the calendar to February, maybe it's a little bit easier to stay engaged. 3:32 And after you've heard the coaching staff all week tell you you have to be engaged, and then deliver on Friday, I think the coaching staff is happy with that. 3:41 And then you get the 6-3 win on Saturday, a little more hairy on this one, Veegs. 3:46 I mean, they had gotten within a goal, then they pulled away, and then a goal called back on offside on Ohio State to make it very even more interesting. 3:56 But they held on. 3:59 And just as much as I praised them about their Friday performance, some of the things Saturday made me nervous. 4:07 On one of the goals, Sam Renzell gets on the wrong side of a player behind his own net. 4:13 That player comes out and scores. 4:16 The next goal, I think Jimmy Stugger just throws a pass across the defense zone. 4:21 It gets picked off. 4:22 Easy goal. 4:23 And the third goal, they win a face off, but they don't do anything with it. 4:28 And guess again, Sam Renzell gets beat from the wall to the net by his check. 4:34 And so those are the kind of plays that make you nervous about this team going forward. 4:39 And while they had lots of good offense on Saturday, I thought their offense of presence around the paint was really good to see. 4:48 Those kind of mistakes kind of even out the night for me. 4:51 It's like all the things that you'd put in a good bucket of getting to the net, getting the ground game going, putting traffic in front of a good goalie, almost gets evened out with three kind of head scratcher plays where you're like, these are the things that you want your best players to avoid. 5:10 And their best players stepped right into them. 5:14 Yeah, that snugger rude play was, I was just like, what are you doing? 5:21 I would say that the goals that Ohio State scored on Saturday were very impressive goals. 5:29 They sniped all three of them. 5:33 People were kind of putting some blame on Soulierre a little bit. 5:37 And I'm thinking he got beat by three pretty darn good shots. 5:43 Yeah, I'm not blaming the goaltender on those three goals. 5:46 I'm putting the blame on the players who are making those mistakes. 5:49 And at this point of the year, you really can't have your top players doing that very frequently. 5:56 You know, especially in a game like that where maybe there's low volume offensive opportunities going both ways, you just can't give those up. 6:04 If you look back to like Brock Faber when he played for the Gophers, he did not make those kinds of mistakes. 6:11 You look at players like Ben Myers, Matthew Nyes, they didn't make those kinds of mistakes. 6:15 They had gotten that out of their game at this point of the year. 6:18 And so maybe one last lesson or a little bit of a reminder. 6:23 I think for this team to go far, those players have to be a little bit sharper. 6:28 For me, the biggest plus on the weekend was the return of Brody Lamb Veegs. 6:36 Yeah, that was the words have Ford's need a little bit of confidence. 6:40 I think especially guys like Brody Lamb, who get a lot of their offense jumping on pucks and creating plays out of chaos. 6:47 And for him to start feeling good about his game again, it's got to be an important part for Minnesota. 6:53 I think he was one of the surprises on this roster to me with his goal scoring. 6:57 And his point production, I feel like some of that is power play dependent. 7:03 And we'll see what happens with the Gopher Power Play down the stretch here. 7:06 They haven't been great. 7:09 The penalty kill has stepped up the last couple weeks. 7:11 I think some of that might be because of the goaltender. 7:13 And lack of penalties too. 7:16 And lack of penalties. 7:17 I mean, they had one penalty on the, they didn't have many on the weekend. 7:20 They had none Saturday night. 7:23 Trying to think Friday night. 7:25 It was a very good weekend and discipline on the penalty end. 7:28 It really was. 7:29 Yeah, and I know coaches talk about penalties a little bit like pitchers. 7:33 Like if you have to go through the batting order three or four times, eventually you get exposed. 7:38 But if you're only on the kill once or twice a night, you're probably going to be in better shape because the other team doesn't see what you're trying to scheme against them with. 7:47 I was also hearing, you know, kind of at the end of the weekend, even though it was an empty net goal, it was good that Snuggerood scored as well. 7:58 He's been better this year with his emotions, but you could tell when he goes into a little bit of a drought, he gets a little tense. 8:08 So for him to get a goal like that, he was going to make no doubt. 8:12 You know, the empty net goal before they're passing the puck around a little bit too much for many people's likings, a little bit on selfishness. 8:19 Snugger gets it, he's beelining for the net and putting it away and getting the point. 8:23 Yeah, Coach Motzko wasn't happy about that Hendrickson passed too. 8:27 I think it was Lamb who got that goal. 8:30 He's like, you know, you get free, put it in the net. 8:34 Yes, it worked out, but he did make his feelings felt after the game on Saturday about that. 8:41 Yeah, and the first empty net goal I thought was a lot of Aaron Huglund work and they take away the assist from him with that extra pass. 8:49 No, it's just too bad for the new papa. 8:52 He had a really good weekend, though. 