0:03 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:09 Oh boy, Jup making mistakes. 0:12 I love it. 0:27 Let's see, I gotta make sure the audio works so I don't end up like Nicoletti. 0:31 You know what a good recruiting tip is like? 0:33 We're trying to get a good drinker out here. 0:36 Let's get this bandwagon going, folks. 0:38 Take that, Mr. 0:40 Negative. 0:44 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:51 Jûpe Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 300. 0:58 Jûpe Vagues, it's been 15 seasons and now we're at number 300. 1:06 Vegoe It's pretty hard to believe we've been doing this for this long, but it's been fun to grow the pod and, and meet all their guests and just have all the support from our community and we need community right now with this group. 1:19 Vegoe So I'm happy to have a guest on tonight that can help us have some therapy. 1:24 Jûpe Well, who better to celebrate 15 years and 300 episodes than Pat Micheletti. 1:30 Pat Pat. 1:31 Pat Gentlemen, congratulations. 1:33 Pat 300, 15 years. 1:36 Pat That is awesome. 1:38 Pat Congrats. 1:39 Jûpe It's been fun. 1:41 Jûpe It was terrible at first, but we get better and better. 1:44 Pat And you got better guests, right? 1:49 Pat For a couple of years now, the last couple of years have been really good. 1:53 Pat Yeah. 1:53 Jûpe Yeah. 1:54 Pat I mean, think about it. 1:55 Jûpe But we had Frank Mazzacco on our second episode. 1:59 Jûpe So that's what launched us right there, was Frank Mazzacco. 2:04 Jûpe Yeah. 2:05 Pat I don't know if that's what you wanted to launch here, but I love you, Frank. 2:10 Pat I love you, Frank. 2:12 Jûpe Well, gentlemen, Veegs, let's just start with you. 2:17 Jûpe Four losses in a row. 2:18 Jûpe The Friday night game was abysmal. 2:21 Jûpe Saturday, great second period. 2:24 Jûpe Lose it in overtime, but still, this January has been rough so far. 2:31 Vegoe It's been really difficult. 2:32 Vegoe And I think anytime that you have a Gopher roster where you just don't have kind of the high-end talent that we're used to seeing, and then they try to play a style that maybe can't be successful with that kind of roster, you're going to get some interesting results. 2:48 Vegoe And against Michigan, they capitalized on a lot of Minnesota mistakes, and Minnesota just really couldn't get going. 2:55 Vegoe There's just not enough players who can take control of games, can take control of shifts and change momentum. 3:01 Vegoe And it just caught up to them shift after shift against the Wolverines this weekend. 3:06 Pat Yep. 3:06 Jûpe Pat, you were talking about a lot of things along those lines, like they just, they might defend for a long time, they get control of the puck and then just throw it up the ice because they're either tired or what have you. 3:18 Jûpe Michigan shut them down. 3:19 Jûpe They just had no offensive zone. 3:21 Jûpe And that caused the defense to even be more tired. 3:24 Pat Well, to me, they had one good period this weekend, and that was the second period. 3:30 Pat And they played a little bit different style in that period that they were successful. 3:37 Pat You know, they were on pucks, they hit people, they took control of the game. 3:42 Pat And I think the shots at one point were like 16 to 4 for Minnesota in that period. 3:50 Pat And really had them on their heels. 3:54 Pat But the other five periods, you know, they watched, they allowed Michigan, who was a very skilled team, to play with the puck. 4:08 Pat So I think they're trying to figure, what are we? 4:11 Pat What can we be? 4:12 Pat And then, you know, obviously now, in the next, the rest of the season, they're going to have to figure out a style that can maybe give them a chance to upset somebody. 4:24 Pat You know, that's the way I'm looking at it now. 4:28 Pat But until they get to that, what are we, you know, it's going to be tough. 4:36 Jûpe And Veegs, that's kind of what the season's been like. 4:37 Jûpe You know, you've got that second game, North Dakota, 5 to 1. 4:40 Jûpe Wow, they look great. 4:42 Jûpe The game against Denver, they look great. 4:43 Jûpe In between, you know, LIU loss or it seems like this week or that especially that Saturday game was kind of it. 4:49 Jûpe It was like way down and then way up and then way down again. 4:53 Jûpe It's just there's just been no consistency there, Veegs. 4:56 Vegoe Yeah, this team is a roller coaster team. 4:59 Vegoe You know, they have had moments where they play really well. 5:01 Vegoe The second period against Michigan on Saturday, Brody Lamb probably had his best segment of play that I've seen from him all season. 5:09 Vegoe I think that's the kind of player he can be. 5:12 Vegoe I used to have an old football coach. 5:13 Vegoe We'd watch film and he'd be like, Vegoe, you gave yourself away. 5:17 Vegoe You made the play. 5:18 Vegoe You were physical. 5:19 Vegoe You moved your feet. 5:19 Vegoe You're in the right spot. 5:21 Vegoe Now you need to do that every time. 5:23 Vegoe And I think Brody Lamb in that second period against Michigan showed the player that he can be. 5:28 Vegoe And he just needs to be one of those guys who gets involved physically. 5:32 Vegoe You know, Bob moved him to center this week, Saturday for that game. 5:36 Vegoe He responded. 5:38 Vegoe Now I think he's probably going to stay at center here going up against Michigan State. 5:41 Vegoe But that's a way for him to impact the game. 5:44 Vegoe And that's what Minnesota needs right now. 5:46 Pat And you know, I don't want to be Mr. 5:49 Pat Negative because there are some good things there. 5:52 Pat And the young players, you know, they're just too young right now. 5:57 Pat And that's why you have those ups and those downs. 6:01 Pat And, you know, you would have hoped by this time you'd see a lot of growth. 6:06 Pat And we have seen growth. 6:08 Pat You know, Javon Moore has, you know, taken his game to a different level. 6:13 Pat And he, you know, and he's still super young. 6:16 Pat And he still has a lot of growth to go. 6:20 Pat But you're seeing that, you know, and other guys too. 6:24 Pat But to be able to understand that you got to bring it every shift, every night, you can't be afraid to play. 6:32 Pat And, and, you know, so those are the things that some of those guys still have to, you know, to learn. 6:38 Pat And, you know, you know, I'm excited for this team, you know, next year, right? 6:44 Pat Because I think they'll grow a little bit. 6:46 Pat They will be bigger and stronger. 6:48 Pat They will be more mature. 6:49 Pat And, you know, but for now, you just got to hope that they can find their way. 6:58 Jûpe And, Veegs, that's kind of the tricky thing, too, is Minnesota is not used to next year. 7:04 Vegoe Yeah. 7:06 Vegoe Very true. 7:07 Vegoe You know, social media has been a challenging place to spend some time. 7:12 Vegoe If you're a fan of Gopher Hockey or maybe it's therapeutic to get, you know, some people to agree with you on how low things can be right now. 7:20 Vegoe But at the same time, this Gopher roster has talent. 7:26 Vegoe It's just they don't have mature talent. 7:29 Vegoe Yeah. 7:29 Vegoe And Moscow knew what he was getting into. 7:31 Vegoe I don't think he knew he was going to get this deep into it with young players. 7:36 Vegoe You know, this roster looks a lot different if Chesley comes back, you know, if Rinzel would have came back, you know, that would have made a huge difference in this team. 7:45 Vegoe But, you know, they're developing on our floor. 