0:07
This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family.
0:14
Leo, how was your recruiting?
0:16
I mean, you, I mean...
0:18
My recruiting, I probably had 76 D1 offers.
0:26
I still have to say one of the better Don Lucia stories I heard was he was getting it at some, I think it was North Dakota, where the fans were giving it to him and they were saying like, how is your kid on the power play?
0:37
He's terrible.
0:39
He's like, how do you even get that spot?
0:41
And Don turns around and goes, I sleep with his mother.
0:48
Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe.
1:02
Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 286.
1:10
Veegs, we took a week off because our team was eliminated for the Big Ten Tournament.
1:14
So hopefully you got a little rested up, got some of the stuff at home you needed to get done, done, but probably not, huh?
1:22
It was hectic.
1:23
We had our big spaghetti dinner for our hockey association.
1:25
That's right.
1:26
We raised like $17,000 for youth hockey players in North and Northeast Minneapolis.
1:31
I fed nearly 300 people a nice pasta meal.
1:35
We had a lot of volunteers step up, a lot of great businesses donated items for the raffle.
1:40
It was a good time had by all.
1:41
Well, that's great.
1:42
That's great, man.
1:43
I mean, wow, that's all I can say.
1:47
I didn't see some of your pots you had going on your stove.
1:51
My gosh, you had huge things filled to the brim with food.
1:55
It's a lot to prepare, but you know, you plan ahead and you're prepared for the day and it goes smooth, hopefully.
2:01
So it's good time.
2:03
Well, we thought we'd bring Mike Carman back because you know, we need to play our perspective when we're going into the NCAA Tournament.
2:10
Don't you think, David?
2:12
Yeah.
2:13
I mean, Mike's been around.
2:14
He's been watching this team all year.
2:15
We see him up in the club room all the time.
2:18
So he's got his eye on the ball here.
2:21
Well, let's bring him in.
2:22
Mike Carman.
2:23
There he is.
2:24
Thanks for joining us again, man.
2:26
Happy to be on here.
2:27
Thanks for having me.
2:29
Well, when the game ends, you guys did a little hiatus there because that's Ben's fault.
2:36
That's not my fault.
2:37
Ben's been busy.
2:38
You're pumping out shows again.
2:40
And I, what did you just have Lurg on?
2:43
The goalie?
2:45
No, that's Jeff Lurg you're thinking of.
2:47
Brian Lurg was the player.
2:49
I just saw Lurg.
2:50
I didn't get a chance to see him yet.
2:52
Yeah, we recorded him a few weeks ago, right before we went on our little break hiatus deal.
2:57
So Ben's releasing a bunch of the clips now.
2:58
And then we just did Marty Sertich.
3:01
Sertich, that's right, yes.
3:02
On Monday this week.
3:04
So getting back in the rhythm, Ben has had a crazy broadcasting schedule.
3:07
So we had to take a little bit of a break there.
3:09
We've had to shift some interviews around, but I mean, we've got a couple of guys teed up.
3:13
Matt Ford played at Wisconsin.
3:16
Oh, okay.
3:17
We have Monique Lamoureux coming on next week.
3:21
And then we've got a couple of guys in the hopper that I don't have scheduled yet, but have told me yes.
3:25
So I'll let those be a surprise for later.
3:27
Monique's going to be interesting because obviously she was a gopher.
3:30
She was played at North Dakota International Play.
3:34
Wow.
3:35
Yeah, it'll be interesting.
3:36
I mean, it was she commented or said something when we did Mario.
3:41
And then immediately I sent her a message.
3:43
I was like, hey, we'd love to have you on, too.
3:45
You know, we just had Gigi on.
3:46
And, you know, we like getting, you know, obviously the female players' perspectives, too.
3:51
And obviously, like you said, that's a super unique one.
3:54
You know, getting a lot of grief for coming to Minnesota in the first place.
3:57
And then, you know, going back up there and all that.
4:00
So it'll be it'll be fun to talk with her.
4:03
That will definitely be fun.
4:04
And speaking of women's hockey, Veegs, the Gophers couldn't quite do it.
4:07
They get to the Frozen Fort Ritter, lose to Wisconsin and Wisconsin gets.
4:15
I don't know if it's fortunate.
4:16
I mean, Ohio State did take a too many, you know, men on the ice.
4:21
I don't know if you call that in a women's game late in the game, getting them down, controversial hand on the puck, slow motion.
4:29
They get the penalty shot and that penalty shot goal was just beautiful, close to being illegal, but not as successful for the women, but Wisconsin comes through again and they really came through big at the end of that game.
4:44
That's like the opposite of hand of God, like Maradona winning it for Argentina.
4:49
This is like the hand of the devil that somehow lets Wisconsin back into the game and just the moxie to pull off that near stop backwards.
4:59
Palli shot moved to tie it up and send it to OT.
5:03
It was a fun game to watch.
5:04
I know a bunch of young hockey players got to go to the Patty Kaz Award where three badgers were up for the award.
5:11
It was a big weekend at Ritter for Craig Floor, I know.
5:16
Minnesota put on a good event, good crowd, good coverage, so controversial ending.
5:21
You never know what's going to happen in hockey.
5:23
Has there ever been three finalists for either the Patty Kaz or Hobie from the same team?
5:28
Is that a first?
5:29
I think this was the first, was it, Veegs?
5:32
I mean, it's always controversial even when you have two from the same school as a finalist.
5:37
So I can't remember seeing three for the Kaz or the Hobie.
5:41
How was it when the Gophers went undefeated, the 41 and 0?
5:44
Did they have three people up for it?
5:47
I doubt it.
5:47
There's a lot of Minnesota haters out there, so they want to get someone up in there.
5:52
But you know, the Badgers, one loss on the season, it was to Ohio State.
5:58
Oh, maybe it was.
5:59
There we go, Mary Cheumaniacs.
6:02
Got to love the fact checkers checking us a lot.
6:04
Yeah, but that's why we do it live, because they all give us the truth.
6:09
Yeah, there's Tim as well, Hapkey, so.
6:12
But it was an easy thing to remember, they know all three names right away for us.
6:16
So I'm going to give us a little bit of a pass on it, because we are usually Gopher Men's Hockey focused.
6:21
So I like that excuse.
6:24
So I didn't watch the game.
6:26
I just saw, you know, I was kind of checking up afterwards.
6:28
But was that the game that Abby Murphy got kicked out of?
6:33
She didn't get kicked out of.
6:34
She went across the ice to lay a check.
6:36
Oh, yeah, I saw the check.
6:37
She was physical, but she didn't get thrown out.
6:40
She just got a five-minute major.
6:41
And as we always make fun of the refs for making it up as they go, they let her stay in the game.
6:47
I saw the hit.
6:48
I thought she was kicked out.
6:49
And I was like, yep, that makes sense.
6:51
You'd be kicked out of a guys game for that hit, too.
6:53
I mean, elbow to the head late like that.
6:55
But I didn't know she stayed in.
6:56
I was going to say, Gophers have a little bit of an excuse if she missed part of the game.
7:00
But I didn't know that.
7:01
She missed five minutes.
7:02
And actually, the Badgers didn't do very well on that part, that first kind of five-minute power play.
7:07
They scored shorthanded later.
7:08
But that was a nasty hit.
7:11
I did catch that live.
7:14
And I'm like, I thought for sure she would get the boot because that was vicious Vexette.
7:20
Yeah.
7:22
And maybe they're trying to, oh, we can't kick the biggest player off their team right away here.
7:28
But I think she deserved to go.
7:30
That was pretty dirty hit.
7:32
Well, I mean, they've kind of rewritten the rules to give referees judgment, especially in these tournament games, to allow players to stay in the game.
7:39
That's why they rewrite the rules.
7:41
You know, Michigan Tech, they had one of their star players, Hanneland get kicked out early from a check in from behind.
7:48
You know, they've rewritten the rules to kind of allow these players to stay in.
7:53
And, you know, as much as we talk about the Gophers, when they come into these big games down the stretch, you can't expect them to play perfect all the time.
8:02
And so you got to rally through these kind of mistakes because the pressure is so there that the players want to make an impact.
8:09
You know, sometimes you got to bail them out just a little bit.
8:12
Well, it was interesting.
8:13
She obviously did stay in the game, lost six to two, and not the great result for the Gophers.
8:19
But like you said, another successful season for the WCHA when it comes to women, Vigz.
8:26
They're beyond dominant the last 20 years, really.
8:30
I mean, Western hockey is really strong right now, especially in Minnesota, and that's where all these players are coming through.
8:36
I've been watching Mike Snee make these presentations to all these hockey coaches, and he's just talking about how Minnesota hockey is developing more and more players, men and women, whereas I think right now there's more Minnesota men playing Division I hockey than Michigan and Massachusetts combined.
8:55
And you're seeing the same thing in the women's game.
8:58
Minnesota is just producing so many players, and all these schools are able to recruit from that and benefit.
9:03
And Mike, I think some of that has to do with the communities here in Minnesota.
9:07
A lot of the hockey is community funded.
9:10
I mean, I've seen some stories on this recently.
9:12
How many community rinks are there compared to private rinks?
9:15
And then you compare that to some place like a Boston where a lot of it is private, and it costs a lot of money to play.
9:23
Yeah, it costs a ton of money to play anywhere outside of Minnesota.
9:26
I mean, having I remember when I was out in Ann Arbor, like the local high school team, the high school that we went to, it was good hockey.
9:36
Was it our high school hockey?
9:37
Absolutely not, like back home here.
9:40
And like you said, guys have to pay exorbitant amounts of money to go play AAA Tier 1, go out to the prep schools out east, whatever it is.
9:49
I mean, we should feel pretty fortunate that we live in a state where we do have such a strong hockey presence and guys can stay home without having to leave to go play.
10:00
It's an interesting dynamic, you know, I just happen to see a story on that recently and how...
10:06
I mean, guys are leaving home at 8th, 9th grade, like sometimes earlier, depending on the situation, going to these prep schools, right?
10:14
And you know, out east, that's just what you do if you're a decent hockey player.
10:17
If you're a good hockey player in Michigan, you will play for any one of the AAA programs year round.
10:22
And you know, it's just, we are unique in that regard and Minnesota Hockey has definitely protected that.
10:30
I would argue too, a fault sometimes, like they need to be a little more lenient about certain things, but overall, I mean, they've protected the culture and protected the associations and the towns.
10:39
And that's why the high school program continues to produce guys.
10:43
Well, you just look at the thing you just did this past weekend, Veegs, a huge fundraiser for youth hockey.
10:50
I mean, are you, are they doing that in Michigan?
10:52
Are they doing that in Massachusetts and New England?
10:56
That's a huge help to make, to be able to get kids to play, to be able to pay for ice time, because it costs the community to do all this.
11:04
Well, a big thing that my scene is doing with the Minnesota Wild is this Skate at Ford message is where the community support players, you know, participate in the game, because once kids start to play hockey, they want to keep coming back to the rink.
11:17
And hockey is definitely a long term athlete development sport where, you know, you don't know who the elite hockey players are until they're way older.
11:26
Like, there are so many bantams out there who everyone's like, oh, that's a sure fire D1 player, and they don't make it.
11:34
And you just don't know who's got the mindset and the creativity to play at the higher levels.
11:40
I remember when I was doing the recruiting story for USCHO last year that ran during the tournament, you know, there were probably 50 to 70 kids, a class, who were committing to a D1 school, who never made it to D1 hockey.
11:55
Interesting.
11:55
And those are the kids who, you know, they expect to get in at 18 or 19, and they don't get into the school, so then they have to go back to juniors at 19, they don't get in, they go to juniors at 20, they don't get in, and then they're no longer a D1 player.
12:09
And that's a player at 14, where everyone thought, sure thing.
12:13
So hockey is an interesting sport.
12:16
Well, this is where, you know, if you stay in your community, and you maybe play some other sports in the summer, carmy, or in the spring, it's just, you know, you start, when you start putting a lot of money into some of those private things, you can kind of get boxed in.
12:33
You certainly can.
12:35
And I'm the wrong person to ask, because I was one sport athlete by the time I was in high school, just because that's how it played out for me.
12:42
I, you know, I left my hometown to go to Holy Angels and then from there to Ann Arbor.
12:47
So again, I'm not the greatest example of sticking with your community all the way through senior year.
12:52
But no, you're exactly right, you know, and that's kind of the culture that's been created in the youth hockey world is the more money you spend, the higher the expectations are, right?
13:01
And that's not a direct correlation.
13:04
And, but there's too many parents that think the more money they spend, the more things they throw their kid in, you know, it's going to benefit them.
13:10
And the reality is it's going to burn them out.
13:12
You can't do everything and having that balance is super important.
13:16
And what, you know, and there's nothing wrong.
13:19
If you're passionate about hockey and that's your sport and you love it, great, like go work on it, but not everything needs to be structured or not everything needs to be what, you know, Johnny down the road is doing.
13:28
Like you got to find your own path and for everybody, it looks different.
13:33
Well, not structured.
13:34
I know you're a big fan of that, Veegs.
13:36
You like the kids out there just experimenting at times, don't you?
13:40
Well, I think hockey is such a free flowing game that if you just have these patterns in your mind that have to be done a certain way, that's not how the game looks and how it plays out.