8:54 He was kind of all over the place. 8:55 You know, he's setting Lamb up. 8:56 He was key on that empty net goal. 9:00 He kind of showed up for senior weekend. 9:03 Yeah, maybe this having a baby thing has been good for him. 9:05 Maybe he's getting a little bit extra rest and, you know, you're supposed to sleep when the baby sleeps. 9:11 Maybe that's what he wants to do and he's getting a little extra shut-eye and rocky and his mother Brenda sang the national anthem on Saturday, did a fabulous job. 9:20 Go to our YouTube channel. 9:21 We've got it up on there. 9:22 You can listen to the entire thing. 9:26 It sounds like, you know, he had did his interview with Mike Grimm on him on the Gopher podcast. 9:33 Couldn't name it wrong right now, but said he heard it might happen, but that he didn't know it was going to happen that night. 9:43 Very surprised by it. 9:44 He didn't know it was coming. 9:47 And then I was shooting from the box in the first period, and you could hear the guys coming back to the bench afterwards. 9:53 They're all like, that was amazing. 9:55 That was awesome. 9:56 So it's, I don't think many people, you know, on the squad knew that Brenda was going to sing the national anthem. 10:05 So maybe it pumped them up a bit, but Senior Weekend turned out pretty good. 10:10 We've seen a lot of stinkers on Senior Weekend, Senior Night, but this one turned out okay. 10:16 And it's still kind of weird with some of these super seniors. 10:24 Kester, Nevers, did it last year. 10:27 I'm guessing Sully A probably did something last year too. 10:30 So it's getting a little weird with these extra years of eligibility. 10:36 Well, on the bright side, there's not going to be too many more of those coming up. 10:40 This is one of the last years of the COVID players, unless there's some medical redshirt things going on. 10:45 Or is it? 10:46 They might be proposing always having a fifth year. 10:51 Which from a standpoint of the NCAA, fine. 10:56 Most sports have a redshirt, hockey doesn't, because of the junior hockey aspect and the scholarship numbers. 11:04 There's not really guys on scholarship who can afford to sit a year. 11:08 From the coaching standpoint or the players standpoint, you get to campus, you want to get out and play. 11:14 I do think this whole NCAA thing is going to be interesting for hockey. 11:18 We're hearing North Dakota is not going to opt in. 11:20 That was my next subject right there. 11:22 They're not opt in. 11:24 Those schools, they want to have that roster flexibility until that gets figured out. 11:29 So it's going to be complicated, I think, for the Big Ten if the roster limit is 26. 11:36 If you have injuries and whatnot, it gets real challenging to put together a roster. 11:41 Minnesota went all the way through their roster with the illness and injuries and… 11:46 We'll look at last season. 11:47 They had to bring in a goalie last season. 11:50 He was a practice goalie, but they needed an extra roster spot because, you know, Ari was injured and just multiple things stacking up at the same time. 12:00 You know, I remember we went to Grand Forks. 12:02 Well, I'm like, who's this guy? 12:04 Oh, he was just added to the roster as, you know, another backup goalie in a practice goal. 12:09 And I don't think it was official yet when we saw him in North Dakota. 12:12 I think we had to, like, do a little digging still to figure that out. 12:15 But that's what this new rules agreement. 12:20 You wouldn't be able to do that, would you? 12:24 Not the way it's written right now. 12:25 Yeah. 12:26 The people who are deciding these things aren't college hockey people. 12:30 They don't know. 12:31 You look at the committee, there's only like one person from a hockey school, even making these roster limits up. 12:38 So I have to hope they get some guidance on how to make it almost like an NHL roster where you could put someone on like an IR and add someone. 12:50 Okay. 12:50 Yeah. 12:51 Put some rules in place because a lot of teams, they want to rest their goalie if they're hurt. 12:58 So how do you practice? 13:00 You've got all these NHL drafted players who are trying to get there, and they can't even have a goalie in practice, they can't have an e-bug. 13:08 Some of these things just don't make much sense. 13:12 Okay, so Minnesota leapfrogged Michigan State this past weekend, all due to Penn State taking five out of six points at Michigan State. 13:26 We'll talk about this week in a little bit, but is there a team hotter than Penn State right now? 13:32 Because I don't know if there is. 13:35 Yeah, and they were scoring nice goals on Augustine. 13:38 These were not just like trash, putting away the garbage. 13:42 They were beating him clean on the rush, off of shots from distance. 13:47 They're a dangerous team, Penn State. 13:48 I think when they came to Minnesota, the coaching staff was a little disappointed in how they played. 13:56 Guy Gelsky kept saying, Suleyair said all the right things, great kid, wishing the best against everybody except us. 14:04 I think he said that line about three or four times after the weekend. 14:07 You could just tell he was hoping for more from his team against the Gophers. 