7:48 Vegoe Yeah. 7:48 Vegoe Oliver Moore. 7:49 Vegoe You know, we're talking about players that aren't spending a lot of time in the NHL as regulars. 7:54 Vegoe You know, they're going back and forth. 7:55 Vegoe They're playing limited minutes. 7:56 Vegoe You know, they're unfinished products. 7:58 Vegoe So maybe the coaching staff saw things that the players didn't see for themselves or their advisors didn't see. 8:04 Vegoe But it's tougher going for them as professionals than I thought it was going to be. 8:08 Vegoe But going back to Minnesota, you know, I feel like some of the younger players are the ones that are are playing the right way. 8:15 Vegoe And, you know, we're seeing a lot of growth. 8:18 Vegoe Mason Moe. 8:19 Vegoe Yeah, we're seeing a lot of growth out of Jacob Rombach. 8:22 Vegoe I think we're seeing a lot of growth out of Beckett Hendrickson this year. 8:26 Vegoe It's just you can't rush it in the schedule. 8:29 Pat Beckett Hendrickson should have 25 goals right now. 8:33 Pat I mean, he should. 8:34 Pat Am I right? 8:36 Vegoe Yeah, I mean, Bob says he wishes he had that elixir of confidence that he could just slip in their drink and, you know, back it would have those 25. 8:43 Vegoe But he's playing the right way. 8:45 Pat He's playing really, really hard. 8:47 Vegoe Fans don't want to hear that, but that's the reality. 8:50 Pat And, you know, I almost wish at this point, because I don't like when they sit back. 8:57 Pat I don't like when they, you know, especially at home, you know, have a team have one pass out of the zone, play around with it in their own end, make a change, still come back out of the puck. 9:08 Pat You know, I almost wish that they would play, okay, guys, just go out and go, you know, and play hard and play. 9:17 Pat And escape and go, you know, 100 miles an hour, hit people, create a forecheck. 9:23 Pat You know, like they did in the second period, you know, get the D, the D we're pinching, right? 9:28 Pat Why did they have the puck in the zone? 9:29 Pat The D we're pinching. 9:30 Pat And we didn't see that for five other periods at all. 9:34 Pat But I'd like to see, because you know what? 9:38 Pat We all know they're challenged offensively. 9:40 Pat They're, you know, what, out of the, how many games have we played? 9:43 Pat 24 or 25? 9:45 Pat Something like that. 9:46 Pat But for 11 of those, two goals or less, that's unacceptable. 9:53 Pat I mean, it's not, I'm going to rephrase that. 9:59 Pat It's not a formula to win. 10:01 Pat It's not a recipe to win. 10:05 Pat And so that's the challenge that they have. 10:14 Jûpe It's frustrating. 10:15 Pat And I don't like, you know what? 10:17 Pat You know what I also don't like? 10:18 Pat I know I'm, there were some lady plays out there that really bothered me. 10:24 Pat Really, really, really bothered me. 10:26 Pat And plays that you learn in squirts, that you just do not do. 10:32 Pat And, you know, and they can't, they're a team that can't, their margin of error is very, very thin. 10:41 Pat It's a very, very, very thin margin of error. 10:45 Pat So you've got to be ready. 10:46 Pat You got to be focused. 10:48 Pat You've got to be ready to play a 60 minute game because playing 58 and giving up two goals in those two minutes or something, you know, kills you, absolutely kills you. 11:01 Pat So, you know, the optimism in me sees growth out of some players. 11:10 Pat I would just like to see a little bit more consistent play out of them throughout a whole game. 11:17 Jûpe Well, Vegs, the turnovers is what was frustrating me both nights. 11:21 Jûpe You know, sometimes, yeah, they're getting pressed in the defensive zone. 11:25 Jûpe They have a chance to clear, flub it, go along the board, something, and it goes right to a Michigan stick. 11:33 Pat Simple place. 11:35 Pat Yeah. 11:35 Vegoe I think it was tough to see the goal at the end of the period, where VamLok has a chance to make an easy exit, and it gets ripped off, and it ends up in the Gopher net. 11:45 Vegoe And that's just one of those situations where, you know, your game situation, there's a minute left in the period. 11:51 Vegoe You just want to make simple, hard plays that are clear, and they stub their toe. 11:57 Vegoe And that's just something where it's a growing pain, it's a freshman defenseman, he's got to play important minutes. 12:04 Vegoe But we got to figure out where you can take on risk, and where you have to be safe. 12:10 Vegoe And that's just challenging to have it happen in this game. 12:14 Pat And that's a young kid, not understanding situational hockey, how much time is on the clock, minute left in the period, I don't care. 12:26 Pat You got to play it safe, you got to get it. 12:29 Pat You have to understand the time of the game, what's going on, and get out of the period, whatever the case may be. 12:38 Pat But if you're not thinking the game, you're in trouble. 12:43 Pat You're in trouble if you're not thinking the game, if you don't understand times and all that stuff. 12:51 Pat You know, it'll come back to bite you. 12:54 Vegoe And this is just one example of many, you know, it's unfortunate to happen to him in this situation. 12:59 Vegoe But I think part of this issue is you have a team that's not playing with confidence. 13:03 Vegoe And so they get into these game situations and they're not free enough to understand that and execute it. 13:09 Pat Yeah. 13:09 Vegoe And that's that's part of a young team when you've got people filling roles they're not comfortable with. 13:14 Vegoe And they're just going through it right now. 13:18 Vegoe It's all you can say. 13:19 Vegoe And then in the overtime, you know, Lugke mishandles a puck and, you know, it really puts a sour note on the weekend. 13:26 Vegoe Yeah, that's where the situation is. 13:28 Pat I don't, let's be, I mean, you know, let's call it what it is. 13:33 Pat You didn't mishandle a puck. 13:37 Pat You didn't mishandle a puck. 13:39 Pat But you know, you can't be that lazy. 13:42 Pat I'm sorry. 13:43 Pat I'm sorry. 13:44 Pat He's a veteran. 13:46 Pat You can't be that lazy. 13:47 Pat You're three on three. 13:48 Pat You're playing against a team that is so skilled. 13:52 Jûpe Number one. 13:53 Pat You know, and you have to be... 14:00 Pat We all saw the play. 14:02 Vegoe We all saw the play. 14:02 Vegoe You won the draw and then you just saw the next puck handle was not a confident one and it just, you know, cascaded into the end of the game. 14:11 Vegoe And I do think if the Gophers even losing a shootout against Michigan, it doesn't feel quite as bad, you know? 14:19 Vegoe And to lose it that way was really just a sour note on the weekend. 14:23 Vegoe You know, talking to the players after the game, they're frustrated. 14:27 Vegoe You know, they are putting out some effort. 14:30 Vegoe You know, I think there's another level of them to get to, but they're just as disappointed as everybody else. 14:36 Pat You know, to me, Vegs and Jupe, you know, when you're sitting on the bench and your team is struggling, and you know, sometimes you look down the bench and say, you know, are you going to do it? 14:49 Pat Is your line going to do it? 14:51 Pat And you're looking at a bunch of freshmen and they're like, I don't know how to do it. 14:55 Pat Not yet. 14:57 Pat You know, yes, all talented players and all this, but it, you know, are you ready to go out there and be that guy that makes that hit? 15:07 Pat Or, you know, makes that great play or makes a great back check or blocks a shot? 15:12 Pat Or, you know, I don't know. 15:15 Pat I, you know, I don't know. 15:16 Pat I don't know. 15:17 Pat Is it me or is it him? 15:18 Pat Or are you going to do it? 15:20 Pat And until you until until you feel it, you won't you won't be able to understand how to do it. 15:28 Pat Does that make sense? 