13:52
Like we talk about how the Gophers have played down the stretch here.
13:56
They're going to have to get goals out of chaos, not from something that you drop on a whiteboard.
14:02
And especially as they get into the tournament, when they can't execute the play they have in their mind at the point, they kind of get frustrated and they go, this isn't working.
14:14
They start slamming their sticks.
14:16
They start even trying to do more.
14:18
Whereas everything the players have been talking about that I think they're hearing from the coaches is that we need to play hard, we need to play aggressive, but we need to play smart.
14:28
And when the play presents itself, we have the skill to execute.
14:33
And that's the mindset you have to have in a game like hockey because it's not always going to be clear and concise.
14:39
You're going to have to take advantage of somebody's mistake, somebody being out of position, and it's really hard to force those situations.
14:47
Yeah, well, real quick, sorry.
14:48
They just made me think of this when Veegs was talking.
14:51
You talk about like the getting away from structure, right?
14:54
Like, yeah, some structure is good.
14:56
You have to learn certain things about the game, hockey sense-wise, right?
14:58
But I mean, I look at when I was a kid skating, and I spent 75 percent of my development was playing on the outdoor rink, like to a certain age, right?
15:08
Like we'd go to practice and before practice, after practice, I'd be at the outdoor rink.
15:11
After school, I'd run to the outdoor rink.
15:13
Like that's what I did all the time.
15:15
And you're playing against different ages and different skill levels.
15:18
And games of like 12 on 12 out there where there's not a lot of time, you're learning how to stick handle and I mean all that stuff.
15:25
And that just isn't a thing, really.
15:27
I'm not saying no kids do it.
15:28
I mean, so many people have the backyard rinks now, but it's the YouTube hockey.
15:33
It drives me nuts.
15:34
It is like, let's do the most crazy thing we can think of.
15:39
And that's the only thing we're going to practice.
15:41
And then when the time comes to being able to apply things to a game situation, well, that doesn't apply in every game situation.
15:48
Or it might not apply at all.
15:49
It might just be a trick move design to get clicks and views.
15:52
So, I mean, getting kids to actually watch hockey and just play hockey and just go out there and do it on their own without a plan for them is unfortunately something that has gone by the wayside a little bit.
16:03
But you've got to think when you're out there as a kid playing on outdoor ice, you're learning those things you make, like what you can do and what's best for you.
16:14
You've got a puck bouncing around all the time because the ice isn't always great.
16:17
So it allows you to adapt more, I would think, doesn't it, Mike?
16:21
For sure.
16:22
Yeah, I mean, you, I mean, it's just, it's a pressure free environment to try things too, right?
16:27
Like to work on different moves, work on different plays.
16:30
Like you said, like battle different ice conditions.
16:33
We haven't played against older guys, you know, that you're going to push you and, you know, make things harder on you.
16:39
You learn to make plays quicker.
16:40
Like all that stuff is, you know, it doesn't need to be taught in a structured environment.
16:44
And I wish, you know, it's always makes me sad the winter if I drive by and no drink and no kids out there.
16:49
I'm like, what's going on?
16:51
But that's just, that's just the way it is right now.
16:53
And you know, except so many people have the back door or backyard drinks too.
16:57
Like everybody makes a backyard drink now.
17:00
So maybe that's part of it.
17:01
It could be, but it's, you know, unless you got a huge rink, it's just not, it's just not close to saying.
17:07
No, sure.
17:07
Agreed.
17:08
Agreed.
17:10
And as we say in college hockey right now, it's always easier to coach defense.
17:13
And so you see these teams like Ohio State, Minnesota State, UMass, very strong defensive teams.
17:20
And that's what you get into at this time of the year is you have to be patient because you're going to be facing those tough defensive teams.
17:27
Absolutely.
17:29
Well, Veegs, you know, after the Gophers got eliminated, the Big Ten playoffs was still pretty fun.
17:34
You know, Michigan State did come out on top in what was a double over time.
17:39
The internet against Ohio State after Ohio State had a great comeback in that game to tie it late.
17:49
Penn State maybe didn't do as well as we thought they would, but they're not terrible.
17:53
And they're going to be in Allen town and they're going to have a, they get to face Maine could be interesting for Maine.
17:58
But all in all, without the Gophers, the Big Ten tournament went pretty well.
18:03
The home ranks were just packed.
18:05
Yeah, I do think these campus sites are great.
18:08
We just got to get an eighth team in the Big Ten or figure out a way to condense the schedule because, you know, the Gophers having this many days off is not ideal.
18:17
We've seen the Big Ten kind of struggle going in the NCAA Tournament.
18:22
Maybe it's this, maybe it's not.
18:23
It's hard to know.
18:25
But I think Notre Dame showed that they were a legit team losing one nothing to Michigan State.
18:30
You know, for all the talent the Spartans have, trying to generate offense against Notre Dame was very difficult for them.
18:37
But I did really love the OT between Michigan State and Ohio State.
18:40
I thought back and forth, a lot of players going after trying to win the game rather than sit back.
18:45
Five on five OT, College Hockey, great to watch.
18:49
Well, you don't like the three on three circus?
18:54
It's not a lot of defense and it's a lot of possession.
18:57
So it's a challenging.
18:59
You don't want to give away the puck in the three on three.
19:01
Unless you have a great A scoring chance, you don't want to get rid of it.
19:05
Kermy, I thought the three on three was great when it first started because it was so hectic and crazy.
19:10
But now teams really have started to lock it down.
19:15
Yeah, I don't disagree with that.
19:17
It's become the possession base.
19:19
It's guys going over the line and barely taking a look and just turning it back all the way back, circling around.
19:26
I mean, it's crazy watching it.
19:28
I mean, you watch NHL teams do it, some of them, and I'm like, well, this is absolutely just what are we doing here?
19:33
This is boring.
19:35
I don't know if they'll ever go back to five on five.
19:37
Even four on four, I feel like would help to just have it be a little less structured and possession-like.
19:41
But I don't know.
19:43
Either way, I think we need to get rid of the shootouts.
19:45
I think we can all agree it's not that simple.
19:48
I think the Gophers would agree.
19:52
Well, it is important what Grand 3 has turned into.
19:56
What did you say, Veegs?
19:57
Well, even Western Michigan, Denver and then CHC, that was a fun overtime to watch.
20:01
Oh, yes, it was.
20:02
It was exciting and there's no shootout in there.
20:05
So I think that's a great way to end these tournaments.
20:08
Oh, definitely, definitely.
20:11
So Michigan State wins an overtime two years in a row on home ice.
20:15
Very exciting for that crowd and they become one of the number one seeds.
20:18
They kind of had that locked up.
20:21
But I kind of want to talk about what happened right after the end of the season.
20:25
When I saw that tweet from Mr.
20:27
Schlossman, Veegs said Brad Berry had been fired.
20:32
I was very surprised.
20:35
Yeah, I saw that Brad Schlossman ended his article, that if you put the resume of Brad Berry from the last 10 years into the top candidate to replace him, you'd think it was a surefire home run.
20:49
And the success that he's had at North Dakota has been pretty good, but they just have expectations that are so high that if you don't meet that, you know, eventually your time runs out.
21:02
And it's a dangerous move, I think, for North Dakota, because some of the top candidates are going to be coaching right now, and it's going to be hard to hire them away and keep your players that can enter the portal on Sunday.
21:14
As we've already seen, North Dakota has already had players signing pro contracts and leaving.
21:19
They've already had commits that are getting a lot of interest from other schools.
21:23
It's a dangerous move for North Dakota.
21:27
I was wondering that too, because Benny Holden and I were talking about that, and I was like, do you think they'll replace them quick?
21:32
And he's like, yeah, I think they're going to try to do it quick, try to make a splash because they're not in the tournament, whatever.
21:37
But I didn't even think about that point, that the fact that the coaches are going to be going after, they're still playing.
21:43
So why wouldn't you just wait two weeks?
21:46
Like what is the thought process there?
21:51
I wish I knew.
21:53
I mean, they want to stay in the news?
21:57
I don't know.
21:57
I mean, Schloss is going to put them right at the top anyway.
22:02
I mean, I was looking at Schloss' list and like some of the candidates I would think that would come out of this would maybe be Raboin, Mayotte, Larson, based on the timing of how they're doing it.
22:15
I don't know if any of those are necessarily home run hires if you're in North Dakota.
22:20
They're great coaches.
22:21
They're good coaches.
22:22
Do they think Scott Sandlin is going to take the job tomorrow?
22:27
I mean, we can ask him when we see him in Fargo because he's going to be there.
22:30
He's going to be in Fargo, yeah.
22:32
Maybe he wants to stick around for the whole weekend.
22:35
I don't think so.
22:36
Somebody's saying Haxdall is already in Grand Forks.
22:38
Yeah, he has a home there.
22:39
So he's probably there.
22:41
There's no way they're bringing Haxdall back.
22:44
I don't know.
22:44
I don't think he would.
22:47
I think the Raboyne one would be interesting.
22:49
I love Rabs.
22:49
I think he's a great coach.
22:50
But he just went to go basically start up the program where he's at.
22:55
So I don't know if I see that one either.
22:57
Ben throughout Sandaline, he did say his name.
23:00
Ben's been kicking the tires on Michigan State's assistant coach too, DeMichael, I think his last name is.
23:06
I think he's a good young coach that's ready for a head coaching job.
23:10
So maybe that's a dark horse candidate.
23:12
If it gets out there, we can give Benny credit.
23:14
But Schlauss did give the point though that it's rare that they've gone anywhere away from a North Dakota guy.
23:24
It's one of their preferred qualifications.
23:26
Yes.
23:28
Didn't that just close last night?
23:30
Or is it tonight that it closes at midnight?
23:31
Is it tonight?
23:32
Midnight?
23:33
Closes tonight.
23:33
So if you want to get your application in and you've got eight years of pro hockey experience, Mike.
23:42
You can get that application in.
23:44
I don't think so.
23:45
Now think about it, Mike, though.
23:47
I mean, one of their most famous coaches was a gopher.
23:55
Yeah.
23:55
I don't, I don't ever see myself putting on green and black.
24:01
The only time you're gonna see me in green is when it's St.
24:03
Patty's day.
24:05
I see Carl.
24:06
So like Dean Blayze.
24:07
We know Dean Blayze was a gopher.
24:09
So, yeah, I know.
24:11
I, you know, it's funny.
24:13
I kicked the tires when I got done playing.
24:14
I'm like, if I wanted to go chase the coaching world.
24:17
And we were just talking about this with Marty Sertich on Monday on our podcast.
24:20
And it's, it is crazy that people don't realize when you are a college coach, if you're fortunate enough to get to that point, for example, like, which is not a given by any means, you got to grind your way up there.
24:32
You don't have a recruiting staff.
24:34
You don't have a pro scouting staff like the NHL teams do.
24:38
You are your recruiting and scouting staff.
24:40
So, I mean, those guys spend so much time on the road, you know, following guys around.
24:45
I feel you really have to love watching guys, and you have to be good at it, right?
24:49
You have to be good to be able to pull, you know, watching all these kids play and pulling what you need, knowing what you need.
24:54
And I think that's a special talent that just because playing hockey, you played hockey, doesn't necessarily qualify you to do that.
25:00
And like I said, you have to love it.
25:02
And I love watching hockey.
25:03
I don't love it that much.
25:06
And V is really, it's the assistant coaches that must have a crazy schedule.
25:13
Yes.
25:14
Yeah.
25:14
I mean, you talked to Ben Gordon about his driving schedule.
25:18
You know, they don't fly everywhere.
25:21
You know, they're driving to a lot of games, a lot of USHL, a lot of junior games.
25:25
Now we have coaches that are going up and see a major junior.
25:28
Potter's Day was talking about watching some WHL games.
25:32
You know, it's a tough schedule.
25:34
And Steve Miller says, when I see another coach on the rink and they see me there, I want them to be intimidated that they wasted the trip.
25:41
You know, it's that kind of attitude as a coach.
25:44
It's a good motivation.
25:45
I like that.
25:46
Yeah.
25:46
It's like, I want to be in ranks.
25:48
So that other coaches see me and they go, maybe I'll back off and not watch this guy five, six times.
25:56
Well, I got a question sent to me from a GPL, or he wasn't going to be able to watch live tonight.
26:02
Magic wants to know, Veegs, with Brad Berry getting fired and Jeff Jackson retiring, will Coach Moscow be interested in any of their future portal players?
26:14
And he said, PS, I realized Coach Moscow is not a portal guy, but if a Colk and Oubel, Danny Nelson became available, you know, it's something they would should be interested in.
26:26
Bob said he's not a portal guy unless it fits what he wants.
26:30
He's not a portal guy until he's a portal guy.
26:32
Right.
26:33
You know, if he sees something out there like a Matthew Wood or Liam Sawyer, he's going to go out and grab those guys because they can help his program.
26:40
You know, I think the days of the gentlemen recruiting and staying out of that stuff, long gone.
26:46
You know, if Bob sees he needs a power play point guy, he's going to grab him.
26:52
If he needs a goalie, he's going to grab him.
26:54
If he needs a power forward, he's going to grab him.