14:13 And they've figured it out here in the second half. 14:16 With Fink as one of their top scorers, they're a dangerous team. 14:20 And they're close to leapfrogging Michigan for the last home ice spot, I believe. 14:28 Yeah, and I really think Penn State could choose a win against Minnesota for their pairwise. 14:33 You know, they are on the bubble. 14:35 There's a bunch of teams that are separated by the thousands of RPI. 14:41 So, you know, you would think two wins over Michigan State might help you a ton. 14:45 It helped them, but just not quite as much to separate them and put them in a safe at large spot. 14:52 It will be interesting to see, but very strong weekend from them as well. 14:59 All right, well, we don't have a guest this week, so we're kind of gonna go through topics a lot quicker than we normally would, but it also means we're gonna get to our sponsors quicker, Veegs, and Cub Foods, one of your favorites, I know for a fact, because you're always at your Cub for whatever you need. 15:17 I mean, if you need anything, Cub Foods is your spot, and they're one of us. 15:22 They sponsor Pulltab Sports, they're a big Gopher Sports sponsor, they've got stores all over the Twin Cities, and they've got everything you need. 15:29 If you're getting ready for a party, you can get all your supplies, you get your cheeses, your meats, your veggies for your board. 15:36 If you need some jimmies, Cub is gonna be a place, you come right in their produce section, they'll have it there for you. 15:41 And now they've got all these liquor stores with wine, spirits, beer, your THC products that you're looking for. 15:48 So if you're getting ready for the last weekend of the Big Ten regular season, you're gonna have a little party to watch, the Gophers on the road, check out Cub Foods, cub.com, get it for delivery, pickup, or stop in the store and shop like I always like to do. 16:03 And a another new sponsored GPL Podcast, Elevated Beer, Wine and Spirits Veegs. 16:10 Yeah. 16:10 If you're looking for some crafty beer, spirits, THC drinks, gummies, check out Elevated. 16:16 They've been around for about 10 years. 16:18 Couple white bear Lake guys started them up. 16:22 They've got low prices on the big stuff too. 16:24 So if you're looking for Bud Miller Coors, Mid-Golden Light, you can get a case for $17.99. 16:29 If you're into wine, you get the three liter black box wines for $13.99. 16:34 This stuff is usually like 20 bucks at other places. 16:37 So check out Ryan and Tom. 16:39 I also know they're doing their rare whiskey raffle these days. 16:42 So stop into the store to learn more about that. 16:45 I heard about it on the Sunday morning coming down. 16:47 Pod, so check them out. 16:49 Local guys, they got a store in White Bear and South Minneapolis. 16:52 And of course we thank Hub Foods and Elevated Beer, Wine and Spirits for being sponsors of the GPL Podcast. 17:00 Vegoe's top 20 for this week, Michigan State seems to get to number one and then they lose that week. 17:08 We saw it again with Minnesota. 17:10 So really the only kind of consistent teams that have been number one this year was Denver. 17:14 And now you're returned to number one Boston College. 17:19 Yeah, I think BC is in the good spot for the pairwise. 17:23 They're in the good spot for hockey east and they're in the top spot of my top 20. 17:27 We've just seen Michigan State, Minnesota and now Western have little falls here in the second half. 17:33 And it's really that top five. 17:36 I see it very tight now. 17:39 At the start of the year, I felt like there was maybe some separation between the top two or three and the rest. 17:44 Now maybe it's expanding a little bit to the top five. 17:47 I've heard lots of good things about Maine. 17:49 It was surprising to see Western go to Arizona State and falter. 17:53 I don't think Western Michigan has lost in regulation in the second half of this year. 17:59 Like they've been really strong. 18:01 And you know, Providence and Maine, also Hockey East teams, that's looking like the strongest league right now. 18:08 I've got BU in there too. 18:10 So strong, strong Hockey East right now. 18:15 But, you know, not a lot of change this week. 18:18 Penn State kind of jumped up due to their sweep and Denver did as well. 18:21 Ohio State getting swept kind of hurt them in your poll. 18:25 But kind of what you had mentioned earlier, you know, polls are going to start moving closer and closer to the pair wise. 18:34 And, you know, like you said, the top five very close. 18:37 It's going to move around here a little bit in there. 18:42 Sacred Heart, Clarkson, Merrimack, Minnesota State kind of finishing out the bottom there. 18:47 Right now, Minnesota State is looking like the only team out of the CCHA leagues. 18:52 Well, I think they're going to have to win the tournament to get in. 18:55 I don't know if Minnesota State has enough to jump into the top 13, which is where you might have to get to get in that large this year, especially with the ECAC. 19:10 Quinnipiac is probably their top team and they're 13 in the pairwise. 19:15 So it's going to be interesting there. 19:19 The bottom of the pole has just been hard all year. 19:22 They just kind of pop in and they pop out. 19:25 Atlantic Hockey, Sacred Heart, maybe they're in the team, maybe they're not. 19:28 Maybe it's going to be Holy Cross. 