0:04 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:10 Oh, boy, Jup making mistakes. 0:13 I love it. 0:33 I laughed, it's not exhibition time. 0:36 North Dakota hasn't won every game. 0:39 Fire the coach. 0:40 Dave Haxdell was fired 32 times. 0:45 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:53 Jûpe Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast. 0:58 Jûpe Episode 290. 0:59 Jûpe Here we go, Veegs. 1:02 Jûpe Good evening. 1:03 Jûpe You thought you had a hectic night? 1:04 Jûpe I just had a hectic night in 30 seconds, sir. 1:07 Vegoe Well, we're getting going now, just like the Gophers did against BC. 1:10 Vegoe It took them a little while to find their stride. 1:12 Vegoe And I thought they finished the weekend pretty well. 1:15 Vegoe But a lot of stretches in the middle, I think had Gopher Nation a little worried. 1:21 Jûpe Yeah, what do you do? 1:22 Jûpe What do you do? 1:23 Jûpe But the streak was ended. 1:26 Jûpe I know our guest was amazed how the streak actually works. 1:33 Jûpe So let's just bring him in right away. 1:35 Jûpe Brad Schlossman. 1:38 Jûpe How are you doing, Brad? 1:39 Jûpe The streak is over. 1:40 Jûpe One of the stats you just love? 1:43 Brad It's one of the most perplexing stats I've ever seen with all the skilled players. 1:49 Brad I actually saw on Twitter this week, someone broke down every shootout attempt. 1:55 Brad And when you look at the list of players who didn't score, like, you know, Snuggeroot had how many attempts, and these it's like, how does that not happen? 2:05 Brad But I'm not surprised at the guys who broke it. 2:09 Jûpe Yeah, I've been with you there. 2:12 Jûpe But, you know, in the interview, you know, with you asked Lutke about it, Veegs, he's like, yeah, coolie and coolie and nice. 2:20 Jûpe And they, well, they only would have had one chance, Veegs, and they weren't picked that night. 2:26 Vegoe That's true. 2:27 Vegoe I do think there were some penalty shots in there as well that aren't part of the shootout streak, but also very similar. 2:33 Vegoe And I think the Gophers missed those, too, because remember, we were going back to like last person, Mr. 2:38 Vegoe Pelley shot is like Jack Ramsey. 2:40 Jûpe Yep, like that. 2:42 Vegoe So I think there were a couple of missed penalty shots in there, too. 2:44 Vegoe So it was just like kind of a long, long streak. 2:46 Vegoe They're like, Oh, my gosh, all the skill, what's going on? 2:50 Vegoe You've heard Lucky talk about, you know, sometimes the ice isn't so good for these shootouts and guys get a little too fancy. 2:56 Vegoe And then what does Mooney do? 2:57 Vegoe Just like one of the fanciest moves we've seen a Gopher player attempt and pulls it off just because he's got a little bit of extra moxie and a little bit extra handles on the puck. 3:06 Jûpe Well, I've got your video that you captured from that. 3:08 Jûpe Also, a couple of words from Bob Motzko, obviously great for the people watching, maybe not as much for the people listening, but let's take a listen here. 3:42 Bob Motzko When's our last shootout win? 3:44 Bob Motzko Does anyone even know when it? 3:45 Jess Myers Valentine's Day 2020, Brandon McManus at Notre Dame. 3:49 Jûpe 2065 days. 3:51 Bob Motzko 2065 days? 3:56 Bob Motzko It's kind of like, the peonies have called me and said, that can't be right. 4:03 Bob Motzko And it's true. 4:05 Bob Motzko So hopefully, we put an end to that. 4:08 Vegoe What did you do different? 4:09 Bob Motzko I mean, just recruited LJ Mooney and Lucky, they've both been good practice. 4:19 Bob Motzko And also when that kind of raises, other guys feel more free. 4:26 Jûpe You got to admit, Brad, it was such a good story. 4:29 Jûpe I kind of wished it last a little longer. 4:32 Brad I don't know how it lasted as long as it did. 4:34 Brad Every time I'd see like, okay, they're going into a show to shoot out for like the last two years. 4:39 Brad I was like, okay, here it comes. 4:41 Brad It's like again, that happened again. 4:45 Brad Oh, yeah, it's. 4:48 Jûpe It's it's comedic, Veegs. 4:50 Jûpe It I was I was embracing it the last couple of years. 4:54 Jûpe I just thought it was just so funny. 4:57 Vegoe Well, it's kind of funny because the players all celebrated big after the win. 5:00 Vegoe And Bob made sure to talk to Greg Brown after the game. 5:04 Vegoe Brown's like, What the heck is going on? 5:06 Vegoe Why are these guys so excited? 5:07 Vegoe And Bob had to kind of remind him. 5:09 Vegoe It's like it's been a long time since we've won one of these. 5:11 Vegoe So the guys are pretty excited. 5:12 Vegoe It's nothing against you or BC or anything. 5:15 Vegoe It's just hasn't happened for a while. 5:17 Vegoe And the guys want to celebrate just a little bit. 5:19 Jûpe So. 5:20 Jûpe So it felt like a win. 5:21 Jûpe Veegs, it technically wasn't. 5:23 Jûpe It was a two to tie that goes into the NPI books and then a a three one loss. 5:30 Jûpe Friday night. 5:30 Jûpe Give us your thoughts on the weekend as a whole. 5:34 Vegoe I think it just showed this team has a lot of growing up to do. 5:38 Vegoe And I feel like if Saturday hadn't gone the way it did with getting the shootout win, we would have had a lot of bad vibes in Minneapolis going in to North Dakota week. 5:49 Vegoe And it could have been a tough week of practice. 5:51 Vegoe I think winning the shootout doesn't mean anything for anything other than breaking the streak. 5:57 Vegoe But it just gives the team a little relief from that feeling. 6:02 Vegoe And I thought they played pretty well Saturday night against BC. 6:06 Vegoe Like they started to get some speed, some pressure. 6:09 Vegoe They pretty much controlled the third period, except for the one mistake, slash maybe non-call. 6:17 Vegoe I think Bob mentioned that in the post game. 6:19 Vegoe And I hope he didn't get in trouble with the NCAA director of officials on that. 6:23 Vegoe But he wasn't happy with the non-call and the Hendrickson getting taken down. 6:28 Vegoe And then Eternio goes the other way for BC in the scores, of course, after Minnesota just controlled play. 6:35 Vegoe But I think that shows maybe the mindset of this team, that they can deal with that and still come back and play hard and get through. 6:44 Vegoe So a lot of growing to do. 6:45 Vegoe You have to hope as a Gopher fan, it pays off for this weekend against North Dakota, because they look really good. 6:51 Jûpe And North Dakota had a few games with St. 6:54 Jûpe Thomas, Brad, and a pretty successful weekend for them. 7:00 Brad Yeah. 7:01 Brad You know, I thought they had some ups and downs throughout the two games. 7:06 Brad Kind of what you would expect for a team with a lot of... 7:09 Brad I think both these teams that are playing this week and have a lot of young guys that are going to play key roles. 7:13 Brad And I think probably for the first month and a half here, you're going to see that with both teams. 7:19 Brad You know, you don't really go into college hockey with the young team and just roll the first month and a half. 7:24 Brad It just doesn't happen. 7:25 Brad You go through the growing pains and they were able to go through some of them with the wind attached to them, which I think is always helpful. 7:35 Brad So you saw the flashes of why the young guys are going to be really good. 7:41 Brad You saw some of the freshmen moments in them. 7:44 Brad But yeah, anytime you can beat a team twice in college hockey, as we found out looking at scores around the country this weekend, that is nothing to be happy about because it's really hard to sweep in college hockey. 8:03 Jûpe And we'll get into some of the CHL players in our second segment, and even pro players play on a few teams. 8:12 Jûpe But Vegs, he's right, there's a lot more freshmen across the league this year because of the CHL, and these are typically single-mountain guys. 8:21 Jûpe I just saw a list today that shows some of the top players. 8:24 Jûpe Seventeen years old, they're just babies, Vegs. 8:29 Vegoe Yeah, and I think coming into college hockey at 17 is a really tough thing to do. 8:33 Vegoe Like we've seen a lot of draft prospects come into college hockey and struggle and then want to go to the CHL because the game is easier. 8:41 Vegoe So we've seen that happen at the winter break where teams change leagues that way because college hockey is really hard. 8:49 Vegoe I think this year is going to be really interesting because all these CHL players are joining the league. 8:55 Vegoe They're kind of unknowns. 8:56 Vegoe How are they going to fit? 8:57 Vegoe How is their year going to progress as they play less games, do more training, have the off-ice responsibilities of being a student athlete? 9:05 Vegoe Those are some question marks to answer. 9:07 Vegoe I think Minnesota wanted to stick to their traditional recruiting grounds as much as possible for this year and next year and kind of wait and see that out because Bob always says, hey, I like the guys I recruit. 9:20 Vegoe I'm not just going to go grab a guy to grab a guy that's an unknown. 