15:31 Jûpe Veegs, my curiosity. 15:33 Jûpe Let's go look at Michigan now. 15:34 Jûpe I know you've not been a big fan of Norado and how he coaches his teams, but he's got his team. 15:41 Pat They're different. 15:43 Jûpe They're different. 15:44 Jûpe Can they they are they going to threaten for a national championship for your Veegs? 15:49 Vegoe I definitely think they can. 15:50 Vegoe You know, the big question is their goalie, you know, with Ivankovic getting hurt, you know, they have a guy who hasn't played all year. 15:57 Vegoe He came in. 15:58 Vegoe I don't think the Gophers really tested him very much. 16:01 Vegoe And we saw the Saturday game where Michigan took some penalties and gave Minnesota life in a game they should have been dominating. 16:07 Vegoe So those are kind of the gaps in Michigan that I that I see, you know, and obviously Minnesota's power play, you know, connected with two goals. 16:15 Vegoe The power play has looked great for Minnesota this year. 16:18 Vegoe I think they're at like 40 percent the last, you know, 15 games or something like that. 16:22 Vegoe It's really clicking. 16:23 Vegoe You know, the second unit, you don't need them because that first one's so efficient with the puck. 16:29 Vegoe But I think Michigan has so much talent, they might be able to overcome their shortcomings. 16:34 Vegoe When I saw their power play this weekend, it looked like an NHL power play. 16:38 Vegoe No bobbles, lots of movement, players trading spaces, pulling killers out of their structure. 16:45 Vegoe Very impressive group right there. 16:49 Pat And they're a deep team. 16:52 Pat When the Schiffsky kid is on their fourth line, and was on their power play a year ago, and they get 15 goals as a freshman, and he's accepted his role on the fourth line, and is killing penalties, that to me right there tells you there's buy-in. 17:14 Pat They are much more disciplined. 17:18 Pat You didn't see much after the whistle stuff, and you need that because years past, the Neurotus probably had more talented teams. 17:34 Pat But you just knew they're going to take a dumb penalty at some point, and lose games. 17:42 Jûpe And they did. 17:43 Pat And they did. 17:44 Pat But now, so I give them a lot of credit for the way that they're playing right now, and they're going to be tough. 17:53 Pat And I tell you what, the Big Ten is really, really good this year. 17:59 Pat To me, if Penn State figures out that they need to protect their own end a little bit better, their top two lines are as good as anybody in the country. 18:16 Pat But they will say, no, we want you to, we're going to give you a chance to get back into it, and make egregious errors in their own end. 18:26 Pat If they can fix that part of their game, they're going to be awfully tough. 18:32 Jûpe So the beginning of the season, Pat, we had a big player on injured reserve for a while, and the injured reserve player was you. 18:44 Jûpe Yeah. 18:45 Jûpe Yeah, you were down and out. 18:47 Jûpe You were at the Mayo Clinic for over 20 days, wasn't it? 18:50 Pat 24 days. 18:51 Pat Yes. 18:52 Jûpe Wow. 18:53 Jûpe Driving the nurses crazy, I bet. 18:55 Pat Yeah, it was, it was, it was crazy. 18:58 Pat I worked the first two series of the year, Michigan Tech and Boston College. 19:03 Pat And I was, you know, I was really struggling to walk. 19:08 Pat And then, and then after the BC series was North Dakota series. 19:14 Pat And I remember that Sunday, I, I'm like, I don't think I can go because I don't think I'll be able to do it by myself. 19:24 Pat And so got out of that. 19:26 Pat And then when the Gophers came back from North Dakota, that was the day I ended up going down to Mayo. 19:33 Pat I fell in my house. 19:35 Pat Legs just quit on me. 19:37 Pat And thank God I got down there and 24 days later, nuts. 19:46 Pat But I'm slowly getting there. 19:50 Pat Vig saw me walking a little bit and, you know, so I have started to walk a little bit and, you know, just need to get the legs stronger. 20:00 Pat You know, my hands were a problem too. 20:02 Pat And they're coming back, you know, still got to get a little bit more feeling in them. 20:07 Pat But I tell you what, it was great to be back at the rink. 20:10 Pat I missed it, you know, win or lose, you know, you love to be there and be around you guys and be around the lot, you know, be around the players and the staff and, you know, so it was great to be back. 20:24 Jûpe And, you know, we were hearing a little bit from Wally about what was going on. 20:28 Jûpe But, you know, people were asking us, we're like, that's none of our business. 20:31 Jûpe We're not going to say anything. 20:32 Jûpe But, you know, Wally was like, I was talking to him on the phone and he had a hard time just holding the phone. 20:36 Jûpe I'm like, oh, come on, Pat. 20:38 Pat Well, I kept I kept I kept dropping the phone. 20:40 Pat Oh, because I couldn't I had no I had nothing in my hands. 20:44 Pat Nothing. 20:45 Pat My hands were just, you know, I could like I couldn't feel the phone. 20:50 Pat Okay. 20:51 Pat And then it would just drop. 20:53 Pat And I'm like, oh my God. 20:55 Pat And that was before I went in the hospital. 20:57 Pat And then, you know, when I got in the hospital, but it was all caused guys because my immuno, I'm immunosuppressed from my kidney transplant. 21:08 Pat So apparently I caught a virus and that virus attacked my nerves. 21:16 Pat And, you know, that, cause I had a biopsy done on my nerve. 21:20 Pat They tested that for cancer. 21:22 Pat I had a PET scan. 21:24 Pat I had two MRIs. 21:25 Pat I had EKGs, you know, and, you know, it was crazy. 21:32 Pat But, you know, I had really good care and, you know, a good medical team and best in the world down there. 21:39 Pat Best in the world, no doubt. 21:41 Pat And so we're getting there. 21:43 Pat We're making progress. 21:44 Jûpe And I'm guessing since it's the nerve thing, it just, it just takes time to recover. 21:48 Jûpe It's going to be painful, but your every day is a little bit better. 21:52 Pat Big news, I had my last infusion of steroids yesterday. 21:59 Pat Twelve weeks in a row. 22:02 Jûpe He's going to be so ripped, Veegs. 22:04 Vegoe I mean, I actually might have visited. 22:06 Pat I wish, right? 22:09 Pat But no, so and actually that's what really helped because they kind of try to wake up your nerves and get those going and it's helped. 22:22 Pat So now I just got to get in the weight room because my legs are still like that big, but they're getting there, getting there. 22:29 Vegoe I can attest to Pat having some strength because I went and visited him between the first and second periods on Saturday and he grabbed me and he's like, Veegs. 22:36 Pat My dear, didn't I? 22:37 Vegoe Yeah, you grabbed me hard. 22:38 Vegoe I was like, oh, I'm ready for a net battle here. 22:40 Vegoe I had full on steroids with me. 22:43 Pat It was great. 22:43 Pat I hadn't seen you and, you know, so it was great to see you. 22:47 Pat I wanted to let you know my hands are working. 