19:30 Maybe it's going to be Bentley. 19:32 But I've got Sacred Heart in there right now. 19:34 They were my pick out of Atlantic Hockey at the start of the year. 19:38 And it looks like they might pull things off there in their regular season. 19:42 Yeah, I see some questions here. 19:43 Let's bring up one here. 19:44 Chris L, are the Gophers at risk of dropping out of the top five in the polls? 19:49 I think they are. 19:50 In the pair wise, there's not too many scenarios that they drop out of the top four, I would say. 19:58 Man, I think they can drop out of the top four if they were to split this weekend and then have trouble in the first round of the Big Ten. 20:06 You know, that's a scenario where if they're two and they play Notre Dame and they drop games there, that always kind of puts you at risk. 20:14 I always look at the College Hockey News, pair wise, Probability Matrix for that kind of information. 20:21 And, you know, there are scenarios where they drop out of the top four, but they're kind of few and far behind between it. 20:28 It very much looks like they will be a one seed. 20:31 I'm planning on going to Fargo for the regional because it makes a lot of sense for Minnesota to be put there. 20:37 Even if they drop to five, you could easily see like a Minnesota Western Fargo regional. 20:45 Like, I could see that happening. 20:47 Another quick question by Egan here. 20:50 Does Minnesota need to sweep to win the conference title? 20:54 Technically, no. 20:58 Most likely, probably closer to yes, I would say, Veegs. 21:02 In theory, if, big if, if Minnesota were to win Friday night and Michigan State gets one point or no points, Gophers are league champions because they wouldn't be able to catch them. 21:18 Is Michigan State gonna do that against Notre Dame? 21:22 Not likely. 21:24 So, does Minnesota need to sweep to win the conference center? 21:28 Probably, don't you think, Veegs? 21:31 I would think so. 21:33 I don't think Michigan State will be dropping games in Notre Dame, but they could go into overtime in one of them. 21:39 And maybe we're gonna have a scenario where the shootout struggles by Minnesota comes into play with the Big Ten standings. 21:46 And that just would not be very much fun for everybody. 21:49 But, you know, Minnesota controls their destiny right now. 21:53 They do. 21:54 And that's kind of another question. 21:55 Ryan Kay here does Veegs. 21:57 Does Bob really want to win the regular season title? 22:00 Does he prefer to play that first weekend? 22:05 He's kind of always said in the past, he doesn't like the weekend off, but hardware is good too. 22:10 I, I don't think he's really gonna wear however it goes, he's going to get behind, you know? 22:16 Yeah. 22:16 I think the fact that he hasn't talked about it as much this year means he'd be okay. 22:23 Winning the league and getting the buy. 22:25 You know, this team did have their struggles with injuries and illness in the second half. 22:30 They, they might benefit from having a weekend off and then just having one in duns. 22:36 The only hiccup there is if you lose that semi-final game at home, you're off again for the NCAA tournament. 22:43 So that's always the sticky wicket right there to get through. 22:47 And Minnesota could be up by four points right now if they would have won a couple of shootouts against Michigan State. 22:55 But well, yeah, actually, they'd be up by, see, they're up by two right now. 23:04 If they would have won those two against Michigan, they'd be up by another two and Michigan State would be down by another two. 23:09 So Minnesota would have a six point lead in the Big Ten race right now. 23:15 If it wasn't for those two over time or those two shootout losses to Michigan State. 23:22 I just saw Bobby Baumann make me think of it. 23:25 He's like, anyone from the women's team that can be rostered to as a shootout special. 23:31 Did you see Abby Murphy's shootout move earlier in the year where she came in and chipped the goalie on a slow toe drag move? 23:39 You know, I think I did, actually. 23:42 It was phenomenal. 23:43 It took some oxy. 23:44 Yeah. 23:47 It did. 23:47 If a Gopher Men's player tried to do that, they'd probably miss the net on it. 23:53 I do wonder if we're going to see a shootout this weekend. 23:58 It could happen. 23:58 It could happen. 24:00 Where was the last? 24:01 It was at Notre Dame. 24:06 I think the interesting thing this weekend is what is going to happen elsewhere. 24:12 Penn State, obviously, they can win. 24:16 They could pass Michigan. 24:17 So they're rooting for Ohio State to beat Michigan this weekend. 24:20 That series starts tomorrow night. 24:22 That series will pretty much be done by the time Minnesota series starts this weekend. 24:28 Then like you said, you got Michigan State at Notre Dame. 24:32 You would need Peacock to see that one. 24:34 But does Jeff Jackson have anything left? 24:37 I mean, what are your kind of thoughts on those other two series? 24:41 Closing out the Big Ten schedule this weekend. 24:44 I mean, I think for Notre Dame, this has been a really tough season for them. 24:50 You know, it's got to be difficult for Jeff Jackson. 24:52 I don't think he likes the current environment of the college hockey world with, you know, the NIL and the gentleman's agreement disappearing and these COVID players and fifth year players. 