26:56
You know, it's got to be the right fit and it's got to be right for the player.
26:59
But I wouldn't rule anything out for portal guys, major junior guys, players who are committed to other schools.
27:06
Coaches are looking out for themselves because if Brad Berry can get fired and George Gwazdeky can get fired, anyone can get fired.
27:14
It's a good correlation between what's going on in the NHL, too.
27:18
There's all the talk about offer sheets coming on the rise after what happened with Hallway and Broberg last year with Edmonton that, you know, there used to be kind of like a gentlemanly understanding that you're not GMs.
27:27
We're not going to do that to each other.
27:29
And that one kind of opened the door on like that might be the new thing to try and steal guys away.
27:34
So kind of the same thing.
27:38
Everything.
27:38
It's just interesting.
27:39
It's been an interesting week.
27:40
You know, we saw today St.
27:41
Cloud just lost their goal.
27:43
You kind of kept them in the high rankings early in the season.
27:46
He decided he wants to go pro.
27:49
It's like that just hurt St.
27:50
Cloud even more.
27:51
We've been concerned about St.
27:52
Cloud for a while, Veegs.
27:54
That's not a great start to their summer.
27:56
No, it puts them on the back foot.
27:59
And I think they're looking for transfer goalies.
28:01
They're looking for a major junior goalie.
28:03
It's a big hole to fill for a program.
28:08
Craziness.
28:09
And we haven't even started the NCAA Tournament yet.
28:13
And like you said, you reminded us there, the portal does open up for non-GRAD, or actually non-AIC players, because almost the whole AIC team is in the portal now.
28:25
But that starts on Sunday, the 30th, right?
28:28
Correct.
28:29
So while the tournament is still going on, players can start going on the portal.
28:34
Oh, it's going to be an interesting year, Veegs, because like you said, with the CHL and Major Junior, blah, blah, blah.
28:41
And the extra year being gone now from COVID, I just don't know what to expect.
28:49
Well, and just think that extra year being gone means that there is some room from players from junior hockey to fill roster spots.
28:57
Yeah.
28:57
But now, instead of competing against 50-year players, they're competing against Major Junior players as well.
29:03
So it's just become even harder to become a College Hockey player.
29:08
Oh boy.
29:09
Well, we need to get the Veegs top 20 and start talking about the NCAA Tournament here.
29:14
But first we need to talk about our sponsors and elevated beer, wine and spirits.
29:20
Veegs is one of our new sponsors here recently.
29:24
Got a great store there in White Bear Lake.
29:27
Yep, gem of a place if you're in the craft beer, craft spirits.
29:31
They've got all kinds of stuff well stocked.
29:33
If you're looking for THC drinks and gummies, they've got that too.
29:36
If you want the everyday stuff like Bud Miller Coors McGolden Light, they've got cases for just $17.99.
29:43
If you're looking for black box wine, just $13.99.
29:46
These are two local guys, Ryan and Tom from White Bear Lake, they have 99 grads, Go Bears, and they open their store there, and they've also got one in South Minneapolis.
29:55
They'll stop in, check them out.
29:57
And of course, your favorite place to shop for all around stuff, Veegs, Cub Foods.
30:04
I was down there twice this week because I was trying not to build up too big of a refrigerator because I'm going to Fargo this weekend.
30:12
But when I'm putting together a meal and I need an ingredient, I know I can go to Cub and get it.
30:17
And if I'm running out of time, I can go to cub.com and I get it delivered, I can go pick it up.
30:21
If I'm also looking for a couple of beverages, like I've got a GPL beer of the week that I need to get, a lot of these stores have beer, wine and spirits as well.
30:30
And they sponsor Minnesota.
30:31
They're here for Pulltab Sports, they're on PJ Flux headset, Cub Foods.
30:35
Holy cow.
30:36
But they're convenient for those 300 miles you fed the other day, too.
30:41
That's right.
30:41
If I was missing one of my ingredients for my special sauce, Cub's on my way there.
30:48
And then one of my favorite, you know, places lunch bucket hockey, boy, what a great group of guys there, Veegs.
30:55
Yeah.
30:55
A couple of local guys.
30:56
They've got that Friday lunchtime retiree pickup hockey game.
31:00
And they're saying, you know, we need a brand for guys that are the grit and grind players.
31:04
And they've put this apparel brand together, lunchbuckethockey.com, you know, and Jack Ramsey and his team's going out to Vail and they need some sweaters for the trip.
31:13
They go to lunchbuckethockey and the lumberjacks are set.
31:16
So visit them.
31:17
If you're looking for some apparel, if you're looking to do custom jerseys, they're your guys.
31:23
And then last, but certainly not least gateway fibers taking over the Northern part of the city's Veegs.
31:29
Yeah.
31:29
We did our fiber to the fish house with them, you know, and our pod relies on fiber internet.
31:35
We want that good connection.
31:36
And you know what?
31:37
Sometimes we don't want to deal with that big gorilla like Xfady.
31:41
So gateway fibers, an option for people.
31:43
If you're in Blaine, Brooklyn Park, Champlain, Coon Rapids, Maple Grove, Plymouth, gateway fibers in your neighborhood.
31:51
And they've got plans to expand deeper in Minnesota.
31:55
All right.
31:55
And of course, thank gateway and all the others for sponsoring the GPL podcast Veegs top 20 kind of your final top 20 for the tournament here.
32:04
And then there'll be a kind of a final one at the end of the year.
32:06
Veegs, you did a little swap at the top because well, Boston college didn't make it to the the hockey is kind of finals there, but Michigan state sure showed that they're doing pretty good right now.
32:18
Yeah.
32:18
I think Michigan state showed that they can play a couple of different ways.
32:21
I think maybe they have some depth that they've developed over the years.
32:25
I got to watch them a little bit more closely with the Gophers out of the tournament.
32:29
I go home.
32:30
I got to hand them some morals.
32:33
Michigan state is pretty good this year.
32:35
I think they are in the number one spot in my ranking.
32:38
Hockey East.
32:39
I do think there is a mess in that league.
32:42
Really?
32:43
We saw BC, Maine, UConn, Providence, UMass.
32:48
They're all there battling with each other.
32:52
I think BC has got the most talent.
32:54
Maine's maybe been the best team out of that group, but I just don't know who is the top dog there.
33:00
So, I kind of dropped BC down there a little bit.
33:03
Western, class of the NCAA.
33:06
Not a great year for them in the pairwise, but Western looks really fun to watch.
33:11
You saw Alex Bump come through for that.
33:13
Oh boy, yeah.
33:13
Had the last call in St.
33:15
Paul.
33:16
He's going to be a fun player to watch in the Fargo this weekend.
33:20
I really like that main team, Veegs.
33:22
They played Northeastern.
33:23
They obviously went to Overtide.
33:24
They dominated them and then they dominated UConn in the final.
33:28
They just looked really good.
33:30
I mean, in my eyes.
33:32
I think they play really good team, Han.
33:33
Yeah, they do.
33:34
They're fast, too.
33:36
I think Ben Barr is a good coach.
33:38
They've got a good young goalie.
33:40
I think he's a Swedish kid.
33:42
So he's been good for them.
33:43
A little bit of a surprise.
33:46
But I just don't know if they're the elite talent kind of team.
33:50
We've seen Wynn then NCAA Tournament the last couple of years.
33:54
I think that Hockey East, as well as they did in the non-conference stuff, I just don't know what we're going to see.
34:00
Well, it'll be interesting because obviously we know Maine has got Penn State right off the bat in Allentown.
34:05
That's going to be very, very interesting.
34:09
Kermy, any thoughts about the top 20?
34:11
I mean, it's hard to argue with Veegs this time of year.
34:14
I think he knows his stuff.
34:16
I'll give Veegs credit.
34:17
He's more in tune than I am.
34:20
I didn't watch a ton of the other teams this year.
34:22
Mine's been more kind of looking at the scores, who's played who.
34:26
I will agree with your hockey, East Take, Veegs.
34:28
It seems like no one is clearly standing out among those teams.
34:32
They're all beating each other right now.
34:35
So it is kind of hard, especially when you're doing a hockey bracket right now, trying to figure out who's going to take down who.
34:41
But yeah, it is hard to argue.
34:44
I've seen clips of Western.
34:45
Western looks awesome.
34:47
BC, like you said, a ton of talent.
34:49
Michigan State is a complete hockey team, though.
34:52
I don't think you mess that one up.
34:54
I think all roads lead through them.
34:56
I think they truly have shown top to bottom how good they are, how consistent they are.
35:02
I mean, they're poised to make a run for sure.
35:04
That's going to be a tough one.
35:06
Yeah, definitely going to be fun.
35:08
I think the other team we didn't touch on there is Denver.
35:10
I think they're a little bit in that gopher boat of, we wanted to get to this point of the season back in October.
35:18
And you just see those little drops in focus at times in their game that has cost them.
35:24
And that's why they're not a number one seed and why they have a tough path to the Frozen Four.
35:29
But they still have a lot of talent.
35:31
They still have a big time goalie and they have a great coach.
35:34
So Denver is a team that's kind of lurky in the middle there.
35:37
That's going to be very dangerous.
35:39
They gave away that championship game though.
35:42
Yes, they definitely gave it away.
35:43
But that's a focus piece.
35:45
I got another curveball for you because I haven't watched them play it all this year.
35:47
They said looking at their numbers and what they've done and who they beat.
35:51
What's the deal with the Connecticut team?
35:53
Like what with UConn?
35:54
What's going on there?
35:55
Because it seems like they're for real.
35:57
They're not there.
35:57
This isn't some inflated schedule they've played and they seem like they're the real deal.
36:02
Well, the funny thing is, you kind of, you kind of been kind of scratching your head a little bit on that this entire season.
36:08
You're like, gosh, I don't have them so high, but boy, they're high in the pair wise.
36:12
And you didn't, you weren't really sure of how high they were.
36:16
I've even watched them play like four games this year, and I still don't see how they've been as consistent in these big games.
36:23
And it's maybe just that playing with no pressure kind of feel that they've been able to pull out a bunch of tight games.
36:30
They have a lot of good wins on their schedule.
36:33
And I've watched them and I'm not blown away by them.
36:37
And maybe it's that hockey east kind of thing that I'm having a hard time with.
36:42
I've got the ESPN Plus, I've seen a bunch of hockey east games.
36:47
I don't know.
36:48
I'll be interested to see how they do in the NCAA Tournament because it's a big test.
36:52
I was hoping for a more positive take from you.
36:54
I'm trying to make my bracket here and figure out who I need to pick.
36:59
Now I'm leaning towards Quinnipiac.
37:03
I mean, we'll get to it, but I'm leaning towards Quinnipiac too.
37:06
Interesting.
37:07
Well, I'm going to bring up the first bracket here.
37:09
We're going to go out to Manchester, Boston College.
37:13
Obviously, the number one seed is going to face Bentley, Providence and Denver.
37:20
All right.
37:22
That's not an easy bracket for Boston College.
37:24
You know, with Providence or Denver sitting there, Veegs, that could be very interesting if Bentley doesn't give them a headache.
37:32
Well, that's what I've been hearing from the coaches is that Bentley is a very difficult team to play against and could give BC a tough first round.
37:40
You know, the team I like out of this bracket is Denver.
37:43
You know, I've seen them have so much talent.
37:46
I think they've got the focus to get through a bracket like this.
37:50
And there are no strangers to playing on the road, you know, going on a long plane trip and playing in these regionals.
37:56
And you can't really argue with David Karl.
37:59
He's won the gold medals.
38:00
He's won the NCAA titles.
38:02
I expect to see the Pioneers back in the Frozen Four.
38:05
Oh, okay.
38:07
See, I 100% have Denver beating Providence.
38:11
Like you said, I think Denver is better than, like I said, their record is shown at times.
38:17
I think they're, like I said, it's little mistakes.
38:20
They correct those.
38:20
They've got a very solid hockey team.
38:22
It's tough to argue with David Karl's experience.
38:24
Providence, on the other hand, I was kind of looking up their stuff.
38:27
They faltered as of late.
38:28
They're five and five in their last 10, losing in the quarterfinals.
38:32
So it's not like they're coming in hot either.
38:35
I mean, I have to imagine Denver's got a pretty big chip on their shoulder after what just happened against Western.
38:42
But I will argue with you.
38:43
I think BC's got too much firepower and they're coming out of this one.
38:46
One thing I do find interesting, Vig, is the defending champion is on ESPN+.
38:54
That's a little weird.
38:55
I think that's happened in the past.
38:56
But I was just going to say on Providence, I think they've gone to OT 12 or 13 times this year.
39:02
Really?
39:02
That's something scary to look at, you know.
39:05
If you have a team that leaves it to the end so many times, I don't have a lot of confidence picking them against a team like Denver.
39:13
Wow.
39:14
Right.
39:15
That's a lot of overtime.
39:17
I knew it was double digits.
39:18
I just wanted to double check.
39:20
They haven't gone to OT here in a little bit, but they've also lost four times in their last eight games.
39:24
Has Fish played much?
39:27
I don't think so.
39:28
I think he played early in the season.
39:30
I don't know if he's played much since then.
39:31
So not a terrible school to go to, though.