22:50 Vegoe Yeah, you let me know. 22:51 Vegoe I was like, oh, I'm in for a little struggle here. 22:54 Vegoe And we're talking about the team and your energy. 22:57 Vegoe And I was glad to see you back in the rink. 22:59 Vegoe I think GopherNation really values your connection and just makes you feel like, you know, we all love it, right? 23:06 Pat And, you know, we're all passionate about it. 23:08 Pat And, you know, just sometimes I have to take a, I say, step back and say, wait a second, they're young. 23:18 Pat You know, I can't get as frustrated sometimes as I do because I get, because, you know, you want to see them win. 23:27 Pat And so we just have to be patient and, you know, go from there. 23:33 Jûpe Yeah. 23:34 Jûpe But don't lose that passion. 23:35 Pat No, never. 23:36 Pat Yeah. 23:37 Jûpe You got, I mean, to be frustrated means you're passionate. 23:39 Jûpe So yeah, yeah, for sure. 23:43 Jûpe That's how it goes. 23:44 Jûpe Well, before we move on here, Veegs, we need to talk about one of our sponsors. 23:49 Jûpe And of course it's not game day without Cub foods, man. 23:54 Vegoe Yeah. 23:54 Vegoe I mean, now is the season. 23:56 Vegoe You know, game day starts at Cub. 23:57 Vegoe We've got Super Bowls. 23:59 Vegoe We got big playoff games coming up. 24:01 Vegoe And if you want to get some fresh ingredients, check out Cub. 24:04 Vegoe They've got USDA Choice Sirloin Steaks on sale for just $5.99 a pound this week. 24:10 Vegoe You can get those Cimix Meatballs for $6.99 a package right now. 24:14 Vegoe I mean, when you've got your tailgate party, Cimix Meatballs are kind of like a staple in Minnesota. 24:19 Vegoe So make sure you get those and stock the fridge. 24:21 Vegoe You can get Coke 12 Packs for $5.99 each when you buy three with your MyCub Rewards Card. 24:26 Vegoe Everything you need for kickoff, right there at Cub, shop happy at Cub. 24:32 Jûpe All right, of course we think Cub Foods are being a sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 24:37 Jûpe Veegs, your top 20 this week. 24:39 Jûpe You know, I've been revamping your top 20 over here on GPL. 24:42 Jûpe You know, I've got a record of all of your polls here from this year, last year, when you started kind of doing this. 24:50 Jûpe So you can even chart teams, which you don't want to chart Minnesota, but that's OK. 24:56 Jûpe But of course, you've got Michigan at the top, Veegs, and there's a reason. 25:00 Vegoe Yeah, Wolverines, they have not lost a series all year. 25:04 Vegoe Even when they've lost, they've been able to come back and get the split. 25:08 Vegoe We saw the talent that they have. 25:10 Vegoe Their very deep team, as Pat was talking about, like that fourth line is good. 25:14 Vegoe Their special team is very good. 25:16 Vegoe They're going to be able to outscore a lot of mistakes as well. 25:19 Vegoe And this is probably the best team we've seen at Michigan in a long time. 25:22 Vegoe And it's not necessarily the high, high end talent that we've seen on some of the top Michigan teams. 25:27 Vegoe It's a deeper team. 25:28 Vegoe Yeah, that bodes well for them come tournament time. 25:33 Jûpe Well, Michigan is a little bit of a place there, Veegs. 25:35 Jûpe And Pat, I mean, look, Michigan, Western Michigan, Michigan State, it's all Michigan right now. 25:39 Pat Yeah, it really is. 25:41 Pat And credit to them. 25:43 Pat And let's not forget Wisconsin, Penn State. 25:48 Pat I tell you, it's a pretty good feel. 25:50 Pat I am shocked, guys. 25:53 Pat Not shocked. 25:53 Pat Well, yeah, shocked. 25:56 Pat Right now, Hockey East has one team in the tournament. 26:01 Pat One, right? 26:02 Pat If I'm correct, one team. 26:05 Pat And we might see, and I've talked about it all year. 26:11 Pat The CCHA, watch out. 26:15 Pat They may get three teams in this year. 26:17 Pat Two for sure. 26:19 Pat I think they'll get their champion and I think they'll get another team in, but they might get three. 26:25 Pat And I tell you what, you've got six teams that could win that when their title. 26:30 Pat And, you know, so I'm giving a lot of credit to the CCHA, which I think they deserve. 26:38 Jûpe And I kind of do look at those VEGs. 26:40 Jûpe And Augustana has been on your poll for quite a while now. 26:43 Jûpe And around, you know, midpoint, you know, they go up and down a little bit. 26:46 Jûpe But I, you know, ever since they kind of snuck in there, they've been pretty consistent in not losing, getting swept or anything like that. 26:54 Vegoe Yeah, Rabs is doing a great job there. 26:56 Vegoe He's built a program that they've got some veteran, older players, and they are very difficult to play against. 27:02 Vegoe And the CCHA did better in its non-conference than they've done the last couple of years, which has put them in this position. 27:08 Vegoe Hockey East, on the other hand, terrible non-conference performance this year. 27:13 Vegoe And some of their top teams have lost a lot of games that you just would not expect them to lose. 27:18 Vegoe You know, I had BU as one of my favorites in College Hockey to start the year, and they have just been super inconsistent. 27:24 Vegoe And I think one of the things we're seeing in College Hockey right now is with all those CHL and U Sports players coming in the league, a lot of teams are able to fill holes, and every weekend is difficult. 27:36 Vegoe And I think some of the teams that have been more consistent have weathered that better, and the teams that have not been as consistent have younger players that maybe aren't ready for college hockey, but the program's just kind of stuck with their guys rather than filling the holes with older, experienced guys. 28:22 Pat It's Brody Lamb. 28:24 Pat I would love to see Brody Lamb have the ability to come back next year. 28:29 Pat He can't, but he came in early, right? 28:35 Pat Remember he came in early? 28:38 Pat And he could have been in junior that year and come in the next year. 28:44 Pat But for him, they have the ability to play with more of a mature group next year. 28:51 Pat I think it would have helped him. 28:52 Pat I think it would have helped the team, but, you know, it's unfortunate. 28:56 Vegoe Well, and Jimmy Clark, he's another player who came in. 28:59 Pat He did. 29:00 Pat He came in early. 29:01 Vegoe And you know, he's not having his best year right now as he's having tough times. 29:06 Vegoe So it's a couple of guys like that, you know, that need that extra year. 29:10 Vegoe Like Beckett Henderson got the extra year. 29:12 Vegoe I think we're seeing it pay off. 29:13 Vegoe Jevon Moore took that extra year. 29:15 Vegoe I think we're seeing it pay off. 29:16 Vegoe Leo Gruba took the extra year. 29:18 Vegoe You know, it's helping him. 29:20 Vegoe You know, but you got to be patient with these guys. 29:22 Vegoe College Hockey is not what it was 20 years ago. 29:25 Vegoe Playing that 19-year-old of junior is very helpful for these guys. 29:30 Pat I agree. 29:30 Pat And I look at a kid like Eric Paulson, you know. 29:34 Pat I mean, they really miss him in the lineup. 29:36 Pat But, you know, he hasn't had a great year because he's been in and out. 29:39 Pat And he hasn't been able to find any traction in his game yet. 29:45 Pat And just when it's starting to come, gets hurt. 29:47 Pat And then, you know, hopefully he's going to be back in the lineup this weekend. 29:51 Pat I don't, you know, Veegs? 29:53 Vegoe Bob said he'll be back. 29:55 Vegoe You know, he was playing today. 