9:25 Jûpe Whereas, you know, Mark Cotter has been recruiting a lot of the HL guys and using the portal a lot, Brad, kind of the opposite of what Minnesota is doing. 9:35 Brad Well, I think what Vegoe said is right is like, if you like your recruits, which isn't a guarantee, but Bob has liked his recruits, and for good reason, you have these guys lined up and then they come in, right? 9:55 Brad A lot of times when you're going to the portal, it's either because you're losing guys before you expect to lose them or because your recruits aren't ready, and you have to keep pushing them back. 10:07 Brad And both of those situations happened with North Dakota the last few years. 10:12 Brad They had the first year, the fifth year thing, they lost like nine seniors, some other guys turned pro, and all of a sudden they had 14 spots to fill. 10:21 Brad And instead of bringing in 14 freshmen, they decided to bring in seven freshmen, seven transfers that first year, which would have been 20, 2021. 10:33 Brad And then other years, they just didn't have guys that were ready to come in, and they had to push them back and say, well, instead of bringing in man and him failing, we're going to bring in a transfer, let them season one more year. 10:46 Brad I don't think that is the design going forward. 10:51 Brad And I think that's part of the reason why North Dakota added a general manager who's just going to be strictly a recruiter. 10:57 Brad I think they want it closer to the Denver and Minnesota model, where you may be grabbing a transfer here and there to supplement the roster, like a Tanner Lutke, instead of getting a handful each year. 11:15 Brad I think it's more just to add to your group. 11:19 Brad And then this, it was a crazy summer. 11:22 Brad UND ends up, they needed to grab 15 new guys this summer, or sorry, they have 15 new players. 11:30 Brad They needed to find 11 of them this summer alone, which is crazy. 11:36 Brad Usually, like, if you have 15 new guys, you know who, like, 13 of them are going to be, because they're already committed, right? 11:41 Brad And that's what happened in Minnesota. 11:42 Brad They had these guys committed for a while. 11:46 Brad They were all ready to come in. 11:48 Brad And so then they just brought them in. 11:52 Brad That wasn't the case with North Dakota. 11:53 Brad They had four guys ready to come in. 11:55 Brad And then they had 11 spots. 11:57 Brad Like, well, here they go. 12:00 Brad So they did have to go to the portal to get some. 12:02 Brad They went to the CHL to get some. 12:05 Brad And they were able to finish it off. 12:07 Brad But I do think their future model is going to be closer to what you've seen in Minneapolis and what Denver's done. 12:16 Jûpe And Veegs, you've talked about that a lot this year and previous years, that North Dakota has just been a little unbalanced because of all this craziness the past three or four years. 12:27 Jûpe Yeah. 12:27 Vegoe I mean, I think North Dakota definitely relied a little too much on the portal to plug holes. 12:32 Vegoe And once you start doing that, and you start filling more holes with your portal additions, you start to lose your culture a little bit, I think. 12:40 Vegoe And I think that's a little bit what cost Brad Berry his job, was just losing that North Dakota culture that you would get through recruiting. 12:49 Vegoe So, you know, being patient with the guys, you can identify early as your guys that fit your program versus guys that you like in the portal. 12:57 Vegoe And they can maybe keep you your job for another year or two, but maybe aren't exactly the best fit. 13:03 Vegoe And Brad's article coming into the season where he talks about how Dane Jackson built this roster, like the day by day details of how they're recruiting and how they got guys to sign and the reaction of like scouts everywhere and other college coaches was great. 13:19 Vegoe And I highly recommend people checking that out in the Grand Forks Herald if they want to get an insight into how this roster was built by North Dakota. 13:26 Vegoe Because like Brad said, like they had so many spots to fill this summer. 13:31 Brad Dane Jackson flat out said, we could have been bad this year. 13:34 Brad Like when the coaching change happens, you know how it goes this day and age. 13:41 Brad Everyone is contacting all their guys and they're saying, come to our program. 13:48 Brad North Dakota is a disaster. 13:50 Brad You need to get out, come here. 13:52 Brad Here's some money by the way. 13:54 Brad And there are a lot of people in their ears. 13:56 Brad And really, they only ended up losing one guy. 14:01 Brad I know like Jayden Perron, Owen McLaughlin left. 14:04 Brad And I think they were likely to leave no matter what. 14:09 Brad Sasha Boivier is the guy who I think he's probably back. 14:13 Brad If Brad's still the coach, he was very tight with Brad Berry. 14:16 Brad He played with Brad's son in Muskegon. 14:20 Brad But they could have lost a lot more than that. 14:23 Brad You know, Dylan James, the Red Wings wanted to sign. 14:26 Brad Jake Livanovich had pro offer. 14:29 Brad And other guys were getting contacted to try to leave. 14:35 Brad And you know, they were first able to hold the rest of their guys together. 14:40 Brad But if some dominoes start falling, we saw what happened at Northern Michigan. 14:45 Brad And I know North Dakota is a little different than Northern Michigan. 14:47 Brad But that can happen this day and age. 14:50 Brad That's the last 12 head coaching changes we've seen. 14:55 Brad Six of them, they named their next coach when they announced the departing coach at the same time. 14:59 Brad Because everyone's scared of what happened at Northern. 15:04 Vegoe And I think North Dakota is a really interesting spot. 15:07 Vegoe Because I feel like their players are stepping in roles. 15:09 Vegoe And they're looking like they're making an impact right away. 15:12 Vegoe With Minnesota, we've seen LJ Mooney, Javon Moore start to impress, Tate Pritchard's looking like a good late add to this roster. 15:21 Vegoe The defense though, are a little bit of an unknown. 15:24 Vegoe So it's going to be interesting to see Minnesota as they go forward. 15:27 Vegoe And I think St. 15:28 Vegoe Thomas is a good team, but I don't think they're quite BC. 15:31 Vegoe So seeing how North Dakota maybe looked against St. 15:35 Vegoe Thomas and how they're looking projected into this weekend, I think is going to be really interesting. 15:40 Brad Yeah, it should be, you know, North Dakota then goes to Clarkson after that, has Duluth. 15:46 Brad I would like to see like a full month sample size before we really know what we have, both from North Dakota and the rest of the country. 15:54 Brad You know, I think we've just seen such a small sample size of everyone. 15:58 Brad And I don't know if I have any grand takeaways yet, other than college hockey is going to be hard, the player pool is as deep as it's ever been. 16:07 Brad Everyone's kind of benefited from it, whether they've taken CHL players or they've grabbed traditional recruits who maybe landed were open because another team took a CHL guy. 16:22 Brad There were a few teams who didn't and just already had their recruits lined up, like Minnesota, St. 16:27 Brad Cloud State, you know, Duluth barely dabbled into it, but BC had one. 16:35 Brad No, they don't have any. 16:36 Brad No, BC, BU only had one. 16:41 Brad So yeah, it's, it's fascinating. 16:44 Vegoe Pretty fortunate, I think, for Dane Jackson to have these CHL players knowing he needed so many. 16:49 Vegoe You know, really lucky for that fan base because they're pretty excited based on ticket prices I'm seeing. 16:55 Vegoe But without those CHL players, I think you're looking at a very different roster for North Dakota. 17:00 Brad No doubt about it. 17:01 Brad Like that was really good timing for UND to have that some of those guys available. 17:07 Brad They ended up getting three guys up there. 17:10 Brad The fourth one had already committed, you know, long ago, but they ended up getting three guys up there and they're going to be impactful players. 17:19 Brad You know, so I do think and also it's a region that UND is traditionally recruited. 17:26 Brad So I do think there's a little bit of a benefit when they go up to Western Canada. 17:31 Brad A lot of these kids have heard of UND because there's so many North Dakota players that came from that area that they know someone connected. 17:39 Brad I think one of the first kids who committed, I said, have you ever heard of it? 17:42 Brad And he said, well, yeah, I worked at a camp with Jacob Bernard Docker in Calgary, you know, so there is that familiarity a little bit for North Dakota. 17:55 Vegoe Cause I think Minnesota was fortunate to get lucky in DePasquale in the portal because there weren't very many experienced centers available in the portal, handful of goalies. 18:05 Vegoe So I think Minnesota was lucky to get those two ads. 18:09 Vegoe And maybe it's because all the CHL players, it was easier for them. 18:11 Vegoe Hard to know, but they got two good ones there. 18:15 Brad Yeah. 18:15 Brad I mean, the other interesting thing is, you know, they got, you know, Jacob Kwasnicka playing junior this year too. 18:21 Brad So they had another guy that could have could have come. 18:23 Vegoe And Macio Phillips, you know, another another player gets that extra year of junior experience, which Minnesota has had some luck with doing with having more go back, having Hendrickson go back for that extra year. 18:36 Vegoe Yeah, it's kind of been a bonus for Minnesota. 18:39 Vegoe And I think Kwasnicka is going to have a great year in the dub, and he'll come in even more ready next year. 18:47 Jûpe You mentioned the goalies there with Luca coming in this year. 18:52 Jûpe But after, you know, a good Friday night against Michigan Tech, Bob said it to run Airy both nights. 18:57 Jûpe And honestly, I think that's the best we've seen from him in his three games this year. 19:03 Jûpe He hasn't won them all. 19:06 Jûpe But it just something feels different about him. 19:10 Vegoe Well, I think he's battling and holding his crease much more aggressively and relying on his technique than last year. 19:19 Vegoe There are so many times last year where there's a scramble in front of the net or there's a loose puck. 19:24 Vegoe And Airy would basically give away the goal, trying to get there and find it. 19:28 Vegoe I thought against all the traffic that BC threw at him, he was very good at holding his ground, holding his post, recovering back into a conservative depth and keeping the puck out of the net. 19:39 Vegoe And I think that's the biggest change I've seen from him from last year this year. 19:44 Vegoe And Bob was pretty upfront about it. 19:45 Vegoe He and Airy had to talk at the end of the year, is like, there are some things you need to work on. 19:50 Vegoe Neither Bob or Nathan shared those with me, but I'm guessing it's this crease presence that you have to have, because Airy is a big goalie. 19:56 Vegoe You know, he's your 6'4, prototypical pro goalie style. 20:02 Vegoe So if he's able to hold his crease with his technique, he's got a good trajectory. 20:07 Vegoe And I think we'll see Luca back in that. 20:10 Vegoe That's what Bob said. 20:11 Vegoe He just liked the way Airy played on Friday, liked the way he played against Tech, wanted to give him a back to back to see how he'd handle it. 20:18 Vegoe And I think he passed the test. 20:23 Jûpe I think it's good. 20:24 Jûpe If I'm noticing it, it must be noticeable. 20:28 Jûpe I don't know. 20:30 Jûpe But yeah, like you said, Luca's going to get back in. 20:32 Jûpe I wouldn't doubt if we see him this weekend. 20:37 Jûpe Well, maybe even starting Friday night. 20:39 Jûpe Who knows? 20:40 Jûpe It's just until someone proves that you just never know what Bob's gonna do. 20:45 Vegoe It's hard to know. 20:46 Vegoe This is a pretty big series coming up. 20:47 Vegoe So, you know, all these games are important right now. 20:52 Vegoe You know, I think we've heard a lot of coaches talk about it. 20:54 Vegoe Greg Brown talked about Bob Malsko talked about it. 20:56 Vegoe Dane Jackson talked about it. 20:58 Vegoe It's like these out of conference games are critical for your standing at the end of the year for the NCAA tournament. 21:04 Vegoe And you can't get the games back. 21:08 Vegoe I think I'm quoting your article, Brad. 21:09 Brad That's like what Dane Jackson said. 21:12 Brad That's what happened last year. 21:13 Brad North Dakota struggled a little bit in non-conference and they were swimming uphill the whole year or frankly, the whole conference was. 21:20 Brad Yeah, NCC, two teams. 21:22 Vegoe Very un-trivial year last year, non-conference. 21:24 Vegoe And I've looked at the pairwise for years and it wasn't so much a team all the time about how their record was at the end of the year. 21:32 Vegoe It was how the conferences did against each other and then where you ranked within your conference. 21:38 Vegoe So if your conference dominates, you're going to get four or five teams in. 21:42 Brad Exactly. 21:44 Brad And the league had a tough year last year, like the first month of the year and during like the non-conference season, Max Plant was out for Duluth with an injury. 21:54 Brad Artem Schlane was in CHC Player of the Year finalist at Arizona State. 21:58 Brad He was out for a month and a half. 22:01 Brad Cameron Berg was North Dakota's first line center. 22:03 Brad He was out. 22:04 Brad Noah Laba was CC's first line center. 22:07 Brad He was out. 22:08 Brad So there's four teams who had their first line center were out during that time. 22:14 Brad Kind of bad timing for those teams. 22:16 Brad And then once you lose those games, as Dane Jackson said, you just can't get them back if you stub your toe in conference play early on. 22:24 Brad You know, you got 24 games. 22:25 Brad You can maybe make it up at the end. 22:27 Brad Like you have maybe your two games at Christmas to try to bump it a little bit. 22:36 Brad But there's not you don't have noncon games in the second half, especially with all the early departures in College Hockey. 22:43 Vegoe It's hard to find a number one center. 22:45 Vegoe You know, there's just not there's not many of those on a roster. 22:48 Vegoe You know, if Minnesota loses Ludky and Clark, you know, it's going to be a painful stretch of the year. 22:56 Vegoe You need those guys to stay healthy. 23:00 Jûpe All right, V, so we need to talk about one of our sponsors here before we move on to our next segment, Gateway Fiber, wiring up the northern part of the Twin Cities there. 23:10 Vegoe You got to have fiber. 23:11 Vegoe Like if you're telecommuting and you're doing a podcast and you're using your video, you got to have fast internet. 23:18 Vegoe And we rely on it here at GPL. 23:20 Vegoe And Gateway Fiber is here to keep you internet skating at full speed. 23:24 Vegoe They've been taking on big cable for years. 23:27 Vegoe And they've come to Minnesota offering faster speeds, better reliability and customer service that doesn't sit in the penalty box. 23:33 Vegoe We're talking speeds up to 2 gigabits per second, keeping your internet on the power play all game long. 23:39 Vegoe Gateway Fiber isn't just another provider. 23:41 Vegoe They're on your team. 23:42 Vegoe Visit gatewayfiber.com or call 888-201-4339 to see if Gateway Fiber is available in your area because life is too short for bad internet. 23:55 Jûpe Definitely isn't. 23:58 Jûpe All right, Veegs, we've got your top 20 for this week in the NCAA. 24:04 Jûpe Talk to us about it and then we'll have it compared to what Brad's was. 24:08 Vegoe There is a lot of chaos at the top of voting. 24:14 Vegoe I was kind of rushed on Monday trying to figure it all out. 24:17 Vegoe It was a tough weekend, I think, to come back from because you had so many teams drop games. 24:22 Vegoe Western dropped a game. 24:23 Vegoe Michigan State dropped a game. 24:24 Vegoe Penn State dropped a game. 24:26 Vegoe Quinnipiac dropped a game. 24:28 Vegoe And then they all came back and won the next night. 24:31 Vegoe So it's hard to know what to do with those teams. 24:34 Vegoe BU went to overtime, but they escaped. 24:39 Vegoe Denver got goalied by Air Force where they outshot them like 60 to 15 or something like that. 24:47 Vegoe So it's hard to know. 24:48 Vegoe I like these teams in Hockey East, NCHC, Big Ten, in your top ten. 24:53 Vegoe It's just so hard to put them in an order right now. 24:56 Vegoe But I definitely think one through ten, those are those top teams right now. 25:00 Vegoe I was really surprised. 25:01 Vegoe Providence got skated out of the rink by Michigan. 25:05 Vegoe That's one of those weekends where Michigan obviously came to play and were able to generate offense and didn't fall victim to any of their discipline problems. 25:14 Vegoe So that was kind of the biggest surprising result of the weekend for me. 25:18 Jûpe And Brad, you compare it to last year when Denver just jumped out and won like 10 straight games. 25:23 Jûpe It's kind of obvious who the top team was. 25:26 Jûpe But typically every year, it's kind of you just never know. 25:30 Brad Juggles around. 25:31 Brad Yeah, absolutely. 25:33 Brad And I had Western Michigan that won. 25:36 Brad And the reason why I gave gave them the the nod was because they got hot goalied in that game. 25:44 Brad Like they the shots were it wasn't like a game where, you know, shots were even or they got out shot like they dominated the game. 25:53 Brad So I kind of said, well, that happens. 25:56 Brad They get a little nod for me. 25:59 Brad I've actually had Providence a lot lower than everyone else. 26:02 Brad I think I started with them at 19 this year. 26:06 Brad And the reason why I had them low is because their D Corp so young. 26:11 Brad They just do not have many upperclassmen on D. 26:14 Brad So I had them down. 26:17 Brad That was one of the big differences in ours. 26:22 Brad I'm looking at mine right now to see if there's any major differences. 26:26 Brad We're only a few spots away on a lot of these. 26:28 Brad I still have Boston University lower. 26:33 Vegoe They're a young team. 26:34 Brad They're very young. 26:35 Vegoe They're very young. 26:36 Brad They have more draft picks than anyone. 26:38 Brad You know, 19 is the most in college hockey and who knows how long. 26:41 Brad I mean, I can't think of anything like that in recent time. 26:46 Brad But they have one senior and that's it. 26:49 Brad And he played for North Nordac last year. 26:53 Vegoe Don't they have another player from Nordac? 26:54 Brad Yeah, they have two. 26:56 Brad Yeah. 26:56 Brad Yeah. 26:58 Brad Sasha's you know, and he got hurt. 27:01 Brad He missed a game. 27:02 Brad He's back now, but he's a pretty special talent. 27:08 Brad Yeah. 27:10 Vegoe Well, you're pretty high on Wisconsin and I don't have. 27:12 Brad Oh, yeah, that's the one that I have way up there. 27:14 Brad Sorry. 27:14 Vegoe Yeah, you're really high on Wisconsin. 27:17 Vegoe You know, their first weekend against Lindenwood, you know, Tassie and Fitzgerald had big, big, big weekends, and they had down years last year, and it just felt like last year was kind of a lost year for Wisconsin at times. 27:32 Vegoe You know, they were really struggling. 27:34 Vegoe And if those guys bounce back and are feeling good and can lead the program, they're a dangerous team. 27:39 Vegoe You know, they do have talent and they've got good coaching. 27:43 Vegoe So they're always a threat, but I just haven't seen it yet out of Wisconsin to prognosticate them as highly as you have. 27:50 Brad You know, I like picking one random thing. 27:53 Brad So everyone's like, what is going on with this one? 27:56 Brad I like to do one thing different. 27:58 Brad And that was the one team I thought, you know what? 28:01 Brad They're older on D now. 28:04 Brad I really like the Osborne kid they brought in from the USHL. 28:08 Brad They got a center from the DUB and Oliver Talk. 28:14 Brad I think they have a good mix of some skill up front and some, you know, some of the older, heavier players that can lean on you a little bit. 28:24 Brad So I'm like, this is a pretty good combo. 28:26 Brad They might sneak up on some teams this year. 28:30 Vegoe Do you think Colorado College is going to make the tournament this year? 28:34 Vegoe Because I've seen a lot of things from CC that I've liked, but they just can't always put it together. 28:41 Vegoe They lose a lot of close games, but they've got good goaltending. 28:44 Vegoe They've got some good defensemen. 28:45 Vegoe They've got some talent up front. 28:47 Vegoe They've got some seniority there. 28:49 Vegoe Is this year they make it? 28:54 Brad Their goaltender, all-American, two years ago, last year he went through his struggles. 28:59 Brad I think he'll bounce back and be fine. 29:02 Brad Their decor, I think, is solid. 29:06 Brad They're very young up front. 29:09 Brad And we'll see how quickly some of those young players can adjust. 29:13 Brad But they do have some really good players. 29:15 Brad Max Burkholder is a guy that I think a lot of college hockey fans are unfamiliar with. 29:21 Brad He's one of the best demon in the league. 29:23 Brad So, he's a difference maker. 29:27 Brad I think Brett Link is a guy that could get an NHL deal. 29:31 Brad Big power winger. 29:34 Brad Owen Beckner had a great freshman year last year. 29:37 Brad We'll see what... 29:39 Brad I think they're going to be a bubble team. 29:41 Brad We'll see if they can bump in. 29:42 Brad But they are really young up front. 29:45 Brad If the young guys can adapt quickly, they can make it for sure. 29:50 Vegoe I think CC is one of those teams that they need the NCHC to do well out of conference for them to show up. 29:56 Brad Yeah, that would help them. 29:56 Brad That would help them for sure. 29:58 Vegoe That's definitely a big factor in whether they can get in or not. 30:00 Brad Yeah, you know, it would be tough if only two or even three teams get in again, you know. 30:07 Brad NCHC needs four or five. 30:10 Jûpe I'm curious. 30:11 Jûpe I haven't seen the official uscho poll. 30:14 Jûpe Is Cornell still getting those weird votes anymore? 30:21 Vegoe You're making us all look right in the middle of the show. 30:23 Brad I got the email right here. 30:27 Brad And they just sent me the poll again. 30:29 Brad Cornell is not getting any votes. 30:35 Brad No, they are. 30:36 Brad They're number 18. 30:37 Jûpe Oh, there you go. 30:38 Jûpe They haven't played a game yet, though. 30:40 Brad They have not. 30:41 Vegoe I have darn ECAC teams and their academics. 30:46 Vegoe I hold them back. 30:47 Vegoe That's why Quinnipiac just runs away with it every year. 30:51 Brad I mean, they're practicing and everything. 30:53 Jûpe What's it's it's a joke. 30:56 Brad They all want to play, adapt. 31:00 Vegoe I think they can handle the athlete part of it. 31:02 Brad I think they're letting their FCS teams play in the playoffs now, though. 31:06 Brad Maybe that's the first step to. 31:10 Brad Letting their College Hockey Teams play the first month. 31:14 Jûpe All right. 31:16 Jûpe Sounds good to me. 31:17 Jûpe All right. 31:18 Jûpe Going back now. 31:22 Jûpe Veegs, we had Jack Ramsey on. 31:24 Jûpe We kind of talked a little bit about him and he was sending me messages a couple of weeks ago. 31:28 Jûpe He's like WTF. 31:30 Jûpe This guy played in the pros. 31:32 Jûpe He signed a pro contract. 31:35 Jûpe Why is he at a college? 31:39 Jûpe I think he's got a pretty good beef here, Veegs. 31:42 Jûpe I think the NCAA is bending a bit too much. 31:48 Vegoe Well, I'm sure Brad knows this better than I do. 31:50 Jûpe Yeah. 31:50 Vegoe But I think what's happened is there have been a lot of basketball players who come up in systems in Europe where they get paid like pros and then they've been able to come to NCAA basketball. 32:03 Vegoe So when they've had this situation with a few hockey players that have similar compensation, they were just like, we've already crossed the rubric on this and we have to let them in or we'll get a lawsuit and lose. 32:17 Vegoe But I think it makes no sense if you're a player in North America and you sign with a North American Pro League, like that is the line for me where like you shouldn't be able to come back. 32:26 Vegoe So it doesn't make any sense to me, but legally the NCAA is not in a very good spot, Brad. 32:33 Jûpe All the NCAA does is lose, Brad. 32:35 Brad Yeah. 32:37 Brad I think, so the guys who played like on ATOs, I kind of understand that one. 32:47 Brad Like, so what the ruling is, essentially, is that they didn't make enough money to be over actual and necessary expenses. 32:58 Brad So this is kind of like if you're a tennis player at North Dakota and you go play in a summer tournament and you win it, and you get a $300 check, you can keep it because it's like, well, that doesn't cover your expenses. 33:16 Brad You know, it just, so there is like a level of that. 33:20 Brad And I totally understand the ATO ones. 33:22 Brad Like they're probably getting almost nothing. 33:24 Brad They're there for like six days and then they get home. 33:28 Brad The guys that, the four guys that played a full year, that one confuses me a little bit because it's hard for me to believe that they didn't exceed actual and necessary expenses. 33:40 Brad That one I, but apparently that is the ruling. 33:46 Brad That they did not make enough money in the ECHL to cover or to be more than actual and necessary expense. 33:55 Brad Now, the second thing I'll say is I don't think this is going to be super common as this goes on because the guys who did that, what happened was they played in the CHL. 34:06 Brad They aged out at age 21. 34:09 Brad And what happens when you age out of the CHL? 34:13 Brad You gotta go pro. 34:14 Vegoe Or you go back to college. 34:16 Brad Yeah, you sport. 34:18 Brad One or the other. 34:19 Brad And so these guys go pro. 34:21 Brad These guys will now just go straight to college in the future. 34:26 Brad But for these four guys, that wasn't an option when they went to pro. 34:30 Brad So I really think this is going to be an anomaly because I think in the future, that's what's going to happen. 34:39 Brad I just kind of, I think the NCAA is looking at them as like they played in the CHL, they aged out, they played one year of college. 34:48 Brad Here you go, they're sophomores now. 34:50 Brad Because these guys aren't freshmen either, by the way, because of the age that makes them sophomores. 34:54 Brad But I agree, it's strange, but I don't think this is going to be super common. 35:01 Vegoe I just think like you've opened up this window now where some of the guys who turned pro and left early may get to pro hockey and say, this isn't for me. 35:11 Vegoe Maybe I could go back at winter break and finish out a college season for somebody. 35:16 Vegoe You know what I mean? 35:16 Vegoe Like maybe a Connor Kurth gets to Syracuse is like, this isn't what I want. 35:20 Vegoe I want to go back to Minnesota helping get a championship or all over more doesn't make the Blackhawks. 35:24 Vegoe So he's in Rockford and at mid season he's like, I know I want to come back. 35:29 Vegoe I just worry that NCAA is like setting themselves up for some of those cases that don't seem that different to me than the ones that are in play here. 35:37 Vegoe These players would still have eligibility left and they're not getting paid a ton of money in these leagues. 35:46 Brad I mean, I need to double check this, but I think it's a pre-enrollment rule. 35:51 Brad Because I was asking people, does this mean, what year is Jimmy Clark, Junior? 36:00 Brad Yes. 36:00 Brad Does this mean Jimmy Clark can go and sign an ATO and play five games with the Iowa Wild at the end of this year and then come back? 36:09 Brad And the answer I got was like, no, because it's a pre-enrollment rule. 36:15 Brad So again, I know these are weird rules. 36:17 Brad I don't myself understand them all, but that was my question. 36:21 Brad Are we going to see a bunch of college guys sign ATOs and then come back? 36:24 Brad And I was told no. 36:26 Vegoe I would trust your word over my speculation. 36:29 Brad This isn't my, this is just what people are telling me. 36:31 Brad I probably need to report this more thoroughly than I have, but that's what I got. 36:38 Jûpe People are going to push though, because they know the NCAA, like all they do is lose. 36:42 Jûpe So I think, I think you're right, Vee. 36:44 Jûpe There's no reason why somebody wouldn't try it. 36:47 Jûpe And then they'll say, I'll sue you. 36:48 Jûpe And then they're like, OK, it's that's what I worry about. 36:55 Vegoe We'll see. 36:55 Vegoe It's I think it's a it's a weird line to a race where you have these pro players who can come back. 37:02 Vegoe I just I just think it's a little odd. 37:05 Vegoe I think the CHL players playing in college makes total sense to me. 37:09 Vegoe There's so many CHL players who hit that age limit. 37:13 Vegoe They're not ready for pro hockey. 37:15 Vegoe Maybe their teams aren't even ready to sign them or begrudgingly are signing them because they don't want to lose them. 37:21 Vegoe And then they're in a bad development situation. 37:23 Vegoe Whereas some of those guys, you know, they could benefit from a couple of years of college. 37:28 Vegoe I look at some of the Iowa Wild Defensemen that signed out of the CHL. 37:32 Vegoe I don't think they were ready to play in the AHL. 37:34 Vegoe But the Wild didn't want to lose them. 37:38 Vegoe So they signed them. 37:39 Vegoe And you have an Iowa Wild team that hasn't made the playoffs in a couple of years because of that. 37:43 Vegoe If those guys could have signed and play college for a few years, like Ryder Ritchie is doing, that's a better path. 37:51 Brad Yeah, for sure. 37:54 Jûpe It's just getting more messy and more messy each year. 37:57 Vegoe But I think it's good for the players. 37:59 Vegoe I think it's good for college hockey. 38:01 Vegoe It's going to be a better league. 38:02 Vegoe There's going to be more parity. 38:04 Vegoe Derek Schooley was on the USCHO podcast this week. 38:07 Vegoe He's like, hey, do you see those scores on Thursday and Friday? 38:10 Vegoe It's like that's what college hockey is going to be like this year. 38:13 Vegoe And going forward, it's going to be harder and harder to sweep. 38:17 Brad Yeah, you're going to see a lot of future NHL guys because I think it is going to be the last stop before guys go. 38:26 Brad And I think it makes sense to make the kids eligible. 38:29 Brad Let's be honest, they're no different than USCHL players. 38:35 Brad Kind of a ridiculous rule when you think about it. 38:39 Brad But yeah. 38:40 Jûpe And a lot of these CHL kids making that first step are going to go report to their buddies. 38:46 Jûpe Back in some tiny little town in Canada and say, you know, we're fed a lot. 38:52 Jûpe We get these workouts. 38:54 Jûpe We have, you know, like some of these leagues. 38:57 Jûpe We're flying. 38:58 Jûpe We're not busing. 39:00 Jûpe These arenas are amazing. 39:01 Jûpe That's, I think next year could be the big year, Brad. 39:06 Brad I think there's no doubt. 39:07 Brad And it's, I think on top of all that, I think it's the life experience of college. 39:13 Vegoe Ah, yes. 39:14 Brad You are around all these people that are your age. 39:17 Brad It's a great time. 39:18 Brad It's a great lifestyle. 39:20 Brad And I think a lot of these guys are going to be calling back to their friends and they're going to say, man, this is fun. 39:30 Brad This is great. 39:32 Brad You know, I think that's kind of underrated. 39:34 Brad If you've been to college, you know, it's pretty fun. 39:37 Brad And you live with your best friends. 39:39 Brad Like you said, you get fed. 39:42 Brad You travel on an airplane. 39:44 Brad I'm going to talk to Keaton Verhoff tomorrow. 39:47 Brad He's one of the North Dakota CHL guys. 39:51 Brad He played in Victoria. 39:53 Brad Someone told me that Victoria on their road trips, they bus back after the game, which is late at night. 40:03 Brad Victoria, you need to take a ferry to the island. 40:07 Brad So they have to go to the terminal, sleep in the terminal until the ferry starts running at 6.30 or 7 in the morning, then go across. 40:17 Brad And so I need to ask him some of the details on this, but my guess is when they hear College Hockey players, oh, by the way, you fly home the night of the game. 40:28 Brad Josh Sikreski played for Portland, and I said, how many flight trips did you guys take last year? 40:35 Brad And he said, none. 40:36 Brad We never flew. 40:37 Brad I said, did you play in Brandon last year? 40:40 Brad And he said, yeah. 40:43 Brad So you bus to Brandon? 40:45 Brad Yep. 40:49 Jûpe I mean, there's a lot of busing on the East Coast because schools are so close, Veegs, but. 40:52 Brad Yeah, they're close. 40:55 Vegoe It's on Portland and Brandon. 40:56 Jûpe Yeah. 40:56 Vegoe I want to get on Google and see what kind of drive that is. 40:59 Brad Yeah. 40:59 Brad Tell us what driving from Portland to Brandon is. 41:02 Brad I mean, busing from like, you know, Grand Forks to Minneapolis is nothing, right? 41:08 Brad Like compared to what they're doing over in the Western Hockey League. 41:12 Brad And the Western Hockey League lost more players than any of the other leagues. 41:15 Brad And you wonder if the hard travel, some of it, I guarantee you Gavin McKenna was thinking, you know, between games and buses, how much training time is he getting? 41:25 Brad I think he's going to be so much better prepared for the NHL. 41:28 Brad Yes. 41:29 Brad To go through the grind of the college season to get bigger and stronger. 41:32 Brad And which is something he needs to do. 41:35 Jûpe And he's playing against bigger and stronger guys. 41:39 Brad Yes. 41:40 Jûpe So, Veegs, you know, while we were at the summer showcase this summer with all the juniors, we had heard that, you know, some of the Canadian coaches and players came in there and like, oh, this is Ritter. 41:53 Jûpe It's a nice arena. 41:54 Jûpe It's very cool. 41:56 Jûpe That's just one arena. 41:57 Jûpe They would go across and get warmed up and see some lockers like, oh, my gosh, it's a giant arena here. 42:03 Jûpe They had no idea. 42:04 Jûpe And they're like, yeah, a lot of schools out west have these big arenas. 42:09 Jûpe I mean, you look at the Ralph, it's like this is something they haven't experienced before, Veegs. 42:15 Vegoe And I think there's an opportunity here to make College Hockey bigger with TV. 42:22 Vegoe I think with all these Canadian players, all these prospects coming, I seriously think there should be an ESPN, TSN game of the week happening where, you know, they're featuring top draft prospects on a weekly basis and promoting this product better. 42:40 Vegoe And I just think it's something that needs to happen for College Hockey. 42:44 Vegoe We've seen David Karl talk about, you know, having the NCAA tournament on ESPN or ABC. 42:50 Vegoe I think pressing for like a game of the week is something College Hockey coaches should be talking about this off season in Florida when they all get together because this product is getting better and better. 43:01 Vegoe And you got to showcase it. 43:02 Vegoe You got to show it to all the fans in Canada and the prospective players. 43:07 Vegoe And you want to show that it's the next step. 43:11 Jûpe You know, Tim Hapke's got a question here that I think is interesting. 43:14 Jûpe Do you think CHL kids are more likely to be one and done? 43:18 Jûpe I'm thinking these superstars that are kind of the really good players that came over early here, Brad. 43:25 Jûpe Quite a few of them might be that way. 43:27 Jûpe But I think kind of more along with what Vego is saying, it's going to be a place for these guys to arrive and continue playing when they age out. 43:35 Brad Yeah, I think that's a really good question that a lot of college coaches are asking themselves right now. 43:42 Brad These guys hadn't grown, you know, like the Minnesota kids, for example, they've grown up around it. 43:50 Brad It's really something that's been part of their plan for a long time. 43:54 Brad They've really wanted to do this for a long time. 43:56 Brad A lot of the CHL kids, this hasn't been part of their plan. 44:02 Brad Are they in a rush to sign as fast as possible? 44:05 Brad Or are they going to be more like the USHL kids, where when they get in, they see kind of the data of how guys transition to the NHL, and how guys career paths have gone, and what are the most successful, and say, hey, you know what, actually, I'm going to be here three years. 44:22 Brad That is a golden question right there, that I think everyone is kind of sitting there thinking, hmm, how long are they going to stay? 44:33 Brad Like the Gavin McKenna, he's probably going to be one and done, right? 44:39 Brad But, you know, you think of some of the other guys who, you know, maybe went in the middle of the first round. 44:45 Brad Cole Reschne, you're going to see at North Dakota this weekend was a flames pick 18 overall. 44:52 Brad North Dakota has had only one, one and done since Ed Bell 487. 44:59 Brad And that was Tyson Jost. 45:01 Brad Like, so UND does not have very many one and done. 45:04 Brad Is he going to be one and done? 45:06 Brad Well, I, you know, history would tell you no. 45:10 Brad But that's the question. 45:11 Brad Are that he is going to have a contract offer? 45:14 Brad I'm sure, you know, first round picks, they'll sign in anytime they want. 45:17 Brad So good question. 45:20 Vegoe Yeah, I think with Minnesota staying out of the CHL, I think that was the worry, because we look at their recruiting cycles and their classes. 45:27 Vegoe If they were to take in a couple one and done or two and done type players, it puts them in a tough spot roster building a couple of years from now. 45:35 Vegoe You know, we saw how hard it was to fill portal spots this year. 45:38 Vegoe You know, if you're having to do that the next couple of years, it's only going to get harder, I think. 45:43 Jûpe Brad, you and I kind of talked a little bit over the summer and actually before the end of the season that we kind of thought that it's going to be a different year for the portal. 45:50 Jûpe Yes, there's a lot of us, but with the CHL opening, a lot of guys didn't go places. 45:57 Brad Yeah, and you're right. 46:01 Brad Two things. 46:02 Brad Number one, I don't think the portal had as much talent in it this year. 46:06 Jûpe True, true. 46:07 Brad And that's part of the product of no fifth years. 46:11 Brad And fifth years were making up an insane percentage. 46:15 Brad We're talking like 40% of the guys who were in the portal were guys who just had their fifth year left. 46:22 Brad And now you take all those guys out. 46:24 Brad You looked in the portal and it was not as stocked. 46:32 Jûpe No, it wasn't. 46:34 Jûpe But you look somebody like a UNO. 46:36 Jûpe A lot of their players just kind of escaped because they know they were bringing in these CHL players that will replace them. 46:42 Jûpe And I think a lot of guys that were at schools just had no other place to go. 46:47 Brad Yeah, I mean, yeah, they're definitely there's so there's 207, if I can think of off the top of my head, players coming into college hockey this year, who would have been ineligible under the old system, which means just over 200 players who in a normal year would have been D1 college hockey players got phased out. 47:15 Brad So, you know, there are like hundreds of players in D3 right now who would have been D1 two years ago last year. 47:25 Brad So, yeah, you're right, there are guys who... 47:29 Jûpe I show 76 players didn't end up anywhere as of right now. 47:34 Brad I think I have a fewer numbers, but also I have some guys who on my page who went to like club hockey teams, D3, U-Sport. 47:47 Jûpe We did keep track of some of that. 47:48 Jûpe You know, we had some guys like Kyler Cleven was at Niagara, now he's at Augsburg. 47:54 Brad Yes. 47:54 Jûpe So we did. 47:55 Vegoe That's a good player for Augsburg too. 47:59 Vegoe I'm sure they're happy to have them. 48:01 Jûpe So we did include that. 48:04 Jûpe So maybe just, you know, 75-ish players didn't get picked up. 48:09 Jûpe Maybe not as bad as we thought. 48:13 Jûpe I do think now the portal will be less of a big deal. 48:17 Jûpe What do you think, Brad? 48:18 Jûpe I mean, you're going to have your players transfer, but a lot of that's going to kind of be hush-hush behind the scenes. 48:26 Jûpe These guys already know where they're going. 48:29 Brad Yeah, I mean, I have, let's see here, just like 46, 48, 50, maybe. 48:34 Brad 50 guys or so I have on my list. 48:36 Brad Yeah, I think there's some of that. 48:38 Brad Guys who kind of know where they're going before they go on the portal. 48:44 Brad I think there will be some of that. 48:47 Brad It'll be interesting just to see how it evolves. 48:50 Brad You know, there's again no fifth year. 48:54 Brad There might have been some guys who went in last year who their teams kind of pushed them into the portals. 49:01 Brad They wanted to go get a CHL guy. 49:04 Brad Maybe they will. 49:05 Brad I don't know. 49:07 Brad It'll be interesting to see how it evolves. 49:09 Jûpe We may end up having another fifth year, right, Veegs? 49:11 Jûpe That's a proposal out there, isn't it? 49:14 Brad Yeah. 49:15 Brad Yes. 49:15 Jûpe Yep. 49:16 Vegoe There's a proposal. 49:16 Vegoe Just everyone gets five, just like football. 49:19 Vegoe You know, the red shirt is a plain red shirt and you keep them for five. 49:22 Vegoe But I think there's always going to be guys like Eric Polkamp or Mac Gadowski who go to a smaller school, really show out and there's more attractive offers. 49:33 Vegoe And I feel sorry for some of these schools. 49:36 Vegoe They're the smaller schools. 49:37 Vegoe They have the smaller budgets, but it's very different playing at Bemidji or Army versus Penn State or Denver. 49:45 Vegoe It's a totally different life experience. 49:47 Vegoe So it's hard to fault these kids for, you know, having such a great season saying, oh, maybe this is a better spot for me. 49:53 Vegoe I'm sure for some players, when they made that transition, it might not be the best fit for them. 49:58 Vegoe But when they get that opportunity, it's really hard to fault them for taking it. 50:02 Vegoe And I've talked to some Atlantic Hockey coaches and they're just like, they sell it to recruits being like, hey, we might not be your first choice, but we're going to give you a lot of ice time, a great role and opportunity. 50:13 Vegoe And if you really are the player that you think you are and you think these other schools have disrespected you, show them with us. 50:22 Vegoe And if you still feel disrespected by them, you could stay with us. 50:25 Vegoe But if you want to go somewhere else, you'll have the option. 50:29 Jûpe One thing I never really thought of, Veegs or Bradwin and Andrews, with Gadowski going to Penn State, how did he accomplish that? 50:37 Jûpe He was at a military academy and there's duty and there's a lot of other stuff going on there. 50:45 Jûpe Is that part of it at all? 50:46 Brad So you sign after your second year, or sorry, your second, going into your third year. 50:51 Brad So the service academy kids have to make their decision after their sophomore year. 50:57 Brad That was his decision year. 50:59 Brad Do I want to, if he came back for his junior year, he was signing up for his service afterwards. 51:04 Brad So this was the year he had to leave before his service kicked in. 51:09 Brad I remember Air Force had a goalie named Shane Starratt and he signed with Edmonton after his sophomore year. 51:16 Brad And again, it was the same situation where he was going to leave before he had to sign in. 51:21 Vegoe OK. 51:22 Vegoe All the players at the military academies, they have a two for seven signing ceremony that signifies that you're going to stay there several more years, two more years of school, five years of service. 51:33 Vegoe And it's meant to be like a celebration of being committed to the school. 51:38 Vegoe The flip side of that is if you leave after signing those papers, you have to pay back your education that the government's given you. 51:45 Vegoe So you can still leave. 51:47 Vegoe It's just there's a financial cost that goes with it. 51:51 Jûpe Being an old guy, I just I honestly remember David Robinson playing basketball at Navy. 51:56 Jûpe He did his two years in service after he graduated college and in a submarine or whatever it was. 52:05 Jûpe And it was pretty unique back then. 52:09 Jûpe We haven't really heard about that. 52:12 Jûpe I guess in decades. 52:14 Vegoe I would think David Robinson would be more surface warfare. 52:17 Vegoe I don't know, but that's just my guess. 52:20 Jûpe I mean, you think about his career, one of the greatest of all time. 52:23 Jûpe And two years is early, probably his best years. 52:28 Jûpe He was in the Navy. 52:30 Jûpe So very interesting. 52:32 Jûpe But we need to get into this week. 52:34 Jûpe Big week, Veegs. 52:35 Jûpe But first, we need to talk about Cub, but we know what your favorite Cub foods is. 52:40 Vegoe Yep, I'm down at the Quarry Cub all the time. 52:43 Vegoe It's fall. 52:44 Vegoe They've got all the apples that you want. 52:46 Vegoe You want the caramel dip. 52:47 Vegoe They're right next to each other. 52:49 Vegoe You can you can get them. 52:50 Vegoe You get the Jimmy stuff. 52:51 Vegoe I like that. 52:52 Vegoe You want some pumpkin spice. 52:53 Vegoe They got everything, you know, donuts, cookies, cakes, whatever. 52:57 Vegoe Cubs, your one stop shop for everything fall, whether you're baking, hosting game day, or just craving a cozy night in. 53:03 Vegoe Cub has the flavors that make fall feel like fall. 53:06 Vegoe So swing by your local Cub. 53:08 Vegoe They're one of us. 53:08 Vegoe They support us. 53:09 Vegoe They support PJ Flack, The Gophers, all things Minnesota. 53:13 Vegoe So shop Cub, shop happy. 53:16 Jûpe Definitely shop happy. 53:18 Jûpe I saw a question here in chat. 53:21 Jûpe Let me bring it up. 53:23 Jûpe Mike wants to know, what can I expect going to the Ralph this Friday for a bucket list trip? 53:28 Jûpe So I'm guessing that Mike's never been up there before. 53:33 Jûpe I've always had fun as a fan and as part of the media a couple of years ago. 53:39 Jûpe Veegs, you've had some fun up there or was that your first trip up there last time? 53:43 Vegoe That was my first trip up there and it did not disappoint. 53:46 Vegoe I really enjoyed it. 53:49 Jûpe But Brad as a fan, what's he expecting? 53:53 Brad Yeah. 53:54 Brad I mean, I would say get to the rank early enough. 53:57 Brad Take one lap. 53:59 Brad They do a pretty good job of having some college hockey history in there. 54:05 Brad You can see pictures of the All Americans on the wall. 54:08 Brad In the upper bowl, they have all the NHL players. 54:11 Brad You can see different, kind of like the X, they have an area for the state champion hockey where they have the jerseys up of the state champs. 54:24 Brad You can kind of scout out the concessions. 54:31 Brad They have different stops there. 54:35 Brad There's a food network show that's broadcast from East Grand Forks. 54:40 Brad Molly Ye has a stand there this year, brand new. 54:44 Brad So if you want some high quality food from there, that's a good spot. 54:50 Brad Otherwise, I would say if you're in Grand Forks, the Parrot's Cay is a hole in the wall place for wings. 54:59 Brad That's unbelievable. 55:00 Vegoe Bigs are a little bit messy. 55:02 Vegoe They're a little messy. 55:04 Brad You guys win. 55:05 Vegoe We did. 55:05 Vegoe We did. 55:06 Brad Love it. 55:07 Vegoe It is a total hole in the wall, wall dive bar. 55:10 Brad If you like that scene, which I love, that's a good place. 55:15 Brad Darcy's Cafe for breakfast. 55:18 Brad Red Pepper, you can get some late night food from there. 55:22 Brad And if you want, you can go to the Olive Garden. 55:29 Brad It is located in Grand Forks. 55:32 Jûpe The Olive Garden. 55:33 Brad We have the Olive Garden. 55:38 Brad I still remember, so for those, I'm sure a lot of you remember the famous Olive Garden review that was in the Grand Forks Herald, written by Marilyn Haggerty. 55:47 Brad She just passed away in the last month, kind of cool. 55:52 Brad The Olive Garden sent flowers to her service, which we thought was a nice touch. 55:59 Brad They were very kind to her. 56:01 Brad It was actually a Gopher fan who DM'd me the night that that story went up. 56:07 Brad And he said, this is about to go viral. 56:11 Brad And I said, oh no, like there's a swear word in the headline or something. 56:17 Brad And so I'm like, quickly scan it, like, where's the swear word? 56:20 Brad Where's the swear word? 56:21 Brad Like, and I don't see it. 56:25 Brad I'm like, okay, I'm going to read it slowly. 56:26 Brad So I read it slowly again. 56:28 Brad I'm like, what am I missing? 56:30 Brad And so I finally DM'ed him back. 56:32 Brad I said, what am I missing here? 56:34 Brad And he said, dude, she reviewed the Olive Garden. 56:37 Brad And I said, yeah, she reviewed Taco Bell three weeks ago. 56:40 Brad Like. 56:42 Vegoe But she does. 56:43 Vegoe That's what she does. 56:44 Brad That's what she does. 56:46 Brad But this one hit it off anyways. 56:49 Brad So if you want to go to the world famous Olive Garden, it is located in Grand Forks. 56:55 Jûpe And I'm seriously considering it, doing it Saturday afternoon. 57:00 Jûpe Maybe if I have to go by myself or Brad, you can meet me there. 57:03 Jûpe We'll have some breadsticks and some food and we'll review it ourselves. 57:07 Jûpe Just have some salmon because we've all had our Olive Garden. 57:11 Jûpe Some people are snooty and it's like, oh, it's just, no, just enjoy the time. 57:17 Jûpe And I would say that for anyone going to Grand Forks, don't be a jerk to fans. 57:21 Jûpe And they usually are not jerks back to you. 57:24 Jûpe Just have fun. 57:28 Jûpe And we've seen it both, we've seen it both. 57:31 Jûpe I mean, we've seen jerk fans and we've talked with Frank Mazzocco. 57:36 Jûpe He was treated so badly up there by the fans. 57:40 Jûpe And I just kind of embrace it. 57:45 Jûpe The North Dakota and Minnesota fans, yes, they hate each other, but it's this thing called college hockey that we know that many people, just in college, who cares? 57:55 Jûpe It's pro, it's just a different thing. 57:58 Jûpe And I just embrace that, Brad. 58:00 Brad Yeah, try to have fun. 58:02 Brad Find the people who love college hockey, love to have a good time with some good natured banter. 58:10 Brad That's what I enjoy, the good nature ones. 58:14 Brad Those people have, sometimes I look over and see those people are having a lot more fun than everyone else right now. 58:23 Brad I don't know, it's a great series for college hockey, for the sport, and I wrote a column on it today that the rivalry has changed with them in different leagues for sure. 58:36 Brad You're not playing at the X, you're playing early in the season when teams are still trying to figure it out. 58:44 Brad That being said, it's still the best. 58:50 Brad Some of the stats I was looking up are pretty wild. 58:56 Brad The last nine series they've played, there's only been one sweep. 59:02 Brad In the last 30 years, there's only been one time a team swept back to back series. 59:09 Brad In the last 30 years, that was Minnesota in 01 and 02. 59:13 Brad So it has been like 24 years since that's happened. 59:18 Brad I think when you have teams that just go back and forth like that, neither team has had a losing season in the last 14, 15 years. 59:27 Brad Every other team in College Hockey has. 59:30 Brad That means when they play, they're always pretty good. 59:35 Brad Even in seasons where these two fan bases think they're having bad seasons, they don't know what bad seasons are, I don't think. 59:47 Brad It's been a generation since these teams have truly had a bad season. 59:51 Brad So they're always in the mix, they go back and forth, and I think that just lends to what we have. 1:00:01 Jûpe It definitely does, and Vegas, like you said, when we went up there a few years ago, we had a great time split. 1:00:07 Jûpe You know, actually, a lot of times, I don't think the games mattered so much. 1:00:10 Jûpe We had to get fun time, win and lose. 1:00:14 Vegoe Well, you want to see good hockey. 1:00:15 Vegoe You want to have a good time. 1:00:17 Vegoe And I think Grand Forks delivers on both those things. 1:00:19 Vegoe Most times I got to give out a shout to three places that I enjoyed up there. 1:00:24 Vegoe Half Brothers, Brewing and Pizza. 1:00:27 Vegoe That was a great spot. 1:00:28 Vegoe Rhombus Pizza. 1:00:30 Vegoe They've got some Detroit style pizza. 1:00:33 Vegoe Other pizzas, Good TapLess. 1:00:34 Vegoe I thought that was a good spot. 1:00:35 Vegoe And then Brick and Barley. 1:00:37 Vegoe I thought that was a fun place to go. 1:00:39 Vegoe Looks like it could get a little wild there at times, but that was a good spot as well. 1:00:44 Jûpe Was that the place with the karaoke? 1:00:45 Jûpe The loud karaoke. 1:00:48 Vegoe Some dancing, you know, it's a good spot. 1:00:51 Jûpe So it was a good spot. 1:00:53 Jûpe It was a good time. 1:00:54 Jûpe And I'm sad you don't get to bring come up with us, Veegs. 1:00:59 Jûpe You'll come up two years. 1:01:00 Jûpe We're going to plan it. 1:01:00 Jûpe We're going to plan ahead. 1:01:02 Jûpe As soon as we get as soon as Brad gets the dates, we want you to block it off. 1:01:07 Vegoe I will try that the youth hockey schedule is complicated. 1:01:10 Vegoe And I feel committed to these these young people playing, of course. 1:01:13 Vegoe So I'm going to stick around and I'll be watching from afar this weekend. 1:01:16 Jûpe Just a little bit of ribbing for you there, Veegs, that's all. 1:01:19 Vegoe I'll take it. 1:01:20 Vegoe I'll take it. 1:01:20 Vegoe But I think one of the things that makes this series so great is that the fans travel and the hockey is usually really entertaining. 1:01:26 Vegoe Like these teams are not going to sit back. 1:01:28 Vegoe They want to make memories this weekend. 1:01:31 Vegoe You talk to the players, they remember highlights from this rivalry like no other. 1:01:36 Vegoe And I think they want to make their own mark on the matchup. 1:01:40 Vegoe So I think that's something to watch this weekend. 1:01:43 Vegoe I'm really interested to see Minnesota. 1:01:47 Vegoe I think they want to play faster. 1:01:49 Vegoe And I'm sure that's something North Dakota wants to do as well. 1:01:51 Vegoe So I'm going to be interested to see if they play that straight line hockey that Moscow talked about in the post game Friday night in the second game of BC. 1:02:00 Vegoe He wants his team playing aggressive and playing on their toes. 1:02:04 Vegoe Are they going to be able to do that at the Ralph? 1:02:06 Vegoe I think that's a big question mark. 1:02:08 Vegoe North Dakota's got some young players. 1:02:11 Vegoe I think Minnesota has some young players too, but they're maybe a little more experienced. 1:02:15 Vegoe And so that could be a difference maker in this matchup. 1:02:20 Jûpe What do you think, Brad? 1:02:22 Brad I think we're going to see a lot of momentum swings because of the youth of both teams. 1:02:28 Brad You know, I just don't see either team playing nearly perfect games. 1:02:34 Brad It's going to be a very I feel back and forth game. 1:02:39 Brad Teams are going to have to withstand the pushes when they come from the other teams because I really feel they're going to. 1:02:47 Brad And that was something North Dakota did pretty well against St. 1:02:50 Brad Thomas. 1:02:51 Brad There were times St. 1:02:52 Brad Thomas really pushed and North Dakota did a pretty good job holding them to the outside. 1:02:59 Brad Of course, as always, the goaltenders are going to have to make some big saves and they're going to have to play well. 1:03:05 Brad Same with last week and North Dakota had the better goalie both nights. 1:03:09 Brad And that was a big difference in the game. 1:03:11 Brad If you look at the analytics, the scoreboard said UND by four and three. 1:03:17 Brad The analytics said it was a lot closer than that. 1:03:19 Brad But UND had better goaltending. 1:03:21 Brad So I think that's going to be a key. 1:03:23 Brad I just think these are both teams that are going to go through some ups and downs early in the year with some of the youth they have. 1:03:31 Jûpe Trying to find themselves, yeah. 1:03:33 Brad And honestly, this is probably a great series for both those teams to have to play. 1:03:40 Brad Because if you can play in this game, there's not another game the rest of the season you can't play in. 1:03:46 Brad Because this is... 1:03:49 Jûpe And not an environment either. 1:03:51 Brad Correct. 1:03:52 Jûpe I mean, there will be Gopher fans there. 1:03:54 Jûpe It won't be a ton, but they'll be noisy. 1:03:56 Jûpe It'll be hostile for Minnesota. 1:03:59 Jûpe Hostile for Minnesota. 1:04:00 Jûpe But then there's obviously pressure on North Dakota. 1:04:03 Jûpe That's our biggest rival coming in. 1:04:05 Jûpe We got a big crowd here. 1:04:06 Jûpe We got to perform too. 1:04:07 Jûpe So there's pressure on both sides. 1:04:09 Jûpe And you're really not going to see that until maybe a league championship at one of your barns, maybe? 1:04:16 Brad For sure. 1:04:17 Brad Yeah. 1:04:17 Brad So they're going to have to play with poise, you know. 1:04:20 Brad Don't you know that there's... 1:04:22 Brad It's going to be a heated series. 1:04:24 Brad Guys are going to have emotions high. 1:04:27 Brad And who's going to be able to play with poise through that? 1:04:29 Brad It's going to be a great experience for these players to have so early in the season. 1:04:34 Brad And yeah, if you can thrive through a weekend like this, I don't know if there's a situation you can't play in. 1:04:42 Vegoe Yeah, Greg Brown made that exact comment after the Gopher series last weekend. 1:04:46 Vegoe He said, you know, there's no better team to expose you than another top rival. 1:04:51 Vegoe And he's like, you know, they learn things about their squad that are going to pay dividends. 1:04:57 Vegoe You know, they had extended shifts where players are seeking a little too much offense. 1:05:00 Vegoe They get caught out there too long. 1:05:02 Vegoe And some of the players don't realize that until they do it against a really good team. 1:05:06 Vegoe Or they learn that, oh, our goalie can stand on his head for 10 minutes if we really need him to and can shell up. 1:05:12 Vegoe And you have guys who learn that, OK, sometimes you can't turn the momentum back the other way 100 percent, but you just got to weather the storm and you can't give away goals to the other team. 1:05:23 Vegoe You just have to fight through it. 1:05:24 Vegoe And then maybe you'll have a moment that switches the momentum the other way. 1:05:28 Vegoe And I think you don't learn that when you play bad schedules. 1:05:31 Vegoe And this should be a great weekend. 1:05:34 Jûpe It's going to be fun. 1:05:35 Jûpe Gonna be fun. 1:05:35 Jûpe I'm going to say Split. 1:05:37 Jûpe I. 1:05:39 Jûpe If any team were to sweep, I'd say right now I would favor North Dakota, but I still think Split. 1:05:45 Jûpe Veegs, what do you think? 1:05:47 Vegoe I think Split as well. 1:05:49 Vegoe I think Minnesota's goaltending is going to be a strength for them. 1:05:53 Vegoe The biggest fear, of course, is the defense. 1:05:56 Vegoe Rio Gruba has been a little limited. 1:05:58 Vegoe They gave him a day off this week, and he's skating back. 1:06:03 Vegoe I think he's ready to go this weekend, but they just need to see a little bit more from Rombach and McLaughlin and Rudd and Whipple. 1:06:11 Vegoe Those players have to grow up. 1:06:14 Vegoe You know the coaching staff is going to put those guys out there. 1:06:17 Vegoe Are they going to meet the match, though? 1:06:20 Jûpe What about you, Brad? 1:06:21 Jûpe What are your predictions? 1:06:23 Brad I know it's boring to say split, but look at the history. 1:06:27 Brad It's accurate. 1:06:29 Brad These teams, you're not seeing very many sweeps with these teams. 1:06:33 Brad I think split is the wise choice. 1:06:42 Brad We're all on the same page, I guess. 1:06:44 Vegoe How does Nordac sweep? 1:06:46 Vegoe What happens? 1:06:47 Vegoe Do they get a lot of power play chances? 1:06:49 Vegoe Is that a key for them? 1:06:50 Jûpe Minnesota doesn't take penalties. 1:06:51 Jûpe Well, you never know what the series is, though, I guess. 1:06:54 Brad Yeah, Minnesota doesn't. 1:06:58 Brad You know what? 1:06:58 Brad I would say North Dakota has been pretty deep. 1:07:04 Brad Their fourth line was their best line last weekend. 1:07:07 Brad And I would say if some of their top guys pop some goals, their D can add some offense. 1:07:16 Brad And I guess maybe the famous Bob Motzko line that he always loves to say, when you play at the Ralph, there's two games. 1:07:24 Brad There's the first 10 minutes and then there's the next 50. 1:07:27 Brad You can lose a game in the first 10 minutes at the Ralph. 1:07:30 Jûpe Yeah. 1:07:30 Brad And that would be, I would say, a way that North Dakota could is if they're able to get on Minnesota early, pop a couple of goals and have some of the young players thinking, oh boy, this isn't good right now. 1:07:49 Brad That would be their recipe. 1:07:52 Brad Minnesota's would be getting through that and settling in and saying, okay, now it's just a normal game again. 1:08:04 Jûpe I love it, Veegs, because either way, it's good for Minnesota's part to get those players like McLaughlin and Rombach on the back end, that experience, that pressure, because there's going to be a lot of pressure. 1:08:17 Jûpe There always is with North Dakota. 1:08:21 Jûpe All right. 1:08:22 Jûpe You stay for a little over time here, Brad. 1:08:25 Brad Sure. 1:08:26 Jûpe All right. 1:08:27 Jûpe Anything else from you, Veegs? 1:08:29 Vegoe That's it. 1:08:29 Vegoe Looking forward to the weekend. 1:08:31 Jûpe Let's go. 1:08:31 Jûpe Well, thanks, Brad, for coming on. 1:08:35 Jûpe As always, I think this is your sixth appearance on the show, so we appreciate you coming back. 1:08:43 Jûpe And now that's a four-year contract. 1:08:45 Jûpe We'll obviously have you back again. 1:08:47 Jûpe And I would love to see these two teams get in the same region again. 1:08:52 Jûpe It'll be fun because then we'll get you back on again. 1:08:56 Jûpe So looking good, feeling good. 1:08:59 Jûpe Let's go this weekend. 1:09:01 Jûpe All right, well, that's gonna do it for The GPL Podcast. 1:09:04 Jûpe We'll be back next week to recap this big series in North Dakota and preview the series with Duluth. 1:09:13 Jûpe For those of you watching live, stay tuned for overtime. 1:09:15 Jûpe For the rest of you, we'll catch you next week on The GPL Podcast. 1:09:30 Jûpe If you are watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and get notified each time we go live or post a video. 1:09:36 Jûpe If you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please rate our show and leave a review. 1:09:47 Jûpe For those of you watching live, you know what's next. 1:09:50 Jûpe It's Vegoe's Beverage of the Week. 1:09:54 Jûpe It's time for Overtime.