39:34
So probably it's a great school.
39:36
So let's move on to Michigan States Regional there in Toledo.
39:42
Veegs Cornell comes back and gets into the tournament again.
39:47
We know Mr.
39:48
Wooden will love that.
39:49
But this is a really good bracket.
39:52
I really like this one.
39:54
I think it'll be interesting to watch.
39:56
I really like the Big Ten out of this bracket.
39:59
It's probably my Western bias.
40:00
I'm going to admit it.
40:02
But I've seen BU and their talent make a lot of mistakes.
40:05
They struggled early, played well later.
40:07
That's going to be a tough game for Ohio State.
40:09
But Ohio State played really well the second half.
40:13
And it surprised a lot of people.
40:14
Steve Rollex done a great job of that program this year.
40:18
So I see Sparty and the Buckeyes playing again in a big game.
40:23
You know, it's funny.
40:23
I talked to, I won't say my source, but talk to someone affiliated with BU alumni.
40:30
And his thoughts were that it sounded a lot like, I think, what we get concerned about with the Gophers.
40:35
Tons of talent, but inconsistent and not doing, not necessarily playing the right way all the time.
40:42
So that one, that is an intriguing matchup.
40:44
My flip side of that is I was not impressed with Ohio State when they came to town to play the Gophers.
40:49
I didn't think, I don't think they're a bad team, but I also didn't think that they have the firepower to really get it done.
40:57
I mean, yeah, they can try to lock it down from a defensive style and, you know, maybe upset BU that way, or not upset, but, you know, disrupt their offense.
41:08
I just, I don't see them getting by.
41:10
If BU shows up, like, with all their talent and play the game they're capable of, I don't see Ohio State getting by them.
41:17
That's my take on that one.
41:19
Who comes out of there, Veegs?
41:22
I watched the BU UMass game from a couple of weeks ago, and I was not impressed with BU.
41:29
You know, like Carmen said, you know, it's just, you know, they're not executing like their talent would suggest.
41:36
So I like Ohio State and then I like Michigan State, and I like Sparty getting to St.
41:39
Louis.
41:40
I think Sparty's going to St.
41:42
Louis out of this one.
41:42
Yeah, no question.
41:44
Cornell is not an easy out game one though.
41:46
It's not, it's not.
41:50
That's what I love this time of year.
41:51
The only, only this, that game's going on at the same time that Mankato and Western is playing.
41:56
So I'm sorry.
41:57
All the time.
41:58
All the time.
41:59
Sure.
41:59
So I just want to say all the times are Eastern here.
42:01
I didn't get a chance to update the sheet.
42:03
This is one of the first years I can remember where I haven't looked at some of the matchups and been like, well, this is going to be a blog.
42:11
I feel like this year, truly anybody it seems like could win their first round game.
42:19
I think everybody looks down on the AICs and the Bentleys of the world, but the reality is they're older, they're stronger.
42:29
They're likely going to be more physical and they're going to lock it down and do what they need to do to frustrate you.
42:35
So there's no easy outs and that's what makes this time of year fun.
42:40
All right.
42:40
Let's head to Allentown, Maine and Penn State, Yukon and Quinnipiac.
42:46
Carmy, you, you kind of lean in Quinnipiac there, aren't you?
42:50
Well, I it's funny.
42:51
I had Yukon circled on my sheet here because I knew we were going to get into it.
42:54
And I'm like, God, I hope these guys have some more insight for me because everything I see is like, they're kind of a dark horse.
43:00
They're not a blue blood hockey program, but they've had a lot of success this year.
43:05
But now hearing Veegs talk like that, now I'm like, well, Quinnipiac's got the experience.
43:09
They got ram-packed and all of them.
43:10
They know what they're doing.
43:13
Maybe it's their time to keep making a run.
43:16
But so now I don't know who I'm going to pick in that one.
43:20
I'm still torn.
43:21
But I would say coming out of the bracket, though, I'm making a bold prediction that Penn State's going to upset Maine being that it's going to be basically a home game for them.
43:32
I think they're going to frustrate Maine and get by them.
43:35
I don't think they're going to get to the Frozen Four.
43:38
But I think they're capable of pulling off that first round upset.
43:41
Well Penn State was the last team in, weren't they, Veegs?
43:46
Actually, the Devon and Quinnipiac were the last teams, but they just snuck in because of the way the numbers came out.
43:53
Penn State plays that style, though, that is so frustrating.
43:57
And they've been cooking the second half of the season.
44:00
It's, it's not, it's, it's just dangerous enough to, you know, to mess with, to mess with some of these top seeds.
44:09
It's going to make for a great Friday evening, Veegs.
44:11
I tell you.
44:12
Yeah.
44:12
I mean, I think that's the big game to watch for an upset, you know, a four one type situation.
44:19
You know, Penn State, they're hard to play against.
44:21
But like I said, Maine looks like one of the most cohesive teams that I've seen out of the hockey East games that I've watched.
44:28
Like they just don't give up much.
44:32
And so I think Maine's going to be able to survive that one into the final.
44:36
I do like Quinnipiac over UConn.
44:38
You know, the Bobcats have been there before.
44:41
I don't think they've lost in regulation since like the first week of January.
44:47
Like they are just on a very hot streak right now.
44:50
And, you know, they've got the experience, they've got to figure it out.
44:53
So I like Quinnipiac there against Maine in the final.
44:58
It's such a toss up for who's going to get to the frozen four on that one.
45:03
I'm going to pick Quinnipiac.
45:05
Really?
45:06
Wow.
45:08
I like your guys' picks.
45:09
These are fun.
45:10
I would say though, Veegs, if we want to kind of keep pushing the home ice narrative, I think Penn State taking out Maine would be very interesting.
45:23
It would be good for our argument.
45:25
It would be good for our argument.
45:26
So root for Maine.
45:27
I mean, you might pick Maine, but maybe root for Penn State.
45:31
I'm definitely rooting for, I'm rooting for the Mini Lions.
45:33
For our narrative, because like you've said, boy Penn State heading into Alphond for an NCAA tournament.
45:43
Why wouldn't they want that at Maine?
45:49
Make a lot of sense, but you know, Mike Schaeffer gets to play his first round game at a neutral site.
45:55
So, yeah, what do you do?
45:58
All right, let's get to Fargo here.
46:02
It came down to an overtime goal from Alex bump over Denver, puts Western Michigan as the number fourth, the fourth number one seed at number four.
46:12
They're getting Minnesota State.
46:16
I'm actually kind of glad that happened because I still worry a lot about Minnesota, playing a Minnesota State Peaks.
46:25
Yeah.
46:26
I mean, as you look at this, this is such a great bracket for Minnesota.
46:31
They get to play UMass who lost to BU.
46:35
So they've been off a little bit too.
46:37
And having to play Minnesota State in a first round game for the Gophers is just like a kryptonite type equation.
46:45
It would be very frightening, I think, for all the fans in attendance.
46:49
And so I think this is actually lucked out for Minnesota's favor to have the bracket this way.
46:54
Western Michigan is going to get a battle from the Mavericks.
46:57
Luke Strand's done a great job.
46:59
I'm completely surprised with Minnesota State being here.
47:03
I didn't think he was going to be able to get them back so quickly with Mike Hastings leaving and taking some of the top players from the Mavericks to Wisconsin.
47:13
And, you know, Mike Hastings will be watching on TV or in a stand somewhere, and Luke Strand will be on a bench.
47:19
So great matchups in this region should be good hockey.
47:23
What do you think, Miss Western and Minnesota State there, Carmy?
47:27
Yeah, I share a vague sentiment there.
47:30
I'm surprised that Mankato is back at this point.
47:33
Already, you know, they got their program completely gutted.
47:36
And, you know, you kind of figured they would have been, you know, maybe 500 hockey club, but they're clearly not that.
47:43
And we all know the style.
47:45
They play heavy, hard, older hockey like we're talking about.
47:48
And I mean, it's going to be a clash of two styles.
47:51
I mean, Western Michigan, a lot of firepower.
47:55
Can they get through the Mankato, you know, lockdown defense?
47:58
I don't know.
47:59
I am picking Western to take them out just because I feel like coming off the win they just came off of coming off.
48:05
I think they're nine and one in their last ten.
48:07
I mean, they're just rolling.
48:09
I think that's going to be too much for Mankato to handle for that one.
48:13
Minnesota, New Mass, a rematch from just a couple of years ago with maybe Western waiting in the wings for either of those teams, Veegs.
48:23
Yeah, I think we're going to see Minnesota pull this one out.
48:26
I feel like they've just got the attitude right now where if Snuggerud and Wood play well, if San Lorenzo plays well, Minnesota should be able to get out of this game without any problem.
48:41
Liam Suliars, the experienced goaltender, I think having him in that for this game should help.
48:48
UMass is a big heavy team, but they're also kind of a one line team.
48:52
So I think if Minnesota can match up their defense spin against that top line, it's really going to make things easier for the Gophers.
48:59
And they're not going to be on their heels a lot.
49:01
They're going to be able to spend a lot of time in the UMass zone.
49:04
And if they're patient and they wait for those opportunities to come, it should be a couple of victory for them.
49:12
Well, I mean, this is a great first game.
49:15
I would say this is a great first game for them to have to play, because it's going to be a team that more defensively orientated.
49:22
That's exactly what Minnesota's Kryptonite has been, is how to play against teams like that, when your first option or second option on the rush isn't available.
49:30
So I'm excited.
49:31
I think one thing I've talked about all year, despite some of the inconsistency, is from the get-go, the depth of the Minnesota offense, right?
49:40
The depth of the four lines that they have.
49:43
Now, losing Huguen, that is a big blow.
49:46
That really...
49:48
He's a playoff hockey player.
49:49
That sucks.
49:52
But still, they have a ton of depth there.
49:54
I have to imagine they're pretty pissed off, maybe a little bit embarrassed by what happened against Notre Dame.
50:04
Not that they played atrocious all weekend or anything like that, but still, it's a series they were expected to win.
50:09
So I'm hoping they come in with a chip on their shoulder.
50:11
Obviously, Soullier's numbers did not reflect how he has played the rest of the season.
50:17
So I would imagine he's got something to prove.
50:19
I think they come out flying and I just bite the time off.
50:22
And I think, like I said, just wear them down.
50:24
Wear them down, wait for their opportunities.
50:26
And when they get one, they'll get three.
50:28
And that's how I see that one going.
50:30
Well, I think they need to play like they did against Ohio State.
50:33
They made Ohio State look very slow and very average.
50:37
They need to play the same way against UMass.
50:40
And that can get them going in the tournament and shake off the rust because they've got a good goaltender in UMass.
50:47
You know, you saw him in the World Junior.
50:49
You know, he went in that long shootout with Sweden.
50:51
I think it was like 14 rounds or whatever.
50:54
He's a big aggressive goalie.
50:56
And watching him the last couple of weeks, the goals he's giving up, you know, it's the side to side stuff that a big goalie has a hard time with.
51:03
It's pucks in the feet that a big goalie has a hard time finding.
51:07
You know, if Minnesota can play that game, it should be a relatively easy game for one of the highest scoring teams in college hockey.
51:14
You know, it's funny, you're talking about, because I was curious about that too.
51:18
I'm like, let's do a little bit deeper dive into the numbers.
51:20
Like one of the highest scoring teams in college hockey all year.
51:22
I mean, averaging four goals a game is awesome.
51:25
I looked at their numbers though, when like, when they're trailing after one, after the first period, I'm not talking about after the second period, after the first period, for a team that can put out that much offense, and their record is under 500 when they're trailing after the first period.
51:39
So I think it's, and it extremely dips even more so after the second, which is to be expected for most teams.
51:45
But I think it's important they come out and score first.
51:48
I think 100%, I think it was 10-2-2 as a record when they score first.
51:53
They got to get out and get the first goal and just put Massachusetts on their heels right away.
51:56
I think that's going to be extremely important.
51:59
I know it's a little bit of a, you know, we talk about a chess match, a weight and see what they're going to, you know, how Mass is going to play and how they're going to work around that.
52:07
But exactly what you said, V, is they just put them on their heels right away, use that speed, get pucks in behind them, go get that first one.
52:14
And then I think the rest will take care of itself.
52:17
But I do think Minnesota doesn't struggle in those games because they're not good enough.
52:21
I think it's because they put too much pressure on themselves and they get away from what makes them successful.
52:27
And that's a mindset thing, I think, more than a skillset thing.
52:30
And so if this team is going to win in the tournament this year, they have to flip that switch because I think it's hard to say that you're going to win the first period of every one of these games through St.
52:41
Louis.
52:42
That's again, that's kind of the flip side of that, right?
52:44
Like they need to do that.
52:47
You know, right?
52:47
I'm saying to start out this game, but moving forward, like they have to be able to battle through that when they don't get on the board first, because it is unrealistic to expect them to score first in all four games, assuming they get to the finals.
52:59
The one area that concerns me, defensive details, I feel like have been a consistent issue for a couple of years now.
53:08
I feel like the same goals are getting scored over and over and over again against the Gophers, leaving guys open in the slot and not picking up sticks around the net.
53:16
And it seems so avoidable, so many of these goals that they do give up, even if the goalie doesn't make the save that he should make.