29:57 Vegoe He skated last week, you know, wrist injury this year, collarbone last year. 30:03 Vegoe But they need him. 30:04 Vegoe You know, they don't have a ton of center depth as you're seeing with LJ Mooney take a bunch of draws, as Brian Lam moves to center. 30:10 Vegoe They need some help there. 30:13 Pat I agree. 30:13 Pat And, you know, I, and for me, and, you know, I hope that they move LJ Mooney to center at some point. 30:22 Pat I don't think it's going to be this year. 30:24 Pat But all he does is make plays. 30:26 Pat And, but he needs the puck. 30:29 Pat He needs the puck more than he's getting it. 30:33 Pat And if you don't have a centerman that is delivering the puck to, you know, to him, it makes it really difficult. 30:44 Pat So, it's almost like you waste them at times, you know? 30:49 Vegoe Yeah. 30:49 Pat You see, you see him on the power play. 30:51 Pat I mean, he's terrific, terrific on the power play. 30:56 Pat And he could be more of that five on five if he had more room in the middle of the ice. 31:01 Vegoe And I've seen him on a line this week with Zemer and Lam Mooney. 31:04 Pat Yeah. 31:05 Vegoe So I think those three, you know, they look so good together on the power play. 31:09 Vegoe Maybe try them out five on five. 31:10 Vegoe This Gopher team has not been very effective five on five. 31:13 Vegoe So I think loading up a line like that is probably something they need to explore. 31:18 Vegoe Because if they can get a line going there and then there are other lines, maybe play more defensively aggressively to get momentum. 31:24 Vegoe And then you can get that line out there. 31:26 Vegoe I think that might be a recipe for Minnesota the second half. 31:29 Pat Yeah, I mean, they got to find a way to score goals. 31:34 Pat And even if you don't have that offensive defenseman that they sorely miss, we can go back to the ones in years past, I'd still like them to be a little bit more aggressive and put a little bit more pressure. 31:49 Pat And this is a read and react game. 31:53 Pat Can you get there? 31:54 Pat Can you make the pinch? 31:55 Pat If you can, do it. 31:57 Pat If not, then you back up. 31:58 Pat Right? 31:59 Pat Think, think, think, think. 32:02 Pat And so I would love to see, I love when they're aggressive. 32:07 Pat That's just the nature in me, the teams that I played on, and aggressive and that's go for hockey. 32:14 Pat And so I'd love to see more of that. 32:18 Pat We saw that in the second period and it was a fun, fun period to watch. 32:24 Jûpe Just wanted to cover a couple more things here, Veegs. 32:26 Jûpe You know, as I was entering a lot of your back data, Providence has been one of those consistent teams in your polls for the last two years. 32:35 Jûpe But then, like you said, Boston University didn't really move anywhere. 32:39 Jûpe Boston College, Connecticut, Maine, just dropped like rocks this week. 32:46 Vegoe Yeah, I mean, all of Hockey East is struggling and they're losing games in conference, too. 32:51 Vegoe So they're not doing themselves any favor now. 32:53 Vegoe They're in terrible position for the MPI going forward. 32:56 Vegoe So I just kind of reflected some of that in my poll this week. 33:02 Pat It's not good. 33:03 Pat It's not good out there. 33:05 Pat And, you know, that would be a black eye on that league if that, you know, and, you know, we get it right. 33:15 Pat Hockey is cyclical. 33:16 Pat Teams are cyclical. 33:17 Pat And they, but it's been two years in a row now, right? 33:21 Pat Where they've kind of had a rough patch. 33:24 Vegoe I mean, I do think that there is something to the young players right now coming in college hockey, that their Bantameres are heavily impacted by COVID. 33:33 Vegoe And maybe their development just hasn't been as smooth. 33:37 Vegoe And so you've got a team with with young 18, 19 year olds on your roster. 33:42 Vegoe It's tougher right now than maybe in years past. 33:45 Vegoe And then those teams as a whole just seem to have a hard adjustment right now in college hockey. 33:50 Jûpe Though I will say, oh, hold on now. 33:53 Jûpe Maine was the number one seed last year. 33:55 Jûpe And so was Boston College. 33:56 Pat That's right. 33:57 Pat Yep. 33:57 Jûpe That's right. 34:00 Vegoe So, but they've lost some players on those teams that were key and they have not been able to replace them. 34:07 Vegoe You know, I think if you have a team that's had a lot of departures, it's been tricky to fill holes. 34:12 Jûpe Yeah. 34:12 Vegoe Yeah. 34:14 Jûpe Well, before we move on to this weekend, Veegs, you know what we got to talk about next is I know you've been using some of these products, Cascade, CBX, Sport. 34:23 Jûpe I know you've been using them after some of your practices and haven't you? 34:26 Vegoe Yeah, I'm not getting any younger. 34:28 Vegoe So I've got some aches and pains that I'm trying to address and you could say the CBD is a miracle drug and you wouldn't be wrong. 34:34 Vegoe The list of benefits of using CBD is long, it can knock out pain, it can reduce inflammation, helps you sleep better and that's how you recover. 34:42 Vegoe And with CBX Sport, you don't have to worry about any issues with the drug testing stuff because they're NSF certified for sport. 34:49 Vegoe So whether you're just like a beer leaguer coach like me or you know, you're a young athlete who's looking for a little relief, check out CBX Sport. 34:58 Vegoe Trust the shield to stay on the field. 35:02 Jûpe All right, Pat. 35:05 Jûpe Yeah, look at Luca DePasquo's head. 35:07 Pat Oh my gosh. 35:08 Jûpe Play his whole team this weekend at Monorina. 35:12 Jûpe You're heading out, I believe, tomorrow morning, aren't you? 35:14 Pat Correct. 35:15 Jûpe Yes. 35:16 Jûpe It's interesting. 35:17 Jûpe It's like, you know, LaFontaine going back to Michigan. 35:22 Pat Luca DePasquo, the last four games and win, but he was fabulous. 35:30 Pat You know, he came in for Harry in the second night and was terrific the first night in a 3-0 loss at Penn State. 35:40 Pat But you guys saw him this past weekend. 35:41 Pat I mean, it could have been a lot worse Friday night. 35:45 Pat It could have been 10-1, really. 35:47 Pat I mean, it could have been 10-1 without him. 35:50 Pat He was fabulous. 35:51 Pat And he was even, you know, he got tested in two of the periods on Saturday and was fabulous. 35:59 Pat And I think, I don't know, I haven't talked to Bob. 36:03 Pat I'm not in Bob's head. 36:06 Pat You know, I think he's earned the right to own that net. 36:10 Pat You know, and I certainly expect to see him on Friday night. 36:17 Vegoe Yeah, on his radio show this week, you know, he said to Wally, yep, he's my number one. 36:22 Pat Okay. 36:23 Pat There you go. 36:24 Pat I didn't listen to the show. 36:26 Vegoe And then I asked him again today at Availability, me and Grimmer were the two media members there, you know, jackling for quotes and he affirmed it. 36:34 Vegoe He said, Luca has done everything that we could ask of him. 36:38 Vegoe He was a goalie who didn't get a lot of playing time last year. 36:41 Vegoe And so he thinks he's only going to be getting better right now as he gets into a rhythm. 36:45 Vegoe And I think one of the important things with Luca's game is he didn't give away goals. 36:49 Vegoe He was very good in his crease. 36:51 Vegoe He is very good challenging shooters. 36:53 Vegoe You know, the goals Michigan scored were premium goals, which is what you need out of a goalie. 