25:06 It's just not his kind of environment anymore. 25:10 And that's why he's getting out of college hockey. 25:12 He's not retiring from hockey. 25:14 He's made that pretty clear over the year. 25:18 But it's been a disappointing season for Notre Dame. 25:20 They're usually a very difficult team to play against. 25:24 And this year, it hasn't been the case. 25:26 They've given up a lot of goals against them, and they just have not been very stout defensively, good in the face of the circle. 25:34 You know, it's just an anti-Jeff Jackson team. 25:37 So you know, sometimes a coach has run its course. 25:41 Oh, twin cities hockey. 25:43 It would be dandy for a shootout win to win the league. 25:46 So they're playing kind of quietly hoping for that. 25:50 Oh, jeez. 25:52 I'm quietly hoping for a shootout to win the league. 25:54 Oh, you know that it would be on the line at that point, you know, with the timing, right? 26:00 Oh yeah. 26:01 Oh yeah. 26:01 You would, you, you know, what you have to do. 26:05 And then maybe, you know, the players take it a little more seriously or something. 26:09 You know, I think sometimes they're just almost worried about the shootout now that it's got the bad juju. 26:16 They're telling you, stop, Vego, stop. 26:21 There are no curses, although, you know, if we pick a sweep, you know, odds are it might not happen right now. 26:27 No, the students are storming the ice if that happens at Penn State. 26:33 So it doesn't really, in that way. 26:37 I don't know. 26:38 Either way, it's it's just a goofy stat that we just embrace because it is goofy, really. 26:45 It is just such an unlikely stat and we'll just keep kind of embracing it, huh, Veegs? 26:51 You just have to. 26:52 You know, it'll be interesting to see how the Big Ten shakes out. 26:56 It is, you know, that last home ice spot is pretty valuable. 27:00 Michigan has been disappointing lately, and so I don't know if I'm expecting them to win games against Ohio State here coming up. 27:12 You know, I still think one tweak they could have done this season, or maybe they could do next season, is possibly making that semifinal a weekend. 27:24 And then just have the championship game as a single one off. 27:28 At least it gets you closer to the NCAA playoffs for those teams. 27:32 You know, usually there's three or four teams up for those spots that, you know, one or two of them are going to have a long layoff. 27:45 Just we've seen it happen with Minnesota. 27:47 You know, Michigan State could win this weekend, and they could lose right away. 27:50 So they'd play one game in a couple weeks. 27:56 Wouldn't be the case if there was a series for the semifinal. 27:59 I'm sure if Todd Molesky was on, he would tell us all the reasons with building scheduling, why that's a bad idea, why it couldn't happen. 28:07 Conceptually, if you're not going to have an 8th member of the Big Ten join anytime soon, why not make that a best of three second round? 28:16 You're not going to have a single-site tournament where you can have all the game is played. 28:21 You're not going to have a team host, a final four. 28:23 You don't want that. 28:26 So best of three might make sense. 28:28 I believe Todd was saying in a Tweet in one of his articles that yeah, if it turns out, I think it pretty much does. 28:35 When they go to Ohio State, they have to play in the Ohio State Arena because it's already used. 28:44 They're playing in where the Blue Jackets play. 28:46 Was it Nationwide? 28:48 Nationwide Arena? 28:49 Yeah. 28:50 They're going to have to play there. 28:52 Hey, so when you're building a book, Nationwide is on your side and you can play a hockey game there. 28:59 Or if they didn't have a gigantic arena, if they only had something a little smaller, I don't know, maybe it's just a pipe dream. 29:13 If they had a 6,000 seat arena that maybe the men and the women could both play out since the women are going to be hosting games all the time, regular season, Big Ten and NCAA, might give them a place to play. 29:25 That would be nice. 29:27 It might, but, you know, like it's been awful quiet on that front. 29:32 You know, we talked about earlier this season with Cappy a couple of times, and it's just it's really gone quiet on just the smaller 3,000 seat women's arena. 29:43 Yeah, they were supposed to announce their plans for the options to their Board of Trustees at Ohio State. 29:53 They don't have a regent, so I think they have trustees. 29:56 They're a little bit more cloak and dagger on releasing their documents, unlike the U, which is like the most transparent place around, and you can find all their things if you know where to look. 30:07 But Ohio State's been a little more coy about it. 30:09 And I think a big part of that is because of the revenue sharing that's coming to NCAA sports and the roster limits. 30:17 All that is taken priority. 30:19 So I don't think you're hearing any of these big schools making big plans for facilities because they have $22 million they've got to come up with to share with the athletes. 30:30 And it's not that the athletes don't deserve it. 30:32 It's just, it's something athletic departments have not planned for very well. 30:37 And they're going to have to figure out ways to make that viable. 