53:23
That's what concerns me when Minnesota runs into some of these teams, like say they win and Western wins, Western is going to have an offense rolling on them and they need to be sharp defensively.
53:33
I think that's going to be extremely, extremely important.
53:36
The third one, Mike, is back checking all the way to the net and picking up a guy.
53:41
That's one that Oliver Moore talked about this week.
53:43
He's like, we've got to back check all the way to the net with purpose and find a stick.
53:48
Yeah.
53:49
They're capable of doing it.
53:50
We've seen them do it, all this stuff that we're talking about.
53:53
But this is the time here, you can't have a mental lapse.
53:55
You can't forget about the guy behind you in the slot, back door.
53:59
You can't forget to grab a guy's stick.
54:00
You can't forget to back check.
54:01
You can't forget the details because that's when you're going to truly get exposed.
54:07
All right.
54:09
Veegs.
54:11
I'm guessing ESPN wants a Minnesota State Final because they would love to push that pit look angle.
54:20
I would have to agree with them.
54:22
That would be pretty outstanding if we get a Minnesota State Final.
54:27
I think that would be the most entertaining TV angle, but I think we will see the Gophers play the Broncos.
54:32
I think we will get Fire Wagon Hockey in that kind of game.
54:37
And I'm looking forward to that.
54:38
I think Minnesota gets out of this region.
54:41
I like Fire Wagon Hockey.
54:42
That's usually good for the Gophers, because I liked your thoughts there.
54:46
Yeah.
54:47
You got to be picking Minnesota, aren't you?
54:49
Of course.
54:50
Of course.
54:51
I mean, this is the one bracket that I have a hard time with my head getting away with my heart, right?
54:59
I mean, of course.
55:00
But the Gophers, when they're clicking, I mean, we've seen it this year.
55:05
When they're clicking, they are borderline unstoppable.
55:08
I don't care who they're against.
55:09
So I like to think that they've had a lot of time to reflect over the last two weeks.
55:14
And I think they're going to come in firing on all cylinders.
55:17
And you said it's tough to keep up with them when they're doing that.
55:21
We got Mary G.
55:21
Maniacs watching via Twitter.
55:23
Pitlicks scores against Gophers.
55:24
It's going to stick into the crowd.
55:26
It writes itself.
55:29
That's funny.
55:30
Actually, I was thinking of something.
55:32
Pitlicks scores an overtime goal against Minnesota.
55:35
It takes a stick and just throws it over.
55:37
Mots go into the stands.
55:43
That might be hit a little too close to home.
55:45
I'm hearing man tables going all the time, goals against Minnesota.
55:49
I don't know if we can put that out in the universe like that.
55:53
Yes.
55:54
Well, before you came on, Veegs, let's talk a little bit with Carmy.
55:56
I was saying that these regional weekends are so fun because it's solid hockey.
56:02
When you go to them like a Sioux Falls like we did last year, and we're going to Fargo this weekend, it's going to be fun no matter what.
56:07
You're running into people you haven't seen maybe in a year.
56:12
You get to interact with fans a little bit more because they're just right there with you.
56:17
It's a fun weekend.
56:20
And as much as so many people are giving Bob Motsko a hard time about saying they don't need a day off in between games, that's not good for the hockey.
56:29
I love it.
56:30
It's going to be great because it's going to be a watch all the games.
56:32
It's going to be so much fun.
56:34
I love it.
56:37
We almost lost you there, Big.
56:39
I'm so excited.
56:40
Well, it is fun.
56:41
I do like the day off in between.
56:43
I like to be able to, hey, we're going to have some brisket or we're going to have some pulled pork.
56:49
I think I'm going to Steve and Chad.
56:51
We're going to be at his house.
56:53
He's going to be cooking up some good food for us.
56:55
Got the big couch, got the big TV.
56:58
We might go out a bit too.
57:01
It's just a fun weekend.
57:04
It's a boys' weekend.
57:06
It's a boys' and girls' weekend.
57:09
It's fun all around.
57:11
You run into former players.
57:13
I ran into Wendell and Angel last year.
57:17
Like I said, people.
57:19
We've got Chris.
57:22
Flavortown.
57:24
There's the fabric right there.
57:26
I've got to make something out of the flame fabric at Flavortown.
57:31
Oh, boy.
57:33
I'm jealous.
57:34
I will not be there.
57:34
You guys are going to have a blast.
57:37
It will be fun.
57:37
And Vakes, you're bringing the whole family.
57:39
They're going to be going to the games, aren't they?
57:41
Yeah.
57:41
The whole family is coming up for the weekend.
57:43
So it should be fun.
57:45
Hopefully they get to see a game on Saturday.
57:51
It'll be fun.
57:53
It'll be fun.
57:54
Well, we're going to do something slightly a little different here.
57:59
We're going to have The Overtime Show be part of the full show this week.
58:03
So we're just going to take it.
58:04
Yeah.
58:05
Oh yeah.
58:06
Overtime is going to be part of the show this week on the recorded.
58:10
So take a quick break and we'll be right back with Overtime.
59:04
Grew you off a little bit with that there, didn't I, Veegs?
59:07
Yeah, you did.
59:08
So you're looking at us here from St.
59:10
Patrick's Day still.
59:11
So cheers, everyone.
59:12
Nice light stout to get ready for the weekend.
59:16
Light?
59:20
It's not a little overbred.
59:21
It's only 4%.
59:22
It's actually pretty low-cal.
59:24
Okay.
59:24
It's health food, fortified with vitamins.
59:28
Yeah, I just kind of thought tonight, we're gonna include the full overtime as full as a full broadcast.
59:36
Plus, it's a lot less editing I need to do before because I'm gonna go to bed, hit the road tomorrow.
59:41
There's going to be no...
59:43
I don't have time to put clips together and all that stuff.
59:45
So I'm like, you know what?
59:46
We'll give the fans a little something special by including overtime in the main podcast tonight.
59:52
So that way they have more stuff to listen to on the way to Fargo, right?
59:56
They do.
59:57
They do.
59:58
So it'll be a nice long broadcast for listening as you're driving up.
1:00:03
So that will be fun.
1:00:07
Schloss, if you're watching, have Vegs send you the link.
1:00:10
I want some scoops, man.
1:00:13
He's going to be busy having coach search.
1:00:15
Oh, man.
1:00:16
Working the phones, I bet.
1:00:17
He probably is.
1:00:19
I hope he's there this weekend.
1:00:20
He's going to be there, wouldn't he?
1:00:22
Yeah, I would think so.
1:00:23
Is there a list of the coach?
1:00:25
Is there a list of the other coaches that are that that he has?
1:00:29
I saw you put him in the Herald.
1:00:30
I don't have some scripts in the Herald.
1:00:32
So, I could see the list.
1:00:36
I do.
1:00:36
I can read off all his candidates here.
1:00:39
Give me a second because I pulled it up the other day.
1:00:42
So, Dave Haxcall, Dane Jackson, Scott Sandlin, Pat Verschweiler, Jason Herter, Ben Barr, Nate Lehmann, Reid Cashman, Aaron Schneekcloth, who I don't really know very well.
1:00:57
Jeff Blaysill, Matt Stavey, Matt Greene, James Patrick, Jeff Ulmer, Jonathan Taves, got to get to 20 somehow.
1:01:05
Matt Cullen, Garrett Boyan, Chris Mayotte, Brett Larson, Luke Strand.
1:01:10
So, I think this is just him coming up with some theoreticals to get to 20.
1:01:15
But I got to think, you know, guys like Haxdahl are top of the list, like we talked about in the show, because if you're going to make this move now, it's hard to hire first Schweiler, Barr, Lehman, you know, Strand, you know.
1:01:33
Those are hard people to hire right now.
1:01:36
Is that Nate Lehman, right?
1:01:39
Yeah, I had Nate in some of the USA Hockey stuff.
1:01:42
He's unbelievable, great guy.
1:01:46
I'm curious, do you really think they would bring Haxdahl back?
1:01:49
I don't see that.
1:01:51
I think he's still looking for an NHL job.
1:01:54
And that's what Schloss said on, you know, Beyond the Pond this Saturday before the firing even happened.
1:01:59
He goes, he didn't think he'd be interested in the job because it was just two seasons ago, he was like coach of the year.
1:02:05
So he's got to be part of the rotation, isn't he, Veegs?
1:02:09
But I heard from people in hockey that it did not go well at the end, and that's why he didn't stay in the NHL as a coach.
1:02:17
It's not because of his ability to coach, it's his relationship with a player at the NHL level.
1:02:25
And I think if you hear that as an owner or GM, that's gonna make it difficult for you to hire him as your coach.
1:02:34
Okay.
1:02:36
So, yeah, I mean, that's why I think maybe, I think that's maybe why College Hockey might appeal.
1:02:41
You know, he kept his home in Grand Forks, and he likes the area, he likes the town, the school, everything.
1:02:48
So it makes some sense to me.
1:02:50
Maybe the school thinks they could hire him if they throw enough cash.
1:02:56
I don't think they have enough cash to get Tays to come coach yet.
1:03:00
Matthew Nye's Enjoyer89, that's a long name.
1:03:03
Can you ask Mike if he remembers coaching Silver Bay Hockey Camp many summers ago?
1:03:08
Tell us about Silver Bay Hockey.
1:03:10
He had to say many summers to make me feel old.
1:03:13
Yeah, of course I do.
1:03:15
So my family's from Silver Bay.
1:03:17
My parents, both of them grew up up there.
1:03:20
And I went up and coached hockey camp, I think three years I did between my junior and senior year of college, after my senior year.
1:03:30
And I think I came back the following summer for one more.
1:03:32
So I did three years in a row up there of hockey camp.
1:03:35
And it was a good time.
1:03:36
It's funny because those kids are all old now.
1:03:40
And I see them like out there in college and I'm like, oh my God, where did the time go?
1:03:44
But yeah, I absolutely remember the camp.
1:03:46
We I used to I coached with a couple of my good buddies up there.
1:03:49
And we burned it.
1:03:51
We were young.
1:03:52
So we were burning it at both ends pretty hard.
1:03:54
We coach camp all day.
1:03:56
Then we'd go play like nine holes of golf and then come back to the rink and skate like in like a men's league skate and then go to the bar and then and then start all over again at 8 a.m.
1:04:07
And do that for.
1:04:09
That's not that I'm capable of doing anymore.
1:04:14
You know, because I thought it was interesting that Woden was saying that was no, it was actually Dave Starman saying there's going to be everyone's going to be in Fargo.
1:04:22
Coach Sandlin, a lot of the big people.
1:04:24
I wonder if Woden's going to be there.
1:04:26
I was talking to Grimmer earlier.
1:04:27
Grimmer's going to come up for the game tomorrow as well.
1:04:31
It's going to be a lot of people in Fargo.
1:04:34
Yeah, it should be a good time.
1:04:35
You know, it's fun coaches to interview and be around to get the hockey should be great.
1:04:39
The building should be the best atmosphere of the four regionals just based on the fan bases that are coming.
1:04:45
So it should be very entertaining.
1:04:48
I'm looking forward to it.
1:04:49
Sandlin always has good stories.
1:04:53
So maybe they're announcing Sandlin.
1:04:56
They're going to announce Sandlin as their next coach.
1:04:58
Maybe that's why he's there.
1:05:00
There'll be a lot of North Dakota people there.
1:05:03
Try to say, Hey, how you doing?
1:05:07
Every time they go to a hockey arena in the country without seeing a suit jersey.
1:05:10
I truly don't.
1:05:11
I think I think there's always one.
1:05:13
There's always one in the professional environment.
1:05:16
I saw one a couple of times at Mariucci this season.
1:05:23
Well, it's funny, Benny and I have been joking a lot because obviously he's a Sparty and he's a big fan of them.
1:05:29
And we've had a lot of North Dakota guys on our podcast so far and we've had, you know, a Michigan guy, I think just one so far, but it made me think of since the Big Ten has come around, Michigan, you know, as the kids say, has entered the chat for me.
1:05:46
In terms of schools, I really hate.
1:05:49
In terms of, you know, the rivalry with Minnesota, North Dakota, we don't get that as much now, right?
1:05:54
I mean, they have their four-year deal coming up, I know, for one series of season, but it's not the same.
1:05:59
Still a big deal, but not the same.
1:06:01
But the Michigan rivalry is really something that kind of makes the blood boil a little bit now for me.
1:06:09
Plus, they're kind of pop is asses at times.
1:06:11
I'm sorry.
1:06:12
That, no, they are.
1:06:13
That's definitely what you can do.
1:06:14
I just, and I'll, you know, we love that North Dakota, North Dakota rivalry, it's on the ice, it's great.
1:06:27
But, you know, Veegs and I have dealt with some of their staff and stuff, and they're just the greatest hockey people, fun people.
1:06:34
They cheer for another school, but they're great people.
1:06:37
Not so much with the Michigan people.
1:06:38
It seems like it's kind of goes through the entire school.
1:06:41
And like, it's just, I don't know why they have to be that way because, you know, Veegs, we totally respect North Dakota.
1:06:47
Their course are going to be so pro North Dakota, but they really get this college hockey thing.
1:06:56
Yeah, there's a righteousness thing to Michigan.