36:59 Pat Yeah, yeah, for sure. 37:01 Pat And he looked confident and, you know, his positioning was really good. 37:08 Pat He wasn't all over the ice. 37:11 Pat So yeah, I can't say enough great things about him. 37:13 Pat I, you know, and he just he kept Minnesota in the game. 37:19 Vegoe And he's a confident puck handler, too. 37:21 Vegoe So when there's opportunities for him to help out the D and move the puck and for sure get them going, he's he's a confident guy who can who can make tape to tape passes out to the red line and pass. 37:31 Pat Yeah. 37:33 Pat Well, good. 37:33 Pat You know, and obviously you're going to need when you don't score a lot of goals, you need to keep the puck out of the net. 37:39 Pat And, you know, he's going to have he's going to be keyed down the stretch. 37:43 Pat For sure. 37:45 Jûpe So what's Minnesota's strategy here, Veegs? 37:47 Jûpe I mean, if they're having a hard time keeping out of that, do they just try to play a defensive style or what? 37:53 Jûpe What should they do? 37:54 Jûpe Pat's already nodded his head. 37:55 Jûpe No. 37:55 Jûpe What do you think, Veegs? 37:58 Vegoe What I what I think they need to do is I think they have to be more physical, and I think they have to get their defenseman involved in the offensive zone with a little bit more confidence. 38:07 Vegoe I asked Jacob Rombach about that a little bit today, and he said, Yeah, scanning the offensive zone from the blue line and being more ready, get engaged is an adjustment, and it's something that he's learning how to handle. 38:20 Vegoe And I think that that goes for a lot of guys on the blue line for Minnesota. 38:23 Vegoe They're just not confident stepping into the play and then making plays from that pinch. 38:29 Vegoe And so that that's the biggest thing for me. 38:32 Vegoe And I think the only way you get better at that is with experience. 38:35 Vegoe They're not going to get better if you just sit back and let them break out of the zone. 38:40 Vegoe And give way to the zone and give way to the blue line. 38:42 Vegoe You need to have guys who go in there with a mission to separate players from the puck and make a play. 38:48 Vegoe And you have to have forwards that can read that and cover for them and reload over the top. 38:53 Vegoe But if you're going to be successful long term, you have to activate your D. 38:57 Vegoe Pat and I have talked about this for years. 38:59 Vegoe The college hockey teams have defensemen who get involved in the offensive zone, get teams out of their structure, and you can create chaos. 39:07 Vegoe And right now, they're not doing that. 39:12 Pat And I'll talk about the forwards. 39:15 Pat You know, when the puck is dumped in, you've got to have a little fire to go and get it, okay? 39:22 Pat And you got to beat that defenseman sometimes. 39:26 Pat And if you don't beat them, you got to be right behind them and lay a hit on them. 39:30 Pat And that's number one. 39:32 Pat Number two, there are too many times and it drives me crazy. 39:40 Pat Where Minnesota gets out manned in the corners, one against two, you're never going to come up with a pocket. 39:49 Pat One guy is not going to come out of a scrum against two guys very often, or two against three, or whatever the case may be. 39:58 Pat And it drives me crazy. 40:00 Pat So, you know, you got to have a little bit more fight by your forwards, yet you got to play the body a little bit more, you got to get engaged, right? 40:11 Pat But you know, you got to try to create some, and I've said this on your show a hundred times. 40:17 Pat I don't care how good of a defenseman you are, if you have pressure on you, it is hard to make a play. 40:24 Pat I don't care how good you are. 40:27 Pat It is hard to make a play if you are being pressured and hit, or whatever the case may be. 40:34 Pat And so, if Minnesota gets in that mindset a little bit, I think they're going to have more success. 40:43 Pat Hell, we saw it for one period on Saturday night. 40:49 Pat We saw them. 40:50 Pat And we saw Michigan get a little discombobulated. 40:55 Pat You saw them start throwing the puck out of the zone and icing it. 40:59 Pat And that's where you take over a little bit. 41:03 Pat And I'd love to see more of that. 41:04 Pat I hope I see more of that this weekend, because if they go in there into Michigan and say, OK, we're just going to sit back, we'll watch out. 41:13 Pat Watch out. 41:14 Pat It could be a long night. 41:18 Jûpe It's kind of how Friday night was for me. 41:20 Jûpe It seemed like a long night for me. 41:23 Vegoe I mean, it was one night for a Gopher fan. 41:25 Vegoe I think one of the issues with this team is they spend so much time defending. 41:30 Vegoe Yeah, they're so tired, right? 41:33 Vegoe They have a hard time getting off the ice and getting into that forecheck. 41:37 Vegoe And you almost need a group that can change the momentum of a game somehow, with a turnover and possession. 41:46 Vegoe So you can get on the forecheck and you can get the other team having those tired shifts where they're defending. 41:52 Vegoe And right now I just, I don't often see that discipline to the shift length and the shift structure to change the game like that. 42:01 Vegoe And I think some of that is youth and not understanding the picture. 42:06 Pat I want to do it. 42:07 Pat Yeah. 42:07 Vegoe Right. 42:08 Vegoe Because sometimes all you have to do is you have to gain the zone. 42:11 Vegoe You have to wait for your line mates to join you in the zone. 42:14 Vegoe And then you have to possess the puck for 20, 30 seconds. 42:17 Vegoe And then when you change, the other team is now on a minute plus shift and you've got fresh legs. 42:22 Vegoe And that's so critical to college hockey because the talent level, you know, isn't huge. 42:28 Pat No. 42:28 Vegoe Skill level isn't huge. 42:30 Vegoe Whereas I think in younger levels, the talent level can be a huge gap and you can just win on pure talent and skill. 42:37 Vegoe But you have to understand the game situation so much more in college. 42:42 Pat I can't even add to it. 42:45 Pat No, I agree. 42:46 Pat And, you know, I can also add, you got to recognize where the onslaught has been there. 42:52 Pat So how do we change it? 42:54 Pat How do you change it? 42:55 Pat You know, yeah, you talked about, you know, someone go and put a hit on. 42:59 Pat You know, maybe it's a line saying, okay, you guys got to go out and do it now. 43:03 Pat But there's other, you know, you got to find a way to slow, slow the game down or take that team out of their momentum. 43:13 Pat If you're not doing it, you know, physically or forechecking or whatever, you know, tell your goalie, hey, go to the bench, fix up, fix your pad. 43:23 Pat But those are things that can just for a little bit, get the other team, you know, and that might, just things like that. 43:37 Pat You know, gotta out think them sometimes. 43:40 Jûpe I don't know, Biggs, when we start talking about goalie pad issues, it brings me, flashes me back to last season in Fargo. 43:50 Vegoe Yeah, don't bring that one up for me. 43:52 Vegoe I do think one piece of this, like, change in the game. 43:55 Vegoe Sometimes our defensemen have to cover for the forwards and have to join that one forward in the zone. 44:01 Vegoe You know, if the defensemen are fresh, take a chance. 44:04 Vegoe You're gonna have two fresh forwards coming on behind you to protect anything that goes the other way. 44:09 Vegoe But you can come up and support your teammate in the zone. 44:13 Vegoe And we've seen that the last couple of weekends, I think, with Michigan and Penn State. 