30:41 Well, it's just disappointing, just because they kind of started talking about it two seasons ago, two and a half years. 30:48 It's been a while. 30:50 And you can't just say something and then say, we'll get to it. 30:55 Well, I think everything is the Ohio State. 31:00 Suck it up. 31:01 Be the Ohio State instead of the. 31:04 They are still one of the programs in the country that sponsors a lot of sports. 31:09 I think they sponsor five or six more sports than Minnesota and Wisconsin, Iowa. 31:14 So they are using that big budget to pay for those things. 31:17 And they've taken care a lot of their other sports. 31:21 It's just hockey was next. 31:22 And then this came in. 31:25 And it's really hard for a lot of 80s to plan how they're going to move forward. 31:30 But if there was ever going to be a time for Ohio State to get a hockey ring, it's when you've got a president of the school who was a Navy guy, who's a hockey guy, that's the perfect fit and they have a new AD, it should be a good time to build a hockey program there with a good building. 31:50 Well, let's hope so because if any team deserves that women's team for what they are playing in is worse than most of the high school arenas, probably 90% of the high school arenas are on here. 32:07 It's just an awful place, so. 32:11 And yet they still win. 32:12 So facilities aren't everything, right? 32:15 They must not be. 32:16 Hmm. 32:18 Kind of strange. 32:19 All right. 32:19 Well, before we get into this weekend, Gateway Fiber, we're at their big event, you know, last week, VEG's out in the fish house. 32:29 They're putting a big push in the northern parts of the cities, aren't they? 32:33 Yeah. 32:33 I mean, we rely on fiber for our podcast. 32:36 When you're out at the fish house, we had fiber and everything went great. 32:40 If you feel stuck with your current internet provider, using that 800-pound granola, pulling your hair out because it's expanding constantly lets you down, get something else. 32:50 Check out Gateway Fiber, especially if you live in Blaine, Brooklyn Park, Champlain, Coon Rapids, Maple Grove, Plymouth, Gateway Fiber is already there for you, and they're planning expansion throughout Minnesota. 33:02 If you're looking for internet and you're frustrated, check out Gateway Fiber. 33:07 And last but not least, Veegs, Lunge Bucket Hockey, one of our favorites. 33:13 I mean, if you need some apparel for your beer league team, if you've got a team that's got something going on this spring for youth hockey, check out lungebuckethockey.com. 33:22 They will put together some great custom jerseys for you. 33:25 I think if you're still looking for St. 33:27 Patty's Day apparel to wear around, they've got jerseys to hook you up with as well. 33:32 A couple of local guys who played some Friday morning pick up hockey, started brainstorming and came up with this grit and grind brand. 33:40 They've got all kinds of other apparel too if you want to support them. 33:43 Check out lungebuckethockey.com. 33:46 And of course we thank LungeBucket and Gateway Fiber for sponsoring The GPL Podcast. 33:53 We kind of talked about it already, a resurgent Penn State team the second half of the season playing extremely well. 34:01 Heading out to Penn State Hockey Valley this weekend, Veegs. 34:09 This is going to be a tough test and not just a tough test hockey wise, but maybe, excuse me, mind wise with Mr. 34:17 Souleir finishing. 34:22 Excuse me, where he began. 34:27 Yeah, I think it's pretty clear Souleir is taking the net for Minnesota. 34:32 You know, he's got a bunch of consecutive sparts starts here now for the Gophers. 34:36 And the coaching staff is really confident in him. 34:39 I do think going into a Penn State weekend to close out the year could be difficult mentally. 34:46 You know, you could tell when he played against Penn State at Minnesota how much it meant to him, how happy he was with how he played. 34:53 Everyone was respectful about it. 34:56 And I think going into Penn State, if you have to go through that two nights in a row, I think it's a lot mentally. 35:03 And I also think on the flip side, if you're coaching staff, you might want to give Nathan Airy one of these starts just to get him ready. 35:12 You never know what's going to happen down the stretch. 35:14 You know, someone could get injured, someone could get sick, someone might have an off night. 35:19 You want to have another goalie ready. 35:21 So I don't think Bob's going to be telling everybody his plans for the weekend. 35:26 He's very coy about that, but it would make a lot of sense to me if, you know, Sulear got to play Friday and you had the option to play Airy on Saturday. 35:37 Now maybe if Sulear lights out on Friday and says, no, Bob, that's my net. 35:42 I want it again. 35:43 After playing great on Friday, you have that opportunity. 35:46 But I think you want to go in thinking, Hey, maybe we want to get Nathan a little look at the puck this weekend. 35:53 Yeah. 35:53 Sorry about that. 35:54 I've been sick for weeks here. 35:55 And Ryan K with a funny one. 35:58 Welfare check, please, Barb. 36:02 I just been sick for a while. 36:04 Yeah. 36:06 I finally got over mine. 36:08 Do we need to make a call? 36:10 It's like this. 36:11 I mean, you get those dry coughs, not much you can do about it. 36:16 So I appreciate people. 