1:06:59
And yes, everything that just baffles me, especially when they go through some of the scandals that they've gone through, you know, with Harbaugh and the cheating and the Fab Five and the money at that time.
1:07:14
And some of the stuff that you're hearing with, you know, the coaching staff before Neurado took over and just the way Neurado handles things, it's a very righteous way to behave.
1:07:26
And it's not as buddy-buddy as all this stuff we're used to here in Minnesota.
1:07:32
Like when you hear Mazgo talk about Brad Berry, you know, loves to beat North Dakota, but loves Brad Berry.
1:07:40
Great guy.
1:07:42
You know, awesome compete with Scott Sandlin.
1:07:44
Great guy.
1:07:45
Everybody wants to see him.
1:07:47
You know, there's a lot of coaches around there.
1:07:50
Brett Larson, Garrett Reboyne.
1:07:52
Like it's all very collegial.
1:07:54
They get it.
1:07:55
They're going to compete hard, but there's just something about Michigan that's been really challenging ever since Red left.
1:08:02
I've definitely heard that.
1:08:04
I don't see it on the level you guys do.
1:08:06
And I definitely didn't see it, you know, in North Dakota days, things like that.
1:08:09
But, you know, you talk about, I've met a lot of North Dakota guys and I met a lot of Michigan guys.
1:08:14
Great guys at both schools, but almost to a fault.
1:08:17
The guys at North Dakota that I've met just great dudes.
1:08:20
I have definitely met more Michigan guys that I am not a fan of.
1:08:25
And that's guys under my age or, you know, within my age range.
1:08:29
So it doesn't surprise me.
1:08:30
And again, there's some great guys I know that went to Michigan too.
1:08:34
Really good.
1:08:34
I mean, we had Andrew Ebbott on the podcast.
1:08:36
Andrew Ebbott is an awesome guy.
1:08:38
I played with Chris Summers.
1:08:39
He was my age at Minnesota or at the program.
1:08:42
And then he was at Michigan.
1:08:44
And I mean, there are good guys that have gone there for sure.
1:08:47
I'm not saying everybody, but there's definitely a few and more than anywhere else where I'm like, you're not my cup of tea, dude.
1:08:56
Well, it's weird because I saw this Nerado presentation from the coach's site about kind of his mindset to the team.
1:09:04
And it's like good dudes only.
1:09:06
And it's like, I want people who behave like good dudes, like, oh, yeah, I think it only applies to teammates.
1:09:12
I don't think it applies to the world in general.
1:09:15
You know, if you understand what I mean, like be good to your teammate, but don't worry about people outside the room.
1:09:21
That's almost what it feels like sometimes.
1:09:24
And so it's just kind of an interesting perspective as like, you know, North Dakota, St.
1:09:30
Cloud guys, Minnesota guys you can have, you know, the battles with, but, you know, they kind of get it in the big picture about being hockey people.
1:09:38
Overall, rather than just associating with one identity.
1:09:45
That's why it'll be a fun weekend, Veegs.
1:09:48
We'll see those North Dakota people.
1:09:49
We'll see Sandlin, you know.
1:09:51
You know, I wouldn't doubt if a serratory shows up.
1:09:55
I would think so.
1:09:57
Frank just got extended at Air Force for another two years.
1:10:00
So, good for him.
1:10:03
You sat next to Frank at what?
1:10:04
The Frozen Four?
1:10:04
Was it two years ago at Tampa?
1:10:06
I was convinced that we needed to do like a live tweet of his thoughts on the game, the strategy and the side stories that I was getting.
1:10:14
It made the trip.
1:10:16
How many swear words would you have to edit out?
1:10:18
Not too many.
1:10:19
Not too many.
1:10:20
Not too many?
1:10:20
That's good.
1:10:22
I don't think Oli comes out with the Barley Pops.
1:10:25
That's when you might run into Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
1:10:30
It's fun.
1:10:31
How many Frozen Fours have you guys been to?
1:10:34
Not many for me.
1:10:37
I think four.
1:10:39
Four?
1:10:40
Yeah.
1:10:41
Do you only go when the Gophers make it?
1:10:43
No.
1:10:45
I was there for Duluth wedding in 2011.
1:10:50
2012.
1:10:51
When I've been here in St.
1:10:52
Paul.
1:10:52
Yeah.
1:10:52
I should have gone.
1:10:53
Yeah.
1:10:54
Then 2012 in Tampa.
1:10:58
Um, I didn't go to that.
1:10:59
Was that the year they lost to Union in the finals?
1:11:03
That was Philly.
1:11:05
No.
1:11:06
BC won that year over Ferris.
1:11:09
Minnesota lost BC in the first game in Tampa in 2012.
1:11:17
That was Johnny Hockey's team.
1:11:18
You know, he scored that spectacular goal late against Ferris State to extend the lead.
1:11:22
It was pretty great.
1:11:25
I didn't go to Philly in 2014.
1:11:30
I there was an X one here in the 17 or 18.
1:11:33
And didn't Duluth win that one, too, or something big?
1:11:36
Yeah, I didn't.
1:11:37
That one, too.
1:11:37
I didn't make it to that one.
1:11:40
But then we had Tampa again.
1:11:43
We had Minnesota last year.
1:11:44
If Minnesota makes it this year, we'll go to St.
1:11:47
Louis.
1:11:48
Yeah.
1:11:49
Yeah.
1:11:50
And I can't even talk about the podcast here.
1:11:53
People are kind of wondering when's the next show.
1:11:54
Well, it depends on the team.
1:11:56
If the team wins and gets through the Frozen Four, we're going to be live, hopefully, in St.
1:12:01
Louis that Wednesday night or Thursday after whatever we decided to do from St.
1:12:06
Louis.
1:12:06
However, we'll make it work.
1:12:09
Otherwise, we'll do the season ending podcast after the Frozen Four, right?
1:12:13
Eric Vegs, we always do that Wednesday after the Frozen Four.
1:12:15
We just kind of close everything out.
1:12:18
That's kind of the situation usually, although I'm, I'm debating just going to St.
1:12:22
Louis, either way.
1:12:23
Oh, really?
1:12:26
Yeah.
1:12:27
We'll see, though.
1:12:29
I would like to go enjoy the Frozen Four party of College Hockey.
1:12:35
I, you know, you enjoy yesterday.
1:12:38
Don't you?
1:12:39
You missed it last year.
1:12:40
I missed it last year because I had stuff going on.
1:12:44
Are you going to Cabo again this year?
1:12:50
Maybe, but it's between weeks.
1:12:53
Yes.
1:12:53
Next weekend.
1:12:57
And if you happen to be in Playa del Carmen, Nick Angel's already inviting people to a certain bar in Playa for tomorrow night for the game.
1:13:05
So follow Nick on Twitter.
1:13:08
I think he said where it was going to be.
1:13:10
I think he even said the first round is on him.
1:13:13
So if you happen to be in Mexico, in Playa, which I'm sure there could be a lot of people.
1:13:19
Yeah.
1:13:20
I don't know.
1:13:21
We were talking to Dan Woog.
1:13:22
I think he was down there last week.
1:13:24
I don't know if he's still down in Mexico.
1:13:26
He was down there as well, so it's a big week off.
1:13:30
You know, there's a lot of spring breaks, so.
1:13:32
I'm going to say a tail end of spring break season right now.
1:13:35
Yeah, it definitely is, it definitely is.
1:13:39
Steve is saying it's his 20th Frozen Four this year.
1:13:43
Wow.
1:13:45
There's a lot of people that do that.
1:13:47
They get their season tickets, they go every year.
1:13:49
That's their trip.
1:13:51
And that's why you see so many jerseys at Frozen Fours.
1:13:55
That's people's, a lot of people's deal.
1:13:58
I have never been to one in person, so I'll have to change that at some point.
1:14:03
Wow.
1:14:04
Well, I think you should play it for St.
1:14:05
Louis.
1:14:05
Minnesota makes you...
1:14:06
Actually, in fairness, I've never played in one either, so...
1:14:10
Before I get called out for how I said that.
1:14:16
That's how it is.
1:14:17
That's how it is.
1:14:18
Yeah.
1:14:19
I missed out a couple of years ago, the Tampa one.
1:14:21
I know a bunch of guys went down for that, and I could not...
1:14:23
I forget what we had going on.
1:14:25
We had a wedding or something.
1:14:27
But yeah, that was...
1:14:29
That was a big one.
1:14:30
Eric Peltier was sending me pictures the whole time.
1:14:32
I'm like, you are driving me nuts, man.
1:14:34
Stop it.
1:14:34
Like, just hanging out at the pool, watching games, hanging out at the pool, back at the bar.
1:14:38
I'm like, you guys look like you're having a good time.
1:14:41
There was a lot of alumni down in Tampa, wasn't there, Veegs?
1:14:45
A lot.
1:14:47
Well, I think that was kind of one of the first big Gopher hockey alumni.
1:14:51
Yes.
1:14:51
Like movements is to get people to that weekend.
1:14:55
And so many people answered the call, except for Mike, you know, not because I didn't want to be there.
1:15:02
I promise we had a legitimate excuse.
1:15:04
I didn't just say no.
1:15:07
I would have been there.
1:15:08
Wife and I would have both been there for sure.
1:15:10
Oh, yeah.
1:15:11
Well, wasn't it?
1:15:12
Didn't Molesky run into quite a famous gopher?
1:15:18
Yeah, he ran into a message, didn't he?
1:15:20
On the trolley, just on the trolley.
1:15:22
Hanging out.
1:15:23
Just hanging out, going for a little trolley ride.
1:15:26
That's in the city.
1:15:28
It was it was a fun trip.
1:15:30
There were so many people there, so many people there.
1:15:34
I see all these chat.
1:15:35
I've been to two in St.
1:15:37
Paul.
1:15:40
Oh, what was it?
1:15:41
What's this one?
1:15:43
It was hard to go after watching Harvard win at the Civic Center.
1:15:46
Civic Center.
1:15:47
Oh, is the Northern Michigan one?
1:15:49
Is that the big, long overtime one, Veegs?
1:15:53
Didn't Northern Michigan win in, like, multiple over times or something like that?
1:15:58
Chris, how many over times is that game?
1:16:00
It's not my hockey expertise at that point, so.
1:16:03
It takes about 15 seconds or so for people to see.
1:16:05
So young kid.
1:16:06
It was like, it was like, not my, maybe it was long overtime.
1:16:08
It was like an eight, seven game or something ridiculous like that, too.
1:16:13
High scoring until over time.
1:16:17
So I have no idea.
1:16:19
That one's got that's going to be stumped.
1:16:22
So so Mike, I had to fly out of Orlando to get back in time.
1:16:29
So I stayed up, took an Uber from Tampa to Orlando to get on like a 620 flight.
1:16:35
So I could get home for Easter.
1:16:36
And I had to take a little bit of a nap in the afternoon.
1:16:39
So I took some flack from my family for that one.
1:16:43
Hey, at least you made it back.
1:16:45
I did make it back.
1:16:46
I was present.
1:16:47
I was napping for a long time.
1:16:48
Easter's much later this year.
1:16:49
And your cowboy trip is in between.
1:16:51
So you'd be pretty good, wouldn't you Veegs?
1:16:54
I'm threading the needle.
1:16:57
Yeah.
1:16:58
My Kentucky trip isn't until May, so.
1:17:01
Oh, and I like this one.
1:17:02
Bobby Bob and my dad saw the Gophers win in Detroit in 1979.
1:17:06
He still has the tickets.
1:17:08
That's outstanding.
1:17:09
That's that's the Broughton goal.
1:17:11
That's the fall.
1:17:12
Yeah, the diving one.
1:17:13
Yes.
1:17:14
Oh, that's great.
1:17:16
Oh, here we go.
1:17:17
Yeah.
1:17:19
Four overtimes, eight, seven final.
1:17:22
Oh, gosh.
1:17:24
I like to see an eight, seven Broncos go for his regional final.
1:17:29
That sounds like fun.
1:17:30
You have 14 goals in regulation and you go to a fourth overtime with no goals.
1:17:38
That's crazy.
1:17:41
Gosh, I want to say, I think Northern Michigan, they have Scott Beatty on that team.
1:17:47
I think they had Billy Pye and Gold.
1:17:49
That was a really good team.
1:17:52
That was a really good team.
1:17:53
That's...
1:17:57
I'll be out in the home of Northern Michigan for work next week on Monday in Marquette.
1:18:06
Hopefully, you're flying.
1:18:06
I think I'll be paying a visit to the hockey rink.
1:18:12
Wow.
1:18:15
Oh, I didn't see that yet.
1:18:18
Yeah.
1:18:19
I see Ben Holden replying.
1:18:20
873 over time, he says.
1:18:22
Rick calmly led Northern Michigan.
1:18:24
Well, Ben, if he has comments, he can come on screen and share them instead of texting them.
1:18:30
Same link, Holden.
1:18:31
Same link.
1:18:32
Can you find the link that we sent you?
1:18:34
He could.
1:18:36
He could.
1:18:37
He told me he was thinking about coming on.
1:18:39
He had his times all wrong.
1:18:40
It was like 840.
1:18:41
He's like, didn't the show start at 830?
1:18:43
I'm like 930 and I'm like 930 Central.
1:18:47
Yeah.
1:18:49
We're all in Minnesota.
1:18:50
You're the only one that's not.
1:18:54
Well, sometimes we've had Cappy on and Paul Cappenegger.
1:18:57
He'll be in Florida sometimes.
1:18:59
And I think he's been up past midnight with us when he's in Florida.
1:19:03
So it's past 1 a.m.
1:19:04
for him.
1:19:05
Ben, he said he was up past 1 when he hopped on for the overtime with you guys.
1:19:10
So, yeah, we're on late sometimes.
1:19:14
But, you know, I took tomorrow off, obviously.
1:19:19
Still got to get up early.
1:19:20
Still got a long drive, though.
1:19:21
So I don't know if I know what time you leave in.
1:19:25
I'm going to leave here about eight.
1:19:27
I'm picking up a super fan, Kim, in Minneapolis.
1:19:31
And then we were driving up there.
1:19:32
She can't.
1:19:33
Her husband, Dale, is he's working.
1:19:36
But if they make it to the second game, he's going to come up.
1:19:38
So I'm like, I'll just come right by there.
1:19:40
We'll drive up, have a good time.
1:19:43
And then we're going to stay.
1:19:44
You know, we got Steve on here.
1:19:46
Steve Lars, we're staying at Steve's house, him and Karina's.
1:19:50
He's got a bunch of meals ready to go.
1:19:52
He's talking about some French toast.
1:19:53
Friday morning, I'm like, this sounds great.
1:19:56
These are big plans.
1:19:58
So, yeah, we're going to have some fun.
1:20:00
It's a nice setup.
1:20:01
You don't have to do a hotel stay.
1:20:03
Yeah, yeah, it's going to be fun, though.
1:20:06
I'm looking forward to it.
1:20:08
I was saying, win or lose, we're going to have fun.
1:20:12
Obviously, a lot better when we win.
1:20:14
But let's go.
1:20:16
Let's have some fun this weekend and hopefully, the team has fun as well.
1:20:23
Yeah.
1:20:33
So, Mike, perspective as a player, like gripping the sticks tight, feeling the pressure, wearing the album, these big games, it's been the history of Minnesota to struggle in some of these moments.
1:20:50
What's the player perspective on that?
1:20:52
Because I think there's almost so much pressure that the players can't avoid it.
1:20:59
And like Jimmy Stugger this week, I think he said, Yeah, pressure makes diamonds.
1:21:03
Whereas Bob is like, There's no pressure.
1:21:05
This is just sports.
1:21:06
This is what we sign up for.
1:21:08
So I just wonder about like the perspective of someone who's done it.
1:21:12
You know, I, that's a really good question.
1:21:15
I think, I think it's different now, even than when I played because there is so much more like the social media and the media attention and like the live immediate access to everything like you, you know, Twitter, X, whatever, all that stuff.
1:21:31
Like we had Facebook and that was starting to come like become a thing when I was in college.
1:21:35
That was basically it.
1:21:36
You didn't have all the other streams where everything was constantly being like pushed out in front of you.
1:21:41
Right.
1:21:42
Like if you wanted to get away from like media, you just didn't go on the internet.
1:21:45
You didn't open your Facebook, like whatever, like, and you could just.
1:21:48
Yeah, you didn't have a phone right there in front of you.
1:21:50
And it is a lot harder now, I imagine, for these guys to concentrate.
1:21:54
But at the same time, like, you know, kind of to Bob's point, I feel like all the media attention and everything that goes on are on the outside.
1:22:02
A lot of that's so much white noise to you when you're playing that once you're actually like at the rink and like getting ready to play, you're not thinking about, at least I wasn't, you know, I don't, I can't speak for anybody else, but I'm not thinking about what someone said about me in the paper or on a blog or in a tweet or whatever.
1:22:19
Like, I'm just worried about my own game and how I want to play right now.
1:22:23
Guys like Jimmy Snowgerood obviously have a ton of pressure on them, you know, being the leading scorer on the team, you know, being the presence that he is, being a whole B finalist, all this stuff.
1:22:31
Like, yeah, he might feel a little bit more pressure, but those guys are also the ones that are good at internalizing it and just not letting it distract them.
1:22:39
But so the answer to your question is that I never felt outside pressure when it came time to the game.
1:22:46
Maybe once you're away from the rink, you hear it a little bit, but once you're at the rink, it's just like Bob said, you're just playing.
1:22:53
Yeah, you're going to feel the moment a little bit.
1:22:54
Like you walk out for us, like my first college game was at the XL, wasn't a big game other than the fact it was my first Gopher game.
1:23:01
We were playing Bain and a packed XL arena.
1:23:05
That was a little bit like, okay.
1:23:07
It was a little bit of jumping headfirst into the deep end here.
1:23:12
But yeah, I think most of it is just you take pride in how you want to play and you get focused and ready and like Bob said, it's just another game.
1:23:20
You just got to go out and play.
1:23:22
I just worry that it's not the white noise that's the pressure.
1:23:26
It's the pressure that I've won this moment so bad for so long, and I have it and I'm only going to get one or two chances in this game to make a mark.
1:23:40
You're not going to get 10 scoring chances in these games.
1:23:43
You're going to get a couple and you can't think like that.
1:23:47
You're just going to think, hey, here's a chance.
1:23:50
This is what I'm going to execute on.
1:23:53
Sometimes I wonder about that mindset in that moment.
1:23:55
There's so much self-pressure in the moment, how to get through that.
1:24:01
That's definitely a worry, I think, at times.
1:24:04
That's where I was talking about Sui earlier.
1:24:07
You struggled.
1:24:09
If Gopher's going to score first, that's going to take a lot of pressure off him.
1:24:12
He's going to be like, okay, we're in it.
1:24:14
We're winning.
1:24:15
Otherwise, if he lets in the first goal, I would imagine not ever have him in a goalie, but that feeling of, oh my god, here we go again.
1:24:23
I'm struggling.
1:24:24
I can't get it back.
1:24:25
Then he starts going down the rabbit hole.
1:24:29
I think that's another reason that's important.
1:24:30
I imagine he's feeling some pressure in the big.
1:24:33
This is the time of year, though, if you're a big-time player, you want the puck on your stick.
1:24:37
You want those opportunities.
1:24:38
You want those moments.
1:24:42
I know historically, it hasn't always played out that way, but I got to think they're all embracing the moment right now, and just knowing what they have in front of them.
1:24:52
Yeah, I guess I'm being a little optimistic.
1:24:55
I'm trying not to be the last half-empty guy.
1:24:58
It's just some of the guys that I see that seem like they have that mindset are like Nyes, Faber, Lacombe, Ben Myers.
1:25:07
Those are the kinds of personalities.
1:25:11
It's super even and the frustration might be anger, not disappointment almost.
1:25:19
I want another chance versus I screwed up the chance.
1:25:23
You know what I mean?
1:25:24
There's a different attitude that those players had in these moments that you could just pick up on.
1:25:31
And so you're just waiting to see that out of some of this crew.
1:25:36
You know, it's like, oh, I didn't get that chance.
1:25:38
I want the next one.
1:25:39
You almost see more intensity in winning a 50-50 or back checking or seeing that turnover and really hitting the jets to get that chance.
1:25:54
I saw some of that Olly Moore, I think against Notre Dame, where he didn't show frustration.
1:25:59
He showed more energy and almost like a burst of that to like keep getting more chances.
1:26:05
So that's kind of what I'm looking for this weekend.
1:26:09
Yeah.
1:26:10
Oh, go ahead.
1:26:11
I was just saying, that's just maturity, right?
1:26:12
I mean, it's the emotional maturity of being a top end athlete that some guys have, some guys don't have.
1:26:19
Like for me personally, I know I struggled with going too far the other way and Don actually made a joke at our, I remember this at our senior banquet and he goes, I could see when Carm you just started seeing red.
1:26:34
Trying to reel him back in because if I was upset with something or not happy with something, then I almost took my frustration too far where I do something stupid, take a dumb penalty or I start running around a million miles an hour and it's not productive, right?
1:26:47
But I think ultimately what this comes down to is, like I said, guys maturing at the right time and this is when they have an opportunity to prove it, right?
1:26:58
And the Gophers' big players have to be their big players.
1:27:00
That's the easiest thing that can be said here.
1:27:02
They need to show up.
1:27:04
There are no passengers.
1:27:06
Those guys need to lead, the ones that have led all year.
1:27:09
And that's where the success is going to come from.
1:27:11
They just got to be ready for the moment, like you said.
1:27:16
Yeah, Wood keeps struggling a lot.
1:27:18
He does, Veegs.
1:27:20
Yeah, I saw one of our friends on Twitter saying like the top transfer and Rhett Pitlick was number one.
1:27:27
And one of the things about Rhett Pitlick is that when it goes good, it's really good for him.
1:27:33
And there's a lot of offense, but there's a lot of mistakes in there too that you have to deal with.
1:27:38
You know, he may have 40, 50 points, but he's probably given up, you know, 40, 50 chances the other way.
1:27:45
And when you play in the CCHA, I think you can get away with that a little bit easier because the talent isn't as prevalent and the structure is more there to keep those chances from going really, you know, pear-shaped.
1:27:56
But when you play a schedule like Minnesota, you start giving up that many chances.
1:28:01
It gets really hard.
1:28:03
Matthew Wood doesn't give up chances the other way very often.
1:28:06
And he's still right up there with the point scores.
1:28:09
And he knows how to slow it down.
1:28:11
And he knows how to play within a team.
1:28:14
Well, you think about it, pressure time last year against Boston University.
1:28:18
How much ice did Pitlick see at the end of the game?
1:28:23
Was he, did he even play in the third?
1:28:25
I mean, I know you kind of kept an eye on that.
1:28:27
He didn't even play.
1:28:28
Yeah, he didn't play in the third.
1:28:31
I mean, that's-
1:28:32
He kind of disappeared in playoffs in general last year, if I recall.
1:28:35
No.
1:28:36
Well, he didn't have the trust of his teammates and the coaches.
1:28:39
You know, there's just too many turnovers and too many individual plays.
1:28:43
And, you know, you talk about the big guys, Snuggerud has a single point in six NCAA games.
1:28:51
And that was against Canisius, a power play goal, you know, two years ago in Fargo.
1:28:58
I think if they are going to get out of this region this weekend, Snuggerud needs to get a goal or two or a couple of good assists or something.
1:29:06
Just, boy, if you can get Snuggerud going Vegoe, it's over, I think.
1:29:11
It literally is over.
1:29:12
He could just end a game.
1:29:14
I just think he needs to play within the team, though.
1:29:17
You know, I think he just needs to not try to overdo things.
1:29:21
You know, take the shots that are there, put pucks into the feet of the goalie every once in a while and create that offensive chance and go win those pucks.
1:29:30
You know, when he came back, he said one of the things is he wanted to be able to hold on to pucks more.
1:29:35
He wanted to be able to win more 50-50s.
1:29:38
Those are the kinds of things that they're going to need from him this weekend, just as much as capitalizing on the chances, if they allow it.
1:29:45
You know, he doesn't have as many guys like he did when he was in Cooley and Nice, grabbing attention.
1:29:51
He's the one grabbing all the attention now.
1:29:53
I'm not saying don't shoot the puck, but be smart with your chances.
1:29:59
You know, if you take 10 shots and the goalie's squared up to you and you got the puck on the same side of the ice, it's not, even for Jimmy Stugger, that's not a high-quality scoring chance.
1:30:10
You know?
1:30:11
Yeah.
1:30:12
But you put it in those pads though, and it could be a rebound for somebody else.
1:30:16
Yeah.
1:30:17
I think, you know, so two things, first of all, touching on that one, you know, the bad angles, right?
1:30:22
Like, yeah, Jimmy Stugger, it has an incredible shot, but you know, pick trying to pick the corner from a bad angle and winding up missing the net or you're right in the goalie's glove or whatever you want to call it, that kills the play.
1:30:35
You know, he's got such a rip of a shot.
1:30:37
If he shoots that in the goalie's feet, I mean, that's creating an opportunity.
1:30:41
Either he's scoring or there's a rebound.
1:30:42
The goalie's likely not covering that.
1:30:44
So yeah, I'd like to see more of that when the shot isn't there.
1:30:48
But the other thing I think with Jimmy too is, you know, we typically notice him when he's scoring, right?
1:30:53
Obviously.
1:30:54
You know, when he's not scoring, I feel like he has to find other ways to contribute.
1:30:59
I think that's kind of what you guys are hinting at because he's a guy where, you know, you look at anybody at the next level, which is where he's destined for.
1:31:08
You can be a goal scorer, but you have to be able to do other things too.
1:31:11
Like you have to go, like you talk about, win those battles.
1:31:14
You have to go find other ways to contribute or be relevant when you're not on the score sheet.
1:31:19
And I think that's kind of my takeaway from watching him.
1:31:21
Obviously, he's an incredible player, shot's incredible.
1:31:25
But when he's not scoring, I don't notice him a lot out there.
1:31:29
And that's not a great place to be in this time of year, right?
1:31:32
So he's got to find other ways to help besides getting on the score sheet.
1:31:37
I think Snuggy has a good weekend.
1:31:41
I think the hero is Conner Kurth this weekend.
1:31:46
I've really liked his game.
1:31:48
I really love his passion.
1:31:51
I'm kind of excited to see what he does, Veegs.
1:31:55
Well, he's a heavy player that likes these kinds of games and likes playoff hockey and finds ways to contribute a lot.
1:32:03
And it's not always plus 30 worried plus 30 on the season.
1:32:08
That's pretty good, right?
1:32:09
Yeah.
1:32:10
Yeah.
1:32:12
So he can stir the drink a little bit and it'll be interesting to see, you know, they've stuck with that first power play unit all year.
1:32:21
You haven't been a fan of that.
1:32:22
Have you?
1:32:23
Well, they haven't been as productive as you think they should be sometimes.
1:32:27
Sometimes that second unit goes out and they look more dynamic and they create plays out of chaos more quickly.
1:32:37
I think that first unit, they get so static in how they want to get in there and execute that it makes them somewhat predictable.
1:32:45
Whereas that second unit, you know, Luke Middlestad fires pucks and creates chaos.
1:32:50
And I almost think that if you had an environment like that, Brody Lamb would keep scoring more goals because it seems like when there's that chaos, that's when Brody Lamb's the most effective.
1:33:01
If there's no chaos, he's like, you know, an unused player on the ice sometimes.
1:33:07
Speaking of special teams, I had this in my notes too, the PK.
1:33:11
Definitely, you know, to be successful this time of year, you have to have strong special teams.
1:33:17
And I think I saw, what are they?
1:33:19
75%, something like that on the year.
1:33:22
That's not a great spot to be in come playoff time.
1:33:25
Like you gotta be clicking a lot higher than that.
1:33:27
Because the reality is in today's day and age, the whistle doesn't go away in playoffs anymore, right?
1:33:33
It's something that you have to be prepared for.
1:33:35
And as a team that actually takes a lot of penalties too, which the Gophers do, you gotta have a better kill than that.
1:33:42
Or that's just shoot yourself in the foot right from the get go.
1:33:46
I will say that Sully Air has been better as a goalie on the PK than Aerie.
1:33:51
It was a pretty big disparity between the two.
1:33:54
Like, the Sully Air penalty kill is more like 85% than the Aerie.
1:33:59
This is why, like, I say something, he goes one depth lower.
1:34:03
He's like, oh, okay.
1:34:05
So part of me feels a little more confident, because I think one of the differences between Aerie and Sully Air is Sully Air is better in those chaos situations.
1:34:16
He's able to recover to his crease better and find the puck.
1:34:20
Or as I think that's been a big weakness with Aerie is when there's traffic and rebounds and chaos, he has a hard time using his size effectively and shutting the play down.
1:34:32
You look at Sully Air when he gets back and is that, he's almost like a Marc-Andre Fleury, darting around trying to find a lane to see the puck and he's in position.
1:34:42
He's able to freeze pucks in those chaotic scrambles around the net, whereas Aerie is like, where is it?
1:34:48
I cannot find it, I'm too tall.
1:34:52
Were you surprised, Veegs, that Moscow announced Sully Air as the starter today?
1:34:58
Yes.
1:34:59
I was as well.
1:35:00
I thought he was going to leave it up until game time.
1:35:03
So it was literally, maybe it's just because it was Randy asking instead of Jess, but.
1:35:10
Because Jess did ask.
1:35:11
Are you surprised that they announced it or that they announced it was Sully Air?
1:35:14
What's the...
1:35:15
They announced it.
1:35:16
They announced it.
1:35:17
It gives UMass a full day to just focus on preparing for Sully Air.
1:35:22
I think it maybe changes how you might prepare with how you talk about dumping the puck in, how you talk about attacking the net, traffic against the smaller goalie.
1:35:35
I was surprised.
1:35:36
Just something coaches usually don't give up.
1:35:41
Yeah.
1:35:41
But they obviously made their decision earlier in the week.
1:35:43
So well, not according to Jess, because he said, no, are you going to tell me?
1:35:47
No.
1:35:49
No, he said, yes, I picked the goalie.
1:35:51
Oh, yeah.
1:35:51
Yeah, you're right.
1:35:52
He did say that.
1:35:53
Jess goes, are you going to share it with us?
1:35:55
No.
1:35:55
Nope.
1:35:57
One line answers on both.
1:36:00
Oh boy.
1:36:04
Well, Jess makes it fun.
1:36:06
Keeps that given.
1:36:08
That is true.
1:36:11
Unfortunately, we don't get to see Jess in Fargo.
1:36:13
He's going to be covering the wild this weekend.
1:36:15
So.
1:36:16
Interesting.
1:36:19
I've got some Jess.
1:36:20
I got a Jess sound here, don't I?
1:36:22
I've got to see if I can be Jess Saunders.
1:36:26
Oh, we've got.
1:36:27
Okay.
1:36:27
Well, we've got this one.
1:36:30
The seems like the number one team in the country gets knocked off the next week.
1:36:33
You might go to number one and I get the weekend off.
1:36:35
So maybe you can avoid that or you thought about that?
1:36:38
We're really excited.
1:36:40
We're really excited about that.
1:36:42
He said sarcastic.
1:36:44
I'm only talking to Jess Myers right there.
1:36:47
I'm talking to nobody else.
1:36:49
Oh my.
1:36:50
My favorite one is this anything on walker injury disciplinary anything like that.
1:36:56
Just curious.
1:36:57
You're crazy.
1:37:04
You know, the funny thing is when he said, are you crazy?
1:37:06
And then he looked right at UVs like this guy, this guy, this guy.
1:37:15
Oh, just makes it so fun.
1:37:17
I mean, him, Bob, get along great.
1:37:19
They just, it's just a fun dynamic at times.
1:37:24
There's always that one reporter that you said they have a good relationship with the coach, but they're not afraid to ask a question to put them on the hot seat.
1:37:31
You make them feel uncomfortable.
1:37:33
So I could never, I can never be a reporter.
1:37:37
I don't know if Bob ever feels uncomfortable with the questions he's getting, but he certainly doesn't have fun with it.
1:37:43
He likes to have a little fun with it, I think so.
1:37:45
Yeah.
1:37:46
Well, it also helps that you, I mean, you're coaching, Veegs.
1:37:49
You've been around hockey a long time.
1:37:50
It's a little different perspective than maybe, I mean, you've coached, but you've also written for newspapers.
1:37:59
So it's like, you're his worst nightmare.
1:38:04
Well, sometimes you just got to know and ask the question in the right way.
1:38:07
That's going to be informative rather than flippant or, you know, real push button.
1:38:12
So, you know.
1:38:14
Oh, well, I saw this one.
1:38:15
I got to play this one for Carmy, of course.
1:38:17
Now ahead for Carman.
1:38:18
Pulls back and shoots and scores by Carman.
1:38:22
We're going to game three.
1:38:24
Wow, that's the one.
1:38:26
I think you played that last time.
1:38:27
Yep.
1:38:30
Yeah, it's sitting in the queue here.
1:38:33
I could play in the queue.
1:38:35
Yeah, that was to bring us to game three in Mankato.
1:38:41
Yeah, like I said, longest weekend of my life.
1:38:47
That was fun.
1:38:47
So one thing you can never forget.
1:38:50
What do you got, Vaze?
1:38:51
One thing that somebody brought up to me is officiating crews this weekend.
1:38:56
We won't see a Big Ten or Hockey East crew for the Gopher game.
1:39:02
So we're probably going to see like ECAC.
1:39:06
See WCHA or CCHA.
1:39:09
I'm going to say CCHA, my mistake.
1:39:11
Probably CCHA.
1:39:13
I don't know much about or we could see NCHC for the Gopher game.
1:39:17
I was just going to ask, what do you guys know about how the different conferences, like the style of roughing, I mean, is there something you guys know, have seen or?
1:39:29
You know, I think it's less of an issue, Veegs.
1:39:33
Oh, he's got something.
1:39:34
He's got to switch hair and phones.
1:39:35
He lost power again.
1:39:38
Well, he does that.
1:39:38
He does better.
1:39:39
But I have actually seen in the last probably 10 years, it's not as big of a deal, Mike.
1:39:47
I would say in the 2000s, maybe even past 2010, I always thought those Eastern refs just didn't let the players play.
1:39:58
Oh, yeah.
1:39:59
They call it so tight.
1:40:01
And it's like, come on.
1:40:03
But I think they've gotten better about that in the last five to 10 years.
1:40:07
I mean, but there was a time in the late 90s into the 2000s for a span of, well, actually, all before that, that, man, the Gophers would take a lot of penalties.
1:40:18
Like against Holy Cross in North Dakota.
1:40:24
They took some of these stupid penalties that game and they let it get to them.
1:40:29
And, you know, just.
1:40:32
I think it's just better now.
1:40:35
Yeah, I was going to say, I don't notice anything now when I watch.
1:40:39
I don't notice like a difference or a notable difference when I'm watching refs from different leagues in the playoffs right now.
1:40:44
It doesn't seem to be a thing.
1:40:47
We'll remove Vegues for now until he comes back.
1:40:51
He probably loves his headphones.
1:40:56
It will be interesting to see who covers.
1:40:58
I guess we could see, well, we could see a bunch of different refs.
1:41:01
I mean, you know, we've got NCHC and CCHA in that first game.
1:41:06
So we could see a Big Ten ref, some out East refs, maybe an ECAC refs in that game.
1:41:14
And then obviously Minnesota, UMass, we're not going to see Ackies.
1:41:18
We're not going to see Big Ten, but we could see NCHC, we could see ECAC, CCHA.
1:41:28
So I'm thinking obviously safe, put an ECAC crew in there and they'll be pretty good.
1:41:37
I don't know if you've heard of Sveags, but I'm kind of thinking ECAC crews is a good safe bet along with.
1:41:46
Why?
1:41:47
That's a safe bet.
1:41:48
I mean, ECAC because they can work both games if needed.
1:41:51
They could, yes.
1:41:52
All three games.
1:41:54
And so typically those crews can be a little stricter on their officiating calls.
1:41:59
So it might be beneficial to Minnesota, even though we've just talked about how their power play hasn't been as good as we'd like.
1:42:07
Well, one thing we were discussing too is, I thought in the 90s and into the 2000s, when you had Eastern refs, they called it so close, the NCAA Tournament.
1:42:15
Minnesota used to get a lot of penalties in the NCAA Tournament.
1:42:19
But I think that's really balanced out more in the last 10 years.
1:42:23
Well, WCHA back then was also the toughest conference.
1:42:26
So that's the reason for the way the style of play was versus some of the other conferences.
1:42:33
Yeah, we'll see.
1:42:36
Boy, Colin Cronforce, that was his seventh W Big Ten final in a row of VEG's refing.
1:42:44
They've gone to him a lot.
1:42:45
I mean, he hasn't made many mistakes in the big games, unlike some of the other crews we've seen for NCHC and CCHA.
1:42:53
They've become the story sometimes in the playoff games for those leagues.
1:42:57
I don't think we've had any big controversies in the Big Ten for officiating, as much as we maybe don't like that they swallowed the whistle down the stretch against the Gophers this year.
1:43:09
I mean, there's a lot of games where that third period, they just let them play.
1:43:14
And, you know, that's probably good for the Gophers experience.
1:43:19
Yeah, that drives me crazy, though.
1:43:21
Like, I have no problem with letting them play down the stretch.
1:43:24
But egregious penalties, egregious penalties still have to be called.
1:43:29
Like, you can't just let this turn into 1970s hockey.
1:43:33
Like, that's what bothers me.
1:43:35
Like, yeah, like little bumps, whatever.
1:43:36
Like, you know, maybe it was a questionable whatever.
1:43:38
Like, let it play if it's questionable, anything egregious.
1:43:42
It's still hockey, still needs to be called.
1:43:44
Those are the ones that are infuriating.
1:43:50
All right.
1:43:50
I'm getting tired, guys.
1:43:52
It's going to be a long day tomorrow.
1:43:53
Should we call it a show here?
1:43:56
I'm on the ice at 630 tomorrow morning, so I...
1:43:59
Oh, boy.
1:44:00
Yikes.
1:44:01
What were you thinking, man?
1:44:03
Peltier and I are on Skills Training Tuesday and Thursday mornings all winter.
1:44:06
This is our last week, so it's our last session tomorrow.
1:44:09
Nice.
1:44:11
Nice.
1:44:12
Yeah, so we got a bunch of Peewees on the ice in the morning.
1:44:16
We'll have fun with that.
1:44:17
Oh, I will.
1:44:18
Get them moving.
1:44:20
So you're going to try to watch that first game, Veegs, get up there for that?
1:44:23
Yep, that's the plan.
1:44:24
Heading up tomorrow, try to get in the arena early and take it in.
1:44:30
Should be a fun weekend.
1:44:32
Yeah, you guys stay travels up there.
1:44:34
Enjoy it and bring all the maroon and gold luck with you.
1:44:37
Oh, we hope so.
1:44:38
Stay on for just a second here, Carmy, but good night, folks.
1:44:42
We'll catch you hopefully at the Frozen Four in just a couple of weeks.
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