44:16 Vegoe You know, their D aren't anchored at the rear of their structure. 44:20 Vegoe They, when they see opportunities to jump up and get in the play, they do it. 44:25 Vegoe And I just, I don't think we're seeing that with Minnesota, so. 44:28 Pat What a difference when you add that fourth guy into the play. 44:31 Pat It's, it's night and day because what that does is it automatic, automatic makes the D back up. 44:39 Pat And what does that do? 44:42 Pat Gives you, gives you all, you know, more room to get into the zone, set up, whatever, make a play. 44:49 Pat And just because, just because that fourth guy joins the rush. 44:57 Pat It's crazy, crazy game. 45:00 Vegoe Crazy game. 45:02 Jûpe Pat talked to me about the resurgence of Michigan State these past couple of years. 45:08 Jûpe They were the bottom of or near the bottom of the Big Ten for quite a while. 45:16 Pat Adam Nightingale, I tell you, you know, his connections and he's so well-liked and you know, he worked, he worked extremely hard to bring in the players that he did. 45:29 Pat And once he started getting some, and you guys know, oh, I got one guy, but my buddy's over here, who is a great player thinking about going, no, I'm going to come here. 45:40 Pat And look at the guys that he got, you know, Isaac Howard, right? 45:45 Pat Had him in Junior or within National Development Team. 45:50 Pat Gets him from Duluth. 45:52 Pat Charlie Stramel, he had him in the National Development League. 45:56 Pat And, you know, Charlie was comfortable playing with them, playing for him there. 46:01 Pat He comes there. 46:03 Pat And so, you know, it was just a, yeah, Michigan State's destination place for a lot of these guys. 46:11 Pat And, you know, it's great to see them. 46:15 Pat Because you want great teams. 46:17 Pat I don't care. 46:17 Pat You want great teams in the league. 46:19 Pat And we saw what they were for years. 46:21 Pat And it wasn't fun. 46:24 Pat It wasn't fun when they came to town. 46:25 Pat It wasn't fun going out there because they weren't very good. 46:29 Pat And now you're playing, you know, they're really good teams. 46:32 Pat And that's what you want. 46:33 Pat So a credit to Adam. 46:35 Pat And, you know, you just got to beat a better team now. 46:41 Jûpe And Veegs, you know, it all kind of coincided with a whole remodel of Mon Arena. 46:46 Pat You know, to me, it doesn't look, once you're in there, it looks the same. 46:51 Pat You know, it's all underneath, right? 46:54 Pat I mean, it's all underneath, to me. 46:57 Jûpe But that's what the players love, Veegs. 46:59 Vegoe I feel kind of bad for Dan Cole because he was the coach in transition that did all this work to create that infrastructure for the hockey program. 47:08 Vegoe And he had to fall on the sword because of a couple bad seasons and, you know, missing a couple of recruiting classes. 47:17 Vegoe But now, Nightingale has done a great job there. 47:19 Vegoe He's made the right call with some of his additions from the CHL. 47:24 Vegoe Porter Malone has been a great player for them and has really stepped in the lineup. 47:28 Vegoe Kane Lindstrom hasn't moved in quite as easily, but they've got enough in place to support guys like that. 47:36 Vegoe Ryker Lee has been great for them in college. 47:38 Vegoe Didn't have a great world junior, but he's playing well for the Spartans. 47:42 Vegoe And I think a big sign for them is they got Trey Augustine to come back for another year. 47:47 Vegoe And anytime you have a coach behind a bench that has guys who want to come back for that extra year, that's a great sign. 47:54 Pat Great sign and a great message to the younger guys thinking about wanting to leave. 48:00 Pat They might think, I'll stay another year, but who knows. 48:05 Vegoe Minnesota and Motts Goa had that a couple of years ago. 48:08 Vegoe Faber decided to come back and everyone wanted to stay with Faber. 48:12 Vegoe And I think identifying guys like that in your recruiting pipeline and keeping them in the program is the best advantage you can have in college hockey is leaders like that. 48:22 Jûpe Faber and Lacombe teamed up for the Olympic Cerviques. 48:25 Pat That's awesome. 48:26 Vegoe Yeah, exciting news. 48:27 Vegoe You know, Lacombe has just been straight up in his development. 48:31 Vegoe I remember when he came to Minnesota, was making mistakes at the blue line. 48:35 Vegoe You know, people were on him all the time. 48:38 Vegoe And, you know, after his All-American season, he had a real struggle through the first half. 48:44 Vegoe And he adjusted to that and he came back and kept developing. 48:47 Vegoe And, you know, he's done that in the NHL and well-earned trip to the Cortina Olympics. 48:54 Pat And his rookie year, he struggled, you know, like most guys do in the National Hockey League. 49:01 Pat But, you know, I think the last quarter of his rookie year came on. 49:08 Pat And, you know, from that point on, he has been fabulous for Anaheim. 49:14 Pat And, you know, he's earned a spot on that team. 49:17 Pat Really happy for him. 49:19 Pat Great kid. 49:20 Vegoe I think one thing about Jackson is his mental makeup. 49:24 Vegoe You know, his ability to handle failures without failing. 49:29 Vegoe You know, he's able to say, yes, I screwed that up, and it doesn't happen again. 49:34 Vegoe Like, he learns from things, and he's pretty resilient. 49:37 Vegoe And I think that's just such an important part of an athlete, is being able to handle mistakes like that and move forward. 49:43 Pat I remember talking to Brock Faber, and, you know, we were just, you know, down the locker room, whatever. 49:51 Pat I said, you know, you got a good chance at winning the Hobie. 49:54 Pat And he looked at me, he said, me? 49:57 Pat He said, and he pointed, he said, if anyone's going to win the Hobie, it's going to be that guy. 50:03 Pat And he pointed to Lacombe. 50:05 Pat He thought Lacombe, and rightly so, was the best player in college hockey that year. 50:12 Pat Really did. 50:13 Pat He said, he's the best defenseman on this team, and we have Johnson and myself and blah, blah, blah. 50:19 Pat And all the other good ones around the country. 50:21 Pat But he had nothing. 50:23 Pat He thought Lacombe deserved it. 50:26 Pat He wasn't even a candidate. 50:29 Vegoe And I remember that season, the Gophers had so many games where they were tied or down a goal. 50:35 Pat Yeah. 50:35 Vegoe And he could pull the goalie, and he would just control the blue line out there, and create offense and make plays. 50:41 Vegoe It was unbelievable. 50:42 Pat Do you remember that pass he made in Fargo to Logan Cooley? 50:48 Jûpe On the breakaway? 50:49 Pat On the breakaway? 50:51 Pat I mean, that was so elite that I couldn't even comment down the air. 51:03 Pat I was like, did you just see that pass? 51:07 Pat I was like, but it was great. 51:13 Vegoe If you could pick one player out of recent memory that most helped this year's Gopher roster, it would be Jackson LeCombe. 51:19 Vegoe Oh! 51:21 Vegoe If you pluck, you know, Mike Crowley would be pretty good too, but... 51:24 Pat Yeah, Mike Crowley would be pretty good. 51:26 Pat One of those guys. 51:27 Pat Yeah. 51:28 Pat Yeah. 51:29 Pat Yeah, we missed that, don't we? 51:31 Pat A little bit. 51:32 Pat Yeah. 51:34 Jûpe Yeah, well, you know, there's still time, guys. 51:37 Pat Hey, I'm not giving up. 51:38 Pat Listen, you know, the beauty of this year is that it's not a two-game or two out of three. 51:46 Pat It's a one and done. 51:48 Pat And you don't know, you don't know on any particular night how a team is feeling when they jump on the ice. 51:55 Pat Are they ready? 51:56 Pat Are they not ready? 51:57 Pat Is this underdog team going to just somehow pull themselves together and, you know, do what you have to do to win a hockey game? 52:06 Pat You don't know, and that's the, that's what's college hockey. 52:10 Pat I mean, I'll go back last year to Fargo. 52:13 Pat I thought Minnesota State was a better team against Western Michigan. 52:17 Pat They took them to overtime and, you know, we're this close from beating them. 52:24 Pat The national champion. 52:27 Pat So you don't, you just don't know. 52:30 Pat So I'm just hoping that this team can find a formula that will get them in a rhythm where they can be a tough out. 52:45 Vegoe And I will say it looks like Luka is going to be a steady goalie for them going forward. 52:49 Vegoe Their power play looks very good. 52:52 Vegoe I think what they just need to do is they need to get some defensemen who are more confident adding themselves to the play. 52:59 Vegoe If they can do that in the next six weeks here, they're going to be going into a BigTen tournament where there's a very good chance three teams are going to have number one seeds locked up. 53:10 Vegoe And one is already in. 53:13 Pat Think about that. 53:14 Vegoe You're going to have four teams that are pretty much guaranteed to be in the tournament. 53:17 Vegoe Three of them as number one seeds. 53:19 Vegoe Not a whole lot to play fair there, you know, with those programs, so. 53:23 Pat Right. 53:24 Pat And as we've seen, as the number one seed, Minnesota's last in the playoffs, right? 53:31 Pat Right. 53:31 Jûpe Yes. 53:34 Pat So, you never know, right? 53:38 Pat And that's the thing, these guys got to keep their attitude up and keep working because they are young. 53:44 Pat And, you know, I don't want to see them quit, and I don't think anyone does, and I don't think they want to quit. 53:51 Pat And so, you know, let's let it play out. 53:57 Jûpe All right. 53:58 Jûpe Well, Pat, give me your prediction on the weekend at Michigan State, by the way, Friday on Big Ten Plus only, or of course, the radio with Pat and Wally. 54:07 Pat Yeah. 54:07 Jûpe And then I believe, you know, Saturday night, it's going to be Ben Holden, probably and Fred Pledge. 54:12 Pat Fred and Fred. 54:13 Pat Yeah. 54:13 Jûpe Yeah. 54:14 Jûpe So they'll be calling that game on Big Ten Network or Wally and Pat on the radio. 54:19 Jûpe But what do you think, Pat? 54:21 Jûpe What's going to happen? 54:22 Pat I think it's going to be tough. 54:23 Pat I think Michigan is finding their way. 54:25 Pat Or Michigan State, I'm sorry. 54:27 Pat Big Two wins at Wisconsin. 54:31 Pat So I think they're finding their way. 54:34 Pat I think it's going to be tough. 54:36 Pat Do you want a prediction? 54:37 Pat Yeah, I do. 54:39 Pat I think it'll be tough to win a game this weekend. 54:42 Jûpe Yeah. 54:43 Pat I hope I'm wrong. 54:46 Jûpe I'm picking the same. 54:48 Jûpe I see zero points coming out this weekend, Veegs. 54:51 Jûpe I know. 54:52 Pat And guess what? 54:53 Pat It doesn't really matter now. 54:55 Jûpe Yeah. 54:57 Pat Because they're not going to get home ice. 55:01 Jûpe Actually, they could still technically. 55:03 Jûpe But yeah. 55:04 Jûpe But I don't think so. 55:07 Pat They'd have to run the table and have a lot of help. 55:11 Jûpe But we're testing a new picks game this past weekend in Veegs. 55:15 Jûpe I know you had a little more positivity out of your picks against Minnesota, Michigan. 55:21 Jûpe But how are you feeling this week going to Monterino? 55:25 Vegoe I did technically pick zero points last week. 55:28 Pat Oh, did you? 55:30 Vegoe And they got one. 55:32 Vegoe They did get one. 55:33 Jûpe Yeah, we did. 55:34 Jûpe That's a rough January. 55:36 Vegoe It's a rough January. 55:37 Vegoe And I just don't see it yet. 55:40 Pat No. 55:40 Vegoe Michigan State's playing very, very well. 55:42 Vegoe They're very high end team. 55:43 Vegoe They're deep. 55:44 Vegoe They've got good goal tending. 55:47 Vegoe I find it difficult for Minnesota to get points this weekend as well. 55:50 Pat I'm you know what? 55:51 Pat I'm just looking for some positive strides. 55:58 Pat You know, I want to see all the things that we talked about. 56:02 Pat Right. 56:03 Pat And I want to see effort. 56:05 Pat I want to see him play hard for 60. 56:10 Pat And if they can do that, you know, I'm not so worried about the wins and losses now because quite frankly, like I said, I don't know if they matter. 56:20 Pat I really don't know if they matter. 56:22 Pat But I want them to just continue to get better. 56:28 Pat But they're not going to get better unless they work on the things that we discussed. 56:34 Pat And so that's where I'm at. 56:38 Jûpe Final thoughts, Veegs? 56:41 Vegoe I think the biggest thing is to watch this weekend, Paulson back in the lineup. 56:45 Vegoe How comfortable does he actually look? 56:49 Vegoe Does the coaching staff keep Lam, Mooney and Zemer together? 56:53 Vegoe I think that could be an interesting five on five group for Minnesota. 56:57 Vegoe And then are we going to see the young defenseman take steps, getting involved in the offensive zone? 57:02 Vegoe I think that's critical for them. 57:04 Vegoe I think oftentimes Cal Thomas is hesitant sometimes to take risk. 57:09 Vegoe He's going to have to for this team to get better. 57:11 Vegoe He's going to have to be more comfortable taking on risk as are the other D. 57:16 Vegoe So that's what I'll be watching for this weekend, because the only way up is through. 57:22 Pat I concur. 57:25 Jûpe Well, thanks for being on our 300th episode. 57:28 Pat To me, I was on number 100, right? 57:32 Pat Or 150. 57:33 Jûpe 250, a bunch of them. 57:35 Jûpe You've been on a bunch. 57:37 Pat Yeah. 57:40 Pat But I'm honored to be on 300. 57:43 Pat You guys are the best. 57:45 Pat Love you both. 57:45 Pat Thank you. 57:46 Jûpe And the thing is, you were on KFAN at the same time tonight. 57:52 Pat Yeah, I know. 57:55 Pat Same time. 57:56 Pat You know, I taped it this morning and, you know. 58:01 Jûpe Yeah. 58:02 Jûpe Follow this is like, well, how can you be live when you're on? 58:04 Vegoe Well, yeah, I know. 58:05 Pat Yeah. 58:05 Jûpe He likes this better. 58:07 Pat Exactly. 58:07 Pat Exactly. 58:08 Pat Exactly. 58:09 Pat All right. 58:10 Pat Thanks guys. 58:11 Jûpe Thanks for coming on the show. 58:12 Jûpe We appreciate it. 58:13 Jûpe And hopefully another 300 shows. 58:16 Pat Yeah. 58:17 Pat Sounds great. 58:18 Jûpe Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 58:22 Jûpe We'll be back next week with we've got Mielewski coming on because the Badgers will be in town. 58:29 Jûpe So stay tuned for that. 58:30 Jûpe For those of you watching live, it's time for overtime. 58:33 Jûpe Of course, we're going to go over over time. 58:35 Jûpe But for the rest, you will catch you next week on The GPL Podcast. 58:51 Jûpe If you are watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and get notified each time we go live or post a video. 58:58 Jûpe If you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please rate our show and leave a review. 59:08 Jûpe For those of you watching live, you know what's next. 59:12 Jûpe It's Vegoe's Beverage of the Week. 59:16 Jûpe It's time for Overtime.