36:17 It doesn't seem to bother Ben Holden very much. 36:20 He makes it through. 36:21 I've never even tried a cigarette. 36:24 So now it's just I've been sick for a while. 36:26 Well, I was sick. 36:27 Then I get over it. 36:28 Then I get sick again. 36:30 And it's just one of those things. 36:31 You start coughing just hard to stop. 36:33 So. 36:36 So, yes, very emotional weekend for Mr. 36:38 Souleir. 36:39 He is the guy now, Veegs. 36:44 I mean, it's going to be it's going to be tough for him. 36:49 I mean, that's where he played four seasons. 36:52 He played a lot of, you know, that was his team. 36:56 Yeah, it was great to be, you know, play here and they got to shut out against them here. 37:00 It was great, but just a little different at home. 37:06 So yeah, it just makes too much sense to me to play another guy over the weekend. 37:10 The other thing I'll be interested to see this weekend, you know, how does Bob handle? 37:15 He doesn't like to call it the bottom of his lineup, but let's be honest, some guys get less ice time than others. 37:20 You know, does Eric Paulson come back to playing more than 14, 15 minutes a night, or does he play the seven, eight minutes like he did this last weekend? 37:31 You know, he's a player that I think they hoped would help in the faceoff circle and could be a skill player down the middle for them. 37:41 Maybe that's not something they're going to be looking for. 37:43 You know, Aaron Huglund looks like he's coming back strong. 37:48 Oliver Moore had a very good weekend in the faceoff circle against Ohio State. 37:52 So maybe you're feeling a little bit more confident with those guys to roll with instead of Paulson. 37:59 We'll see what happens there. 38:01 Talking with a few people after the game on Saturday, they'll be, it's like, I would mention that. 38:06 I go, oh yeah, guys, the Gophers did so much better this weekend on the faceoff. 38:10 And this person says, well, Ohio State is worse than we are. 38:17 So I'm thinking you'd kind of take the faceoff numbers with a little grain of salt against Ohio State. 38:27 It will be very interesting how it turns out this weekend, because we've seen it, Veegs. 38:31 We've seen faceoff losses on penalty kills, on power plays, in important situations. 38:40 It's not always the numbers, percentages. 38:42 It's when they happen, Veegs. 38:46 It's when they happen. 38:46 And the one thing I've noticed about Minnesota on their faceoff losses is they've been much better getting to their defensive structure, and they've been on time getting there the last couple of weeks. 39:00 And that makes a big difference, I think, for a team, is when they're engaged and they're ready to go, rather than moping around after a loss or blaming somebody else. 39:11 So I think that's a really important focus for Minnesota, this weekend against Penn State, because you know once that puck gets to somebody in space, it's going to the mixer, it's going right into the crease, and they're going to be coming with pressure. 39:24 And that's the other thing to watch for Minnesota at Pegula. 39:28 When Minnesota was not very good there, it's because they were getting beat in that chaos hockey around the net. 39:35 And I have seen that be an issue at times for the Gophers this year. 39:39 Ryan Chesley, Sam Renzell need to be a little bit stronger in those situations. 39:47 Cal Thomas has had a couple of hiccups here since coming back from injury. 39:51 He needs to be very confident in those situations. 39:54 The one player that you don't have to worry about with Minnesota is Luke Middlestad. 39:59 He has been a rock all season in these situations, and you don't need to worry about him. 40:04 But these guys who have the big expectations of Thomas, Renzell and Chesley, I think that's a big thing to watch this weekend against Penn State. 40:17 Who almost had that sneeze on the air because that was close. 40:23 Oh, so we can't pick, believe it's this weekend, Bates, we just can't do that. 40:32 Look at that, Barb bringing me candy to help out. 40:36 Good on the welfare check there. 40:37 Yeah, she did welfare check. 40:38 That's nice of her. 40:41 So we can't pick a sweep because when we're picking sweeps, it wasn't going so well. 40:48 I honestly do think that it is kind of a split type of weekend. 40:55 I think we see overtime both nights. 40:58 Oh, wow. 41:02 So you're thinking more of a four, you're thinking of a more of a four two type of split this weekend, aren't you? 41:07 I'm thinking we see like a four two split this weekend. 41:10 These are going to be important points for Penn State. 41:13 I feel like they have been playing a more defensive style the last two years and less of a crazy style like we did before. 41:22 I think guys really thought about like, what's the style that I can take and build with this team to be successful? 41:31 It's been less loosey-goosey with them and they have been tighter. 41:36 I think when they've got players like Fink who can score on the power play and special teams, you don't need to create as many chances as historically they have. 41:45 So I think we see a tighter weekend than we're expected with Penn State, and we could see games being 2-2, 3-3 that go into overtime, as Penn State is going to be trying to secure those percentages. 42:00 Because any kind of positive percentage against Minnesota for them, maybe gets them over the bubble and gets them into that at-large status. 42:09 I think we see close games. 42:11 I'm expecting OT on Friday with the Gophers winning on 3-3, and then a tight game on Saturday with the Gophers winning in the shootout to secure a Big Ten title. 42:22 Wow. 42:24 I like that boldness right there, Veegs. 42:27 Very nice. 42:31 Patience is very important this weekend, isn't it? 42:35 Yes. 42:36 And we've seen the team do better at this. 42:38 So patience is very important. 42:40 Also, taking advantage of Penn State maybe being too aggressive and being more desperate. 42:51 I'm thinking this is a chance, you know, maybe they make mistakes because they're trying to get into that spot. 42:57 Minnesota can't let those opportunities pass by them. 43:04 So, I'm still thinking split, though, 3-3, 3-3. 43:10 No over times for you this weekend? 43:12 No. 43:14 Picking the split and sticking with the rest. 43:17 All right. 43:18 I'm up for chaos. 43:19 I want the fun. 43:21 I want to see the shootout. 43:22 I want to see them get the bear off the back of their last chance of the season of being in a shootout. 43:28 Because I think if you're looking at Minnesota, the one thing you'd be thankful for is that in the NCAAs, you will not see shootouts again until next year. 43:37 But I think it would be fun to see them get into one. 43:41 I want to see Birdie Zemer in the shootout. 43:44 I think he's got a lot of history at the USA and I think he's somebody who can break that curse and Snuggerud, he's bound to score on one of these. 43:55 He's over his career on shootouts. 43:59 That's like 0 and 4 or 5. 44:01 I'd have to check the stats. 44:02 I've got him on GPL somewhere, but he's over. 44:06 He's over. 44:07 We know that. 44:09 He's got to break it before he signs pro. 44:12 Well, he has one more weekend to do it. 44:14 So I mean, that's it. 44:16 It's either that or bust this weekend. 44:22 So that would be it. 44:22 I still think if he does it, wind up, take the shot from about 20, 15, 20 feet out. 44:30 Just go for it. 44:32 No, I watched some shootout stuff, and they say the best way to come in is you skate to the dot. 44:40 You kind of slow your entry a little bit, and you start pulling it across, and you watch that goalie, and they say, do they leave too soon? 44:49 Do they leave a gap in their five-hole, and you react to the goalie? 44:52 And if the goalie is just going to back, back, back, go in the net, pick your spot. 44:58 Yeah, but how many times have they missed the damn net, Veegs? 45:03 A lot of their misses are missing the net. 45:06 Yeah, that's why I like that low five-hole shot as you come across. 45:09 You just keep your eye on the goalies, you know, back skate, and you watch that. 45:15 You just got to have a little bit more of a plan. 45:17 You can't just come in and all willy-nilly and just go crazy. 45:21 You got to have a strategy and you got to read the goalie. 45:24 So I know they've been working on the shootouts a little bit here and there. 45:28 Maybe they need to do a little film review and be ready to win a Big Ten title at the shootout. 45:33 God, wouldn't that be something though? 45:35 That would be something. 45:39 We can dream, right? 45:40 There are two points up, so they don't have much to work with Veegs because obviously they're going to lose any tiebreaker with Michigan State. 45:50 So we'll have to see. 45:53 Yeah, I wouldn't expect a lot of help from Notre Dame, as we said earlier in the show. 45:57 So you know, four-two might not be enough for the Gophers this weekend. 46:02 You know, we'll see what happens. 46:05 Anything else you got going on? 46:08 Everything good? 46:10 Enjoy all that state hockey tourney section finals this week if you can. 46:14 You know, some great games out there. 46:15 We saw Idina get their spot in the fourth consecutive time. 46:20 McGilletti's hibbing. 46:23 Hey, Blue Jackets up there, tibbing. 46:27 Aren't they? 46:29 What are the hibbing? 46:32 What's the hibbing? 46:33 Now you're just going to get us in trouble now. 46:36 I don't know what's top of my head. 46:38 They're blue. 46:39 They got blue jerseys. 46:42 We didn't do enough show prep on that. 46:43 But we got a new team that could be in. 46:45 Shockabee, we got Rogers, all kinds of fun stuff. 46:49 I know Aldrich is going to be... 46:51 Yeah, Blue Jackets. 46:52 Good job. 46:53 Oh, man. 46:54 You had me worried there, Rees. 46:57 Yeah, we had Johnny Poles. 46:59 Kids win it for the girls, double A. 47:02 That was kind of fun to see. 47:03 So... 47:05 Yeah, that was. 47:06 We were up kind of late Saturday night watching that. 47:09 And that was very entertaining. 47:11 So... 47:12 All right, V. 47:13 You're a little bit of a super team. 47:16 You ready for a little bit over time? 47:17 Nothing extended too much tonight. 47:19 I'm tired. 47:20 I'm sick. 47:21 I've got a fun beer that... 47:25 I'm saving patiently for OT. 47:29 Very interesting. 47:30 Very interesting. 47:32 Well let's get to it then. 47:34 So that's going to do it this week's GPL Podcast. 47:37 We'll be back next week with Pat McClelland at a Pat friendly time of 730 PM. 47:44 For those of you watching live, stay tuned for a bit of overtime. 47:47 For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast.