0:04 This is The GPL Podcast, part of the Pulltab Sports family. 0:09 Oh, boy. 0:11 Jup making mistakes. 0:12 I love it. 0:27 Big TV star, Cappy. 0:29 Oh! 0:31 Are you kidding? 0:32 I've been on once in October. 0:36 Eat that, Todd. 0:37 Eat that, Schloss. 0:39 Eat that, Drew. 0:44 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 0:51 Jûpe Good evening, and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number 302, Veegs, an extremely positive weekend for the Gophers. 1:07 Jûpe Oh, you're muted there. 1:08 Jûpe Sorry. 1:09 Vegoe That's the team we've been waiting for since the start of the year. 1:12 Jûpe You think? 1:12 Vegoe I think I think we all thought this team had potential to be, you know, like a top 10 team, you know, maybe not, you know, a number one seed. 1:20 Vegoe But we thought, you know, if this team performs as expected, they could play like they did last weekend. 1:26 Vegoe And what a relief for Bob Motsko and his staff. 1:30 Jûpe I hope so, because it was a good feeling. 1:33 Jûpe It was fun to be around the rink last weekend for once. 1:36 Jûpe I think one of the I don't think they'd swept in. 1:40 Jûpe Since Notre Dame. 1:41 Jûpe So it's been a little while. 1:43 Jûpe And it was their first win since our guests, alma mater beat them back in December. 1:49 Jûpe Let's just bring them on now. 1:51 Jûpe Paul Caponigri, Cappy, how are you doing, man? 1:55 Cappy I'm good. 1:55 Cappy Is that right? 1:56 Cappy That was their first win? 1:57 Jûpe That was their first win since they lost the second game at Ohio State. 2:03 Cappy They split that series, right? 2:05 Jûpe Seven straight losses. 2:07 Cappy Wow. 2:07 Cappy And then with all the, yeah, with the long winter break, Christmas, holidays, that seems like forever then, huh? 2:16 Jûpe It was, wasn't it, Veegs? 2:19 Vegoe The message board in social media were not being kind to Coach Bob Matsuko or the Gophers. 2:25 Vegoe And that's what comes with the territory. 2:28 Vegoe You know, when you play for Minnesota, the fans have high expectations and a losing streak like that isn't something they're used to. 2:35 Vegoe And I think it was very frustrating for everybody and no one more than the players. 2:40 Jûpe So we know there's big news tonight that just came out of Cabal's role. 2:43 Jûpe So we'll get to Gavin McKenna in a little bit. 2:46 Jûpe We thought we'd kind of cover the Gophers first. 2:50 Jûpe So we're not going to forget about it. 2:52 Jûpe But Veegs, if anything, besides the winning, Eric Paulson woke up and the power play just keeps going up. 3:04 Vegoe And Becca Hentron found the net. 3:06 Vegoe So secondary scoring and your top guys going is a great recipe for Minnesota. 3:11 Vegoe You know, I think we've seen this roster struggle to score throughout the year. 3:16 Vegoe Well, Moscow has now loaded up a top line with his three best scores. 3:20 Vegoe And they look like an elite line in college hockey and how it's supposed to look. 3:25 Vegoe You know, they got a lot of momentum, put a lot of pressure on Wisconsin. 3:29 Vegoe And then the secondary players fed off of that. 3:31 Vegoe And I felt like they had more energy throughout the weekend and chipped in here and there. 3:36 Vegoe But I don't think any of that happens without Lam, Mooney and Ziemer just, you know, driving the ship. 3:42 Jûpe 100% on that. 3:43 Jûpe So Cappy, this season, you know, the power play. 3:46 Jûpe What did you say, Veegs? 3:46 Jûpe It's probably in the 30s and 40s ranking. 3:50 Jûpe And it's really been this last month, which has gone right up. 3:52 Jûpe Now they're number two in the country. 3:55 Jûpe So a huge improvement there. 3:58 Jûpe Yes, the power play is the worst in the country, but, or penalty kill, I should say. 4:04 Jûpe But they don't give up a ton of power plays for the other teams. 4:10 Jûpe So it's hard to really improve that when you're not taking many penalties. 4:19 Cappy Yeah, I don't know. 4:20 Cappy I mean, you want to win the special teams battle every game. 4:23 Cappy All right. 4:23 Cappy So, all right. 4:24 Cappy If you go two for five on the power play, and you go, you know, three, two out of three, you know, you win the power, you win the special teams two to one, right? 4:33 Cappy You still give up a PK. 4:34 Cappy But yeah, if you're not giving up as many, there's the PK won't get exposed as much, right? 4:40 Cappy I think you're just looking for positives. 4:42 Cappy One thing you didn't mention from last week, and I thought, you know, Luka was really good in that when he needed to be. 4:49 Cappy Yeah, he gave up some goals, but there were a couple of times where the game was close and he came up with a couple of big saves that maybe he didn't or they didn't get in general in goal that really maybe gives it, you know, you shrug, you know, as a player, sometimes not that you're mad at your goalie, but you can just like, oh, here we go again, or, you know, things aren't bouncing our way. 5:10 Cappy Things started bouncing the Gophers way. 5:13 Cappy I thought he played well. 5:14 Cappy And then I think the players fed off of that as well to have such success. 5:19 Jûpe Veegs, we have been talking about that, you know, Bob Maid, Luca, kind of number one, he's playing more. 5:26 Jûpe He didn't play much at Michigan State. 5:28 Jûpe I think, you know, the alternating, he really wasn't, you know, sometimes he, you know, Eric get two games, maybe get a third game, and then he'd come back. 5:36 Jûpe And there really wasn't consistency there. 5:38 Jûpe But now he's got a consistency. 5:40 Jûpe He's playing and he's improving. 5:41 Jûpe And we've been noticing it for really this last month. 5:46 Vegoe Yeah, I think the first half of the year, Luca is probably giving away a goal that he'd like to have back most nights. 5:53 Vegoe And now here in the second half, even though the team lost seven in a row, Luca was really strong. 5:59 Vegoe You know, he was probably their best player in some of those games against Michigan and Penn State, Michigan State, and he was making a lot of saves. 6:05 Vegoe And I think if you look at his save percentage, you know, the last ten games, he's probably a top ten goalie, save percentage wise, in the country. 6:13 Vegoe And that's something that Minnesota hasn't had for a little while. 6:16 Vegoe And it probably gives him a little bit more confidence. 6:19 Vegoe And I think we saw the Gopher Blue Line play with a little more pizzazz this last week, because they didn't have to worry so much about their goal-tending. 6:28 Vegoe And they could step up, and they could make some better transition plays. 6:31 Vegoe And I thought John Whipple had probably one of his best weekends as a Gopher. 6:35 Jûpe Yeah, I was just going to mention John Whipple. 6:38 Jûpe He was great. 6:40 Jûpe I mean, you had that, and then six of eight on the power play leagues. 6:44 Jûpe And one of those power plays, I want to say has one second left in the Friday night game. 6:51 Jûpe So... 6:53 Vegoe Yeah, they look great. 6:54 Vegoe I go to practice, and on Wednesdays, they do special teams, and this is not a fluke. 6:59 Vegoe That top power play unit probably scores on about half their chances in practice, and it's no surprise that it carries over into games. 7:06 Vegoe And I think early in the year, you know, they weren't quite scoring at a high clip, but I didn't have any worry about that top unit, because they were able to gain the zone, they were able to establish a presence, they were able to win back second chances, they just weren't getting the goals quite at the frequency they're getting them now. 7:24 Vegoe And on top of that, right now, they're scoring in a lot of different ways. 7:28 Vegoe It's not like there's just one player like a Jimmy Snuggerud, where everyone knows where the puck is going. 7:33 Vegoe This group has a lot of different guys that can score, and they've got a player in LJ. 7:37 Vegoe Mooney who can escape and buy time and create opportunities for teammates. 7:42 Jûpe On the flip side, Cappy, the Badger Fall is still coming down fast. 7:49 Jûpe That's six losses in a row for them. 7:52 Jûpe Four of them at home, now two of them to your biggest rival. 7:56 Jûpe They get some injuries, obviously we saw some injuries there. 8:00 Jûpe It's just getting worse for them. 8:04 Jûpe Are they in free fall? 8:07 Cappy I would say if they don't win both games this weekend, you know, you're playing Notre Dame at home. 8:16 Cappy A team that's won one home, one game all year in the Big Ten at home against Ohio State. 8:22 Cappy I'd say yes. 8:24 Cappy This is a weekend that could get them better. 8:27 Cappy You know, look, they've had injuries. 8:29 Cappy I was doing a game early in the year they lost Zach Schultz for the year. 8:33 Cappy I think for the year, I mean, I think he broke his leg at that time and this was in December. 8:38 Cappy And then the Logan Hensler, I haven't read anything, but that did not. 8:44 Cappy I don't know if you guys have a final on that, but that does not look good. 8:47 Jûpe It doesn't look good. 8:48 Cappy And the way I don't see him playing anytime soon, at least. 8:52 Jûpe It was, you know, he came together with Whipple, I believe, wasn't it Veegs, they just kind of came together, and it was just Whipple kind of went high, and they just kind of, he just kind of crunched him. 9:01 Jûpe There was no intentional nothing like that. 9:04 Cappy No, no, totally, but it was just a physical game, like it happens, right? 9:07 Jûpe It was just, it was very unfortunate, Veegs, and he needed help off, and he was, we saw him after the game, he was not moving around too well. 9:16 Vegoe Well, especially in hockey, you know, your foot's in a boot, so when it gets caught in kind of a weird spot, it looks like his toe got caught under him, and then all that weight coming down from, you know, just a collision that happens in hockey, unfortunate injury for Hensler, who's, you know, hasn't probably had his, you know, best year as a hockey player, and, you know, it's, you hate to see it. 9:38 Jûpe No, it was super unfortunate. 9:41 Cappy It's hard to know where that team's gonna go right now. 9:43 Cappy I mean, look, you like, the Gophers lost what, six in a row to, you know, three top five teams too. 9:50 Cappy You gotta kind of put that a little bit in the, you know, part of the structure there, you know. 9:57 Cappy Michigan, Michigan State, like, I don't know if, you know, how much they can go down from one and two. 10:03 Cappy North Dakota maybe could catch them, but like, they are kind of way up there right now. 10:09 Cappy So like, you know, you're not playing, no offense, I don't know, name a team in the bottom 30 in the country. 10:16 Cappy So like, it can kill your motivation, your confidence, that's what a really good team can do to you. 10:23 Cappy So like, maybe if they can find some confidence this weekend and win a couple games and some other guys that haven't, you know, Quinn Finley is a guy I look at that's just, they need that guy to be the leader of their offense. 10:34 Cappy So, you know, in my case, things I know well has got a lot of work to do there. 10:40 Cappy You know, but they still have everything in front of them. 10:43 Cappy And, you know, I think like the Gophers kind of do too, if this keeps going in a right direction, like this weekend, I think, is huge for the Gophers. 10:50 Cappy You know, what do you do after a big emotional against your rivalry against a team that you've had a lot of success against at home? 10:58 Cappy But I don't know if the crowd's going to be as engaged. 11:01 Cappy Will the Gophers maybe get them engaged to maybe get them over the top with how, you know, they can keep rolling. 11:08 Jûpe And I also don't want to forget about Paulson. 11:11 Jûpe He had two goals on the season. 11:14 Jûpe He's got five goals on the season, one off the... 11:18 Jûpe one off of Howes' helmet, which I got a great angle of, you know. 11:21 Cappy Unbelievable shot, actually. 11:23 Jûpe And it's just what he needed. 11:27 Vegoe Yeah, I think he's a player who was having some confidence issues, you know, with his first half. 11:32 Vegoe You know, last year he got going and then he breaks his collarbone and kind of a lost season. 11:37 Vegoe This year, he's kind of struggling, has that upper body injury, takes him out of the lineup again, just hard to get back into it. 11:44 Vegoe And so, I think he's a player that needed a little good vibes from the weekend to maybe add to his game. 11:50 Vegoe And you know, with those RVH goalies now, that's a great place to shoot the puck and, you know, he took advantage of it there. 11:57 Cappy God, I hate that. 12:00 Cappy I really do. 12:01 Cappy I mean, even if he doesn't score there, if he shoots it low, I think it just creates a second chance a lot better. 12:09 Cappy Or, you know, just a loose puck in the crease. 12:12 Cappy I just, look, I'm no goalie, never have been, but it just doesn't seem like... 12:17 Cappy It creates more problems from those side angle shots than I've ever saw in the last 20 years, what's been happening the last five to seven. 12:26 Jûpe That one, if he would have missed the goalie's head, it would have come up and probably hit the netting above me and come down and hit me, because I was right in that corner shooting. 12:34 Cappy Oh, you got a big shot of it, huh? 12:36 Jûpe Yeah, I had pretty good, decent video of it, so it turned out pretty well. 12:40 Jûpe I didn't get the shot, but everyone's like, well, why is the goalie ducking his head? 12:44 Jûpe Well, it happened so quick. 12:45 Jûpe You see a puck come out of your face, you're naturally going to duck, and he just couldn't get his head out of the way in time and just banging in the net. 12:52 Jûpe So but Paulson will take it, Veegs, definitely he'll take it. 12:57 Vegoe Yeah, I think Minnesota needs help at center. 12:59 Vegoe That's why Brody Lamb moved there. 13:01 Vegoe Paulson is a guy who they expected to come in and perform. 13:05 Vegoe He's a high scoring player for Dubuque in the USHL with Becca Hendrickson. 13:09 Vegoe They went to the Clark Cup Final together. 13:11 Vegoe And you know, they could they could use him to find some traction as Bob likes to say lately. 13:17 Jûpe Now, as a former college hockey player, Cappy, what kind of balls would it have taken for you to try what Zeamer tried on Saturday night between the legs? 13:30 Jûpe Because I've always come to the feeling, you know, wow, what a goal between the legs. 13:36 Jûpe Great. 13:38 Jûpe I'm always thinking, gosh, if I miss that, I'm back to the bench. 13:43 Jûpe So as a former player, that is risky. 13:47 Cappy It's risky, but I'm assuming that he's done it a lot in practice. 13:53 Cappy I mean, that's like these guys do this. 13:56 Cappy They see it now. 13:57 Cappy That's not an irregular play kind of now. 14:00 Cappy It's kind of like the Michigan. 14:02 Cappy It's happened a bunch of times. 14:04 Cappy You look like a fool. 14:05 Cappy I feel like what if you trip over your own stick or something, right? 14:09 Cappy So extreme confidence for Zemer to go for it. 14:14 Cappy But honestly, these guys, I was playing stick hockey with my nephew the other morning and he was, now we weren't on the ice, but he was just doing it nonchalantly. 14:23 Cappy He was nine and he's not known for his stick handling. 14:26 Cappy So it's like these kids now, they see videos or they, you know, and then one kid's doing it in practice. 14:31 Cappy They start doing it. 14:33 Cappy Brody's probably done that a million times, right? 14:35 Cappy So I'm thinking as far as me, like that nobody was trying that 20 years ago. 14:41 Cappy Nobody, you never saw anyone try that hockey. 14:43 Cappy Now you're seeing it more. 14:44 Cappy So guys are trying it more. 14:46 Cappy They're practicing it in their breakaways in practice. 14:50 Cappy So like, he probably just felt like, you know, but I got the right momentum. 14:54 Cappy You know, you're coming in that right angle for him as a right shot. 14:58 Cappy He's like, what can go wrong here? 15:01 Cappy I guess, other than Bob getting really mad at me and I'll get by with that. 15:05 Vegoe Well, the funny thing is we asked Brody about it today at availability. 15:08 Vegoe And he said, you know, we kind of saw the scouting report on the goalie that he might slide quick and so that you could try something fancy like that, because the goalie would get so aggressive on moves across the crease. 15:20 Cappy Yeah. 15:20 Cappy So we just kind of had it. 15:22 Vegoe Yeah. 15:22 Vegoe So he just kind of had it in the back of his mind that, maybe I'll try that if we get in that situation. 15:27 Jûpe And Veegs, you know, a certain Gopher did do it around 20 years ago. 15:32 Jûpe Kyle Oposa did that at Mankato State at the time. 15:37 Jûpe And he did tweet it, retweet the video with the old eyeballs like this. 15:43 Cappy That's great. 15:43 Jûpe He's like, yeah, I've been there and done that. 15:45 Jûpe So I thought that was cool that Kyle Oposa kind of gave him a little shout out. 15:50 Vegoe Oh, for sure. 15:50 Vegoe That's going to be in the lore of Wisconsin, Minnesota for a long time. 15:55 Vegoe And I think that's why players like to play for these programs and play in these rivalry games. 15:59 Vegoe They get a moment to make a memory for everybody with that kind of stuff. 16:05 Jûpe So it was a big weekend, Penn State to Michigan State, Cappy. 16:12 Jûpe Michigan State pretty much kind of, they swept them, five out of six points at Penn State. 16:20 Jûpe So I think Penn State got a little humbled after being a little cocky against the Badgers. 16:24 Jûpe Right. 16:25 Jûpe Outdoor game looked like a lot of fun to me. 16:31 Jûpe You guys had the chicklets guys and everything covering that. 16:34 Jûpe So it's a big deal for Big Ten. 16:37 Cappy Yeah. 16:37 Cappy I mean, the crowd was great. 16:38 Cappy You saw it. 16:39 Cappy I think it was a slow, I don't want to say slow arriving, but it slowly filled up in the spots. 16:45 Cappy Look, 75,000 people. 16:48 Cappy That's a lot of people to watch hockey game. 16:53 Cappy And especially in that area, that school is out on an island. 17:00 Cappy It's in the middle of nowhere. 17:01 Cappy It's a beautiful campus. 17:02 Cappy It's a big campus. 17:03 Cappy And obviously, they have a lot of people around. 17:07 Cappy But that's like a football crowd for what they did. 17:10 Cappy And a lot of people come in from a lot of different areas of Pennsylvania for those football games. 17:16 Cappy So I think it had that feeling of that, you know, the tailgate. 17:19 Cappy It was a little cold for that. 17:21 Cappy But I, you know, the Big Ten has been doing a great job with these outdoor games. 17:26 Cappy You know, Wrigley last year, you had Ohio State, Michigan and Cleveland the year, a couple of years back. 17:31 Cappy I'm assuming it's going to keep happening. 17:34 Cappy I want, you know, I want Minnesota to get involved in one. 17:37 Cappy Like it's just been a while for them. 17:41 Cappy And, you know, they're they look, say whatever you want. 17:44 Cappy They're they've been the carriers of the league since it became one from the for the most part. 17:51 Cappy Yes. 17:51 Cappy Is this not their best year? 17:52 Cappy Of course not. 17:53 Cappy But, you know, leading up to this year, they've been the the top program in the country in the Big Ten for the the duration of the years of it. 18:02 Cappy So keep pumping them out. 18:05 Cappy I outdoor games are great. 18:07 Cappy I thought the scene was great. 18:08 Cappy I thought the hockey was really good. 18:10 Cappy You know, those are some really nice goals out there. 18:13 Cappy You don't see those. 18:14 Cappy So I think it all went well. 18:18 Cappy You know, you throw in the the Chicklets guys here and there. 18:20 Cappy It was funny that that the what's his name? 18:23 Cappy Grinnell was out in the stands doing his little thing when McKenna scored his goal. 18:28 Cappy And I actually think it was kind of fun. 18:30 Cappy Like it just happened. 18:31 Cappy And oh, well, you know, the, you know, Dan didn't get to call it. 18:35 Cappy But, you know, kind of organically just kind of worked. 18:38 Cappy I thought, you know, I didn't think it was that gimmicky to me. 18:40 Cappy So I thought it was a, you know, a long game, which you expect. 18:44 Cappy I mean, it was over three hours and 20 minutes. 18:47 Cappy But, you know, it had the football vibe to it. 18:50 Cappy So you got a football length game. 18:52 Jûpe And Michigan State's definitely happy to come away with five out of six points on the weekend. 18:56 Cappy And they took 10 out of 12 from Penn State. 19:00 Cappy They have 4-0 with two overtime losses this year. 19:03 Cappy So, you know, Michigan State had Penn State's number this season. 19:10 Jûpe Yeah, so that's good for Michigan State, Veegs. 19:12 Jûpe They've been solid all year. 19:15 Jûpe But then Saturday night at a local establishment, Veegs, it looks like Mr. 19:22 Jûpe McKenna got in some trouble. 19:26 Jûpe Some charges brought against him for assaults. 19:29 Jûpe It's sounding like somebody might have said something about his mother in person or something like that. 19:34 Jûpe That's the rumors. 19:36 Jûpe We don't know. 19:38 Jûpe Either way, he's in some legal issues right now. 19:42 Vegoe Yeah, Penn State to State Penn, I believe is the line that we're going with on McKenna. 19:48 Jûpe Penn State to State Penn. 19:49 Jûpe Yeah, that's wow. 19:52 Vegoe You have to think that a player with as higher profile as Gavin McKenna would understand the microscope he's under. 20:02 Vegoe And I'm sure this is going to hurt him in his next spot and whatever it is. 20:09 Vegoe You just have to understand that, you know, it's a privilege to have the opportunity that he has. 20:15 Vegoe And regardless of what someone is saying to you, I imagine he's not all by himself. 20:20 Vegoe I imagine he's with his teammates. 20:22 Vegoe So you think his teammates would maybe kind of pull him back as well. 20:25 Vegoe But this is just kind of behavior that you can't expect to get away with. 20:30 Vegoe And there's going to be some consequences for him that he's going to have to deal with regardless of the circumstances. 20:37 Jûpe Thoughts, Cappy? 20:39 Cappy Yeah, I don't know what's full of the truth. 20:43 Cappy Obviously, the charges are the charges. 20:45 Cappy You don't know what's actually happened. 20:48 Cappy You know, some guy I saw was quoted saying he was there and watched as, you know, it kind of was with his family is what some of the report, you know, was saying. 20:58 Cappy So, you know, I don't know. 21:01 Cappy Look, families, that's a tough one. 21:03 Cappy I've never, you know, if certain things were said that were reported, it's really, that's a really tough situation. 21:11 Cappy I know, you know, of course, he's got responsibilities and everything. 21:15 Cappy But, you know, family is pretty important, too. 21:18 Cappy So, look, I'm sure he would take it back right now in a second. 21:23 Cappy But, you know, I guess you got to, like, until we know everything. 21:29 Cappy I, you know, I can't really speculate. 21:32 Cappy So you just, you know, it's I guess this has happened at the best time for them being off this weekend. 21:40 Cappy Or maybe it isn't because then it's going to be more focused. 21:42 Cappy I don't know. 21:43 Cappy Or, you know, we'll see what the league will do. 21:46 Cappy Will he get suspended? 21:47 Cappy Maybe I, you know, who knows? 21:49 Cappy Or is it something that you wait till the legal things come out? 21:53 Cappy I mean, there's a lot of questions with that, with with all of this right now. 21:56 Jûpe That could take months, too. 21:58 Cappy I sure I think, right. 21:59 Vegoe I think typically these schools do not act on anything until there's something official. 22:05 Cappy Right. 22:05 Cappy Well, I'm saying I'm talking about the league more than the. 22:08 Vegoe Yeah. 22:08 Vegoe And I've seen the league kind of stay out of this kind of stuff. 22:11 Vegoe The schools have stayed out of these kind of situations and let the schools handle it themselves, because this is not an on-the-ice discipline type situation. 22:20 Vegoe When that's where the league, I think, would step in with a little more authority. 22:24 Vegoe And I think we've seen some cases in College Hockey in the past where, you know, teams haven't been very quick to act on this kind of stuff. 22:33 Jûpe Matthew Deet's arraignment is February 11th. 22:37 Jûpe That's also a Canadian and visa issue. 22:39 Cappy A week from today. 22:41 Cappy Yeah, that's another thing. 22:42 Cappy He's not an American. 22:45 Cappy So that makes it a little bit of a thing, too. 22:48 Jûpe We don't know. 22:49 Jûpe We're just we're just we're just talking about it. 22:52 Jûpe You know, sure. 22:53 Cappy No, I mean, we'll just we'll have to see what happens. 22:56 Cappy Like, look, we've never had a guy get the amount of attention he's gotten before ever to come into college hockey. 23:02 Cappy Everyone knows with the NIL and the money and everything. 23:05 Cappy Look, he was just, you know, the Chiclets guys come in last week pretty much to do a show with him and cheering for Penn State the whole time. 23:14 Cappy Grow the game. 23:15 Cappy Yeah, you know, that was, you know, look, I don't I think they just were giving those guys time. 23:22 Cappy You can tell that do your thing for those three minutes. 23:25 Cappy You know, as long as they kept it within PG 13, I think they were going to be happy with whatever they put out. 23:32 Cappy But yeah, it just, that's obviously what put it. 23:36 Cappy I mean, look, ESPN is reporting on it. 23:38 Cappy I mean, you know, it's a big thing. 23:41 Cappy And that's a quick turn. 23:43 Cappy I guess arraignment, arraignment is pretty kind of just a matter of not a matter of fact. 23:48 Cappy It makes it official, right? 23:49 Cappy Like, it's not like there's going to be, you know, a decision made or anything like that. 23:54 Cappy But you're right. 23:55 Cappy It's going to take months probably after the season's over, I would think. 24:00 Jûpe It could be something where, you know, he has a trial and he's already at some NHL camp or something like that. 24:07 Jûpe Yeah, because it usually takes it takes a lot. 24:10 Jûpe It takes forever to do everything in the legal system. 24:15 Vegoe Yeah, I mean, it's going to be an ongoing thing for the rest of the season, I bet, for Penn State, and it's going to be a huge distraction for them. 24:22 Vegoe And we'll have to wait and see. 24:27 Jûpe Interesting, to say the least. 24:28 Jûpe I mean, it just happened, folks. 24:30 Jûpe So we'll keep talking about it. 24:33 Jûpe You know, we've got Tim Bruehle on the show next week from uscho.com. 24:39 Jûpe Maybe we'll have some news by then. 24:41 Jûpe Obviously, his site comes out. 24:43 Cappy It'll be right after the arraignment next week on the 11th. 24:48 Jûpe So that will be something. 24:51 Jûpe It will definitely be interesting. 24:54 Jûpe Well, before we move on here, we need to talk about one of our new sponsors, Veex Cascade CBX Sport. 25:02 Jûpe And they've got a lot of cool stuff going on right now, don't they? 25:05 Vegoe They sure do. 25:06 Vegoe We've got a special offer here. 25:08 Vegoe You can visit cascadecbxsport.com/team. 25:13 Vegoe And for a low, low price of five bucks with free shipping, you can get a 300-milligram sample jar. 25:19 Vegoe This sample jar retails for 25 bucks. 25:22 Vegoe But CascadeCBX is in startup mode. 25:24 Vegoe They're trying to build more believers. 25:26 Vegoe So they're betting on themselves. 25:28 Vegoe And they want you to try it. 25:30 Vegoe So $5 free shipping. 25:32 Vegoe You know, I've been coaching all year. 25:34 Vegoe I've got some sore muscles. 25:35 Vegoe I've been putting this on me. 25:39 Vegoe It's got a cooling menthol kind of feel to it. 25:41 Vegoe And, you know, it's a miracle substance. 25:43 Vegoe It's safe. 25:45 Vegoe It's been tested. 25:46 Vegoe So it's NSF certified. 25:48 Vegoe It's free of 300 band substances. 25:50 Vegoe It's the first choice of athletes to manage pain and reduce inflammation. 25:54 Vegoe Check it out. 25:56 Vegoe Cascade CVX Sport. 25:58 Jûpe And actually, this is one of those things that you can get for $5 here, Veegs. 26:03 Vegoe Hack of a deal. 26:04 Vegoe It's good for the aches and pains. 26:05 Jûpe It totally is. 26:06 Jûpe I've been starting to use it on my knees. 26:08 Jûpe And it's been working pretty well myself. 26:11 Jûpe So I'll definitely vouch for that. 26:15 Jûpe All right, Veegs, we need to talk about your top 20. 26:19 Jûpe Give me just a second here to bring up the right screens. 26:25 Jûpe So much going on, so much going on. 26:28 Vegoe Well, not a lot going on at the top. 26:30 Vegoe You know, Michigan and Michigan State look really, really solid. 26:33 Jûpe Oh, gosh, yes. 26:35 Vegoe They're going to be kind of right there, I think all the way till the end. 26:38 Vegoe Wisconsin, you know, their freefall, they're dropping in my poll, they're dropping in my API. 26:46 Vegoe Chancellor team time for them. 26:50 Jûpe Jeez, they're happy there. 26:52 Jûpe I muted them. 26:54 Vegoe Thank you. 26:55 Vegoe Little technical difficulties there because he doesn't see Ohio State in the top 20. 27:01 Jûpe I keep muting them. 27:03 Vegoe It's all right. 27:04 Vegoe Penn State, you know, I dropped them just a little bit. 27:07 Vegoe It's kind of matching their MPI, you know, Michigan State's a tough team to play against, so it's hard to dig them too much. 27:13 Vegoe I swapped North Dakota and Western here in my top five, and that kind of seems like a solidified group there, that top five. 27:21 Vegoe Once you get past that, things are a little bit more volatile. 27:28 Jûpe Especially Michigan down. 27:30 Jûpe I'm just kind of looking over your list here. 27:32 Jûpe St. 27:32 Jûpe Thomas down a little bit. 27:34 Jûpe St. 27:35 Jûpe Thomas had won a ton of budget games in a row, too, hadn't they? 27:38 Vegoe Yeah, St. 27:39 Vegoe Thomas is playing pretty well. 27:41 Vegoe You know, they've, you know, moved past Augustana and the MPI. 27:44 Vegoe They moved past me in the poll. 27:46 Vegoe Michigan Tech, you know, after their loss to Northern Michigan, they split again with UST. 27:52 Vegoe You know, they've dropped out of my top 20. 27:54 Vegoe Maine is another team that dropped out of my top 20. 27:57 Vegoe They lost in overtime to Providence, kind of gave away a game there. 28:03 Vegoe You know, we'll see what's going to happen here. 28:05 Vegoe Yeah. 28:06 Vegoe The one thing I look at with my top 20 is that Dartmouth, Cornell, Quinnipiac, their strength of schedules are all terrible. 28:17 Vegoe You know, Quinnipiac's 49th, Cornell's 44, Dartmouth 54th. 28:22 Jûpe Bringing up the MPI while you're talking there. 28:25 Vegoe So yeah, it's just they have not played very challenging schedules. 28:29 Vegoe You know, you compare it to Denver, their eighth in strength of schedule, Wisconsin, their seventh, Minnesota first, heck even Arizona State, their fourth in strength of schedule. 28:39 Vegoe And so it's just a big disparity. 28:41 Vegoe I'll be interested to see if the ECAC teams can hang on here in the MPI and get that large bid because they kind of keep dropping down just a little bit here and there. 28:52 Vegoe As we saw with Michigan Tech, if you have a bad loss to somebody, you know, in the 40s or 50s, the MPI can really impact you. 28:59 Jûpe Yep. 29:00 Jûpe Looks like Cappy's coming in on a second line here. 29:03 Jûpe What have we got going here? 29:04 Jûpe Look at this. 29:05 Cappy Bro, man, technical difficulties there. 29:09 Cappy I just couldn't handle being around for Vegoe's top 20. 29:14 Cappy Oh, I'm kidding. 29:16 Vegoe No Ohio State in there this time. 29:17 Vegoe So where are they in the MPI? 29:19 Cappy It's like October. 29:20 Jûpe So where is Ohio State in the MPI? 29:22 Cappy Apologize for that. 29:27 Vegoe Look at that. 29:27 Jûpe And then he freezes up. 29:33 Cappy So, you know, you got me here, Phil? 29:38 Jûpe We hear you. 29:39 Jûpe We don't see you anymore. 29:44 Jûpe Yeah, we can. 29:44 Jûpe Can you hear us? 29:48 Jûpe Look at this. 29:50 Jûpe Oh, he's muting himself. 29:54 Jûpe Can you hear us? 29:56 Jûpe Yeah, I'll mute him because otherwise there he goes. 29:59 Vegoe He's got some he's got some different mics around, probably. 30:02 Vegoe He's got his AirPods in his pocket. 30:04 Vegoe Who knows? 30:06 Vegoe You know, you'd think by this part of the season, we'd have these things ironed out by like his 18th show. 30:11 Jûpe You'd have it figured out. 30:20 Vegoe Thanks, Moche. 30:23 Jûpe That made my day right there. 30:25 Jûpe Okay, wait, I see him. 30:28 Jûpe He's coming back. 30:28 Vegoe Look at it. 30:31 Cappy I don't know what's going on, fellows. 30:32 Cappy I apologize for this. 30:33 Jûpe Ridiculously. 30:35 Cappy I don't know what's going on. 30:37 Cappy Vegoe disappeared off my screen on that last shot, so I don't know what's happening here. 30:42 Jûpe I was just gonna say, you've only done this like, I want to say that's your 18th appearance. 30:46 Cappy And I have the same stuff. 30:48 Cappy Maybe that's the problem, is it getting old, too old to use? 30:51 Cappy I don't know. 30:51 Jûpe I doubt it. 30:53 Vegoe Well, I've heard that about Ohio State's facilities, is that they're aging. 30:57 Vegoe They don't quite fit the modern era, so. 31:00 Cappy That's what, well, I mean, the building they're in was built in 1998. 31:04 Cappy So not exactly like, you know, it's newer than Mariucci. 31:08 Vegoe Not exactly built for hockey though, Cappy, is what I'm getting at. 31:11 Cappy I understand that. 31:12 Cappy So no, I mean, on it, okay. 31:14 Cappy So I, you know, no breaking news, but I have positive news that at any, I was told, hidden sources, anonymous sources, that at any moment, an announcement may be coming about the plans. 31:32 Cappy Now, that could be in, I don't know when that could be, but I've never heard that before. 31:39 Cappy You know what I mean? 31:41 Cappy Like, there will always be like the hope and all this stuff, but I've never heard that like an actual announcement could be made. 31:49 Cappy Now, that could be happening this week or a month or whatever, but I've never heard that said from a very reputable source. 31:57 Cappy So. 32:00 Jûpe That wouldn't that be wonderful, Veegs? 32:01 Cappy That's all I got. 32:03 Jûpe They need it. 32:05 Vegoe They could use it. 32:06 Vegoe As we talked to players about playing Big Ten opponents, the Ohio State atmosphere is the one that always gets the worst reviews. 32:15 Vegoe And because that building is just very big and the hockey fandom is maybe not as passionate as some other schools, it just makes it a challenging place to play. 32:25 Vegoe And I imagine it's a challenging place to play for at times. 32:29 Vegoe And the women's team, I mean, they deserve top notch facilities with the job that that program does year in and year out. 32:36 Vegoe You know, they deserve a building where they can have a good crowd and a good atmosphere. 32:41 Vegoe And we've seen in college hockey, you know, a four to six thousand seat building is perfect for men and women. 32:48 Vegoe You know, that's a building where it can be a pretty good atmosphere for any game. 32:52 Vegoe And I think that's where a lot of schools should be moving to. 32:56 Cappy Yeah, everything that I've heard of and when we had alumni Zoom last, I'd say maybe like this time of year and the AD was on it. 33:06 Cappy Ross Bjork was on this call about it. 33:09 Cappy And the arena sound like, and I would recommend this, too, is make it almost identical to Notre Dame, where it's about four, low four thousands. 33:20 Cappy But with the catwalk above the stands there on a big crowd, a Big Ten Championship or Michigan Weekend, where you have more than people than you have receipts, you can add maybe 500 to a thousand more people in standing room up on that top shelf. 33:39 Cappy So it enables you to get up, you know, squeeze in more people for those really high profile games, but also keep it at a tight, you know, where it's an important, hard to get ticket for a lot of them, at least the Big Ten season, especially the second half of the year. 33:54 Cappy Because last weekend, for almost every year against Michigan, they had nine, 10,000 people there, and the students were there. 34:01 Cappy I mean, that winged helmet brings people in at Ohio State no matter what the sport. 34:06 Cappy So yeah, I mean, it'd be huge. 34:09 Cappy And I mean, the women's team and what Nadine Muzerol is doing there. 34:12 Cappy They had 13 skaters last weekend and swept Duluth with ease. 34:17 Cappy They had eight forwards and five D because they had six or seven or eight players already left for the Olympics. 34:23 Cappy So I mean, the women's team alone should get a rink. 34:27 Cappy But obviously for both, both it's just a huge thing. 34:31 Cappy If and when hopefully that's announced any day, hopefully. 34:36 Cappy Yes. 34:37 Cappy If you're doing that, if you're doing that, Joop, imagine what I'm doing. 34:42 Jûpe I completely get it, you know, but you know, I understand you got a huge arena. 34:46 Jûpe If you were to fill that place every night, it would be great. 34:48 Jûpe But it's just, it's just not something that's going to happen, you know, at Ohio State at this point. 34:54 Cappy No, no, I mean, you want it more intimate, to be honest. 34:58 Cappy Like Notre Dame is when that place is rocking, like those first couple of years, they were in the Big Ten. 35:04 Cappy They had a couple of Big Ten championship games there. 35:07 Cappy I mean, that's the scene you want. 35:08 Cappy I mean, you know, Munn's seat is about, what, 6,000, they get in there, and the Big Ten championship has been just amazing. 35:17 Cappy Mariucci was against Michigan a couple of years. 35:20 Cappy Obviously, a little bigger, but you guys, I mean, you don't have any problem filling that up for those games. 35:26 Cappy So, I like the intimate feeling. 35:28 Cappy It's college. 35:29 Cappy It's not supposed to be a giant place. 35:31 Cappy It's supposed to be an intimate, loud, the band pumping, the student section going. 35:36 Cappy That's what you want. 35:39 Cappy So, hopefully, it gets done. 35:43 Cappy But it's the closest I've ever heard the conversation, let's put it that way. 35:47 Cappy Nothing official, but it's as close as I've ever heard it to being official. 35:53 Jûpe I'm really glad to hear that. 35:54 Jûpe So, fingers crossed, definitely for you, Cappy, and for Ohio State. 36:02 Jûpe Maybe less the men than the women, because the women play in a practice rink. 36:11 Cappy Yeah. 36:11 Cappy I mean, honestly, that's even more credit to Piggy. 36:14 Cappy She's able to recruit what she recruits there. 36:17 Cappy Obviously, there's a lot of things that Ohio State brings to the table, aside from practicing and playing on that ice. 36:24 Cappy They do have great facilities to train in and all that. 36:27 Cappy But, you're not getting what Wisconsin and what Minnesota and what Penn State now even. 36:33 Cappy I mean, that's amazing right now, right? 36:35 Cappy In the women's game, as the top four teams are the Big Ten teams in women's hockey. 36:42 Cappy You know, Penn State has climbed their way up to be in the top four. 36:45 Cappy So, yeah, no, it'll be, you know, something that you hope happens and it'll be great for the school and for the Big Ten. 36:53 Cappy I think it's just a better venue makes the league better too, right? 36:57 Cappy It's all around, wins all around for the league and for the school. 37:01 Jûpe And like Cappy said, Veegs, it's the same thing for Notre Dame. 37:04 Jûpe Remember, Notre Dame played in a place where there was a large curtain going, dividing age. 37:09 Cappy I love playing at that place. 37:11 Jûpe But you might have loved playing there, but I had good games there. 37:14 Cappy So I don't know if I loved playing there, but I had good games there. 37:20 Vegoe It's just a feel the acoustics with the curtain. 37:22 Vegoe You've just felt more artistic or something. 37:24 Vegoe But I do think the Big Ten is a place that does well in college hockey because they invest. 37:30 Vegoe I think when people have been transferring in the Big Ten, there have been Big Ten school to Big Ten school transfers because they're used to the lifestyle, the chartered flights, the nice hotels, the catered meals, the personal trainer like vibe that you get as an athlete at a Big Ten school and being on a big stage. 37:49 Vegoe When I look at the revenue and expense numbers across college hockey, all the Big Ten schools are in the top 12. 37:57 Vegoe No other conference has that. 37:58 Cappy You very rarely get to say, no, we don't have that if you ask for something at a Big Ten school. 38:06 Cappy If you came from RPI or Riley Thompson came from Alaska. 38:13 Cappy You know what I mean? 38:15 Cappy Everyone's got it pretty nice as a College Division I athlete, but when you come to certain places, Big Ten and the North Dakotas and the BCs, you generally don't say you ever hear get say, no, we don't have that. 38:31 Jûpe Well, like I said, let's just keep the positivity going on. 38:35 Cappy Let's go back to talking about the series. 38:37 Jûpe No, no, totally. 38:39 Jûpe Before we do that though, we do have another sponsor to talk about and Cub Foods, Veegs, definitely your place. 38:48 Jûpe And there's a certain game this weekend that people might want to get stocked up for the big game. 38:54 Vegoe If you're getting ready for the big game this weekend, I highly recommend checking out Cub. 38:59 Vegoe They are one of us. 39:00 Vegoe They're based in Minnesota. 39:01 Vegoe They support Minnesota Athletics. 39:04 Vegoe You see the Dickey Town Athletes, the NIL stuff. 39:07 Vegoe Cub is involved. 39:08 Vegoe They're on PJ Flex headset. 39:10 Vegoe They sponsor our podcast. 39:12 Vegoe And right now, head on down to your local Cub. 39:14 Vegoe Stock up for the game. 39:15 Vegoe I went down there this week. 39:16 Vegoe I got a bunch of chicken wings. 39:18 Vegoe They're going in my wet brine here tomorrow night. 39:21 Vegoe I'll get them ready for the game on Sunday and they will be delicious. 39:25 Vegoe And I know if I need anything else to supplement my meal, I can go down to Cub or I can check it out at cub.com. 39:30 Vegoe Shop happy. 39:31 Vegoe Shop Cub. 39:33 Jûpe All right. 39:34 Jûpe What's this brine you got going? 39:37 Jûpe Yeah. 39:37 Vegoe So I got some salt. 39:38 Vegoe I got some brown sugar. 39:39 Vegoe I got some garlic powder. 39:42 Vegoe I've got some Frank's red hot sauce in there. 39:44 Vegoe I've got some Tabasco in there. 39:45 Vegoe I've got some garlic cloves. 39:47 Vegoe I got a couple of jalapenos in there. 39:49 Vegoe And you just let that sit overnight, like 12 hours. 39:53 Vegoe Then you take it out, you pat it down with paper towels. 39:55 Vegoe You put it on your sheet with the wire rim rack on top. 40:00 Vegoe You let it dry out in the fridge overnight. 40:02 Vegoe So it's a two day process. 40:04 Vegoe And then you bake it up. 40:05 Vegoe Well, first you got to get some cornstarch on there and some baking powder. 40:09 Vegoe So it gets crispy skin. 40:11 Vegoe Coat that up. 40:12 Vegoe And then you cook it real quick in the oven for about 25, 40 minutes. 40:15 Vegoe And you're good to go. 40:17 Vegoe Toss in some hot sauce with some butter. 40:19 Jûpe Oh, man. 40:22 Jûpe I'm sweating just thinking about it. 40:23 Cappy When are these available? 40:25 Vegoe Sunday after my kids' hockey game, which goes till kickoff. 40:29 Cappy Sunday skates. 40:32 Cappy Ready to warm up for the Super Bowl. 40:34 Vegoe I'm going to burn some calories, at least the kids do. 40:36 Jûpe Well, Veegs had a skate last Saturday night. 40:40 Jûpe It was at 9.15 Veegs, one of your own games. 40:43 Vegoe Yeah, I had a kids' game in the morning, kids' game in the afternoon, Gopher game at night. 40:48 Vegoe And then I headed over to New Hope Ice Arena for a little skate with a men's group that I've been playing with a little bit as a sub. 40:56 Vegoe One point on the power play with that group and a big shutout win for us. 40:59 Vegoe So it was a good time. 41:01 Cappy I have a good question with a late skate. 41:03 Cappy So your game ends at what, about 10, 20, 30. 41:06 Cappy You hang out a little bit with the guys. 41:08 Cappy When do you actually get tired? 41:11 Cappy Because like I played those late games and you're tired, but you can't fall asleep. 41:17 Cappy Oh, you need that tired, but like you're fully can't like what time you finally fall asleep on Saturday. 41:25 Vegoe Yeah, I call it tired, but wired. 41:27 Cappy Right. 41:27 Vegoe I fell asleep about one o'clock. 41:29 Cappy Yeah, that's not so bad. 41:30 Vegoe It's not so bad. 41:31 Vegoe I had a little cascade CBX Sport on the sore muscles and it was calmed down eventually. 41:37 Cappy So not you're getting good at the bigs. 41:39 Cappy You're getting really good at this. 41:42 Cappy I you know, you're going to get a contract. 41:45 Cappy Do some commercials on TV sometimes soon, I think. 41:49 Jûpe I know you're the you're the TV superstar here. 41:51 Cappy That's why I'm saying I'm hearing this and I'm like, he's starting to kind of get smooth and and do all the TV type of stuff like you'll get a lot of TV time once you're the Commissioner of College Hockey, right Veegs? 42:05 Vegoe Yeah, someday when you know, we get the home sites for the regionals and all that. 42:09 Cappy It's it's sorely needed. 42:12 Cappy I honestly, I nominated, you know, we were talking about it was Fred Pletch and in all seriousness too, like because he's he's got a little experience in it. 42:21 Cappy We ran the CCHA the last couple of years before, you know, the CCHA ended and obviously the Big Ten was created. 42:28 Cappy But I think it's needed. 42:31 Cappy And I mean, this is needed in a lot of things like that. 42:34 Cappy The whole NIL thing with football and all that. 42:36 Cappy But I think college hockey, you know, in the Big Ten, you know, we kind of have a commissioner, but it's not a full time gig. 42:45 Cappy So, you know, it would it would be nice. 42:48 Cappy Yeah. 42:50 Cappy That's sad about the on campus site thing because it kind of lost all its steam, to be honest, like sadly. 42:56 Cappy And, you know, David Carl was such a great leader of that. 43:00 Cappy Like, who else would you want to be leading the way on that? 43:04 Cappy And I'm not saying it's dead, dead forever. 43:07 Cappy But, you know, obviously, it's just kind of lost a ton of steam lately. 43:10 Jûpe Well, it loses steam because they have to do. 43:12 Cappy But they're not residing it. 43:14 Jûpe Yeah, they have to do renewal, renewals. 43:15 Jûpe I mean, we know what the next two, a couple of frozen fours are. 43:18 Jûpe But, you know, there's another renewal coming up here. 43:20 Cappy Veegs with regional sites, right? 43:23 Jûpe That's and regional sites. 43:24 Jûpe That's that's all coming up. 43:25 Cappy Or is there going to always happen? 43:27 Cappy That's that part's not changing. 43:28 Jûpe Yeah, I know. 43:30 Jûpe But they still, right now, we've got the next two years planned out. 43:33 Jûpe But then, what do you do after that? 43:37 Jûpe Then that's where we need to keep Mr. 43:40 Jûpe Carl in the discussion, don't we, Veegs? 43:42 Cappy We sure do. 43:42 Vegoe And I would happily work for Fred Plunch if he was the commissioner. 43:46 Vegoe And I could, you know, kind of learn the world a little bit. 43:48 Vegoe I could be deputy. 43:50 Vegoe Yeah, I could do social. 43:51 Vegoe You know, we could do social media. 43:54 Cappy Where do we do like, where do we get like the election, the campaign going? 44:00 Cappy How do we get that? 44:02 Cappy Jupe, I think you've got to be the leader of that. 44:04 Jûpe No, no, no. 44:05 Cappy You're the social media king. 44:06 Jûpe I've got enough going on here. 44:09 Vegoe We got to get John King's new company best on best. 44:12 Vegoe There you go. 44:12 Vegoe Some PR. 44:13 Vegoe Jake Ricker, I know he's working with them. 44:16 Vegoe So, you know, I talked to Fred the other day when, when he was in town for, Oh, right. 44:21 Vegoe For the Michigan game. 44:22 Cappy And yeah, you know, I just talked with him. 44:25 Cappy He just has so well he's been in hockey for so long, you know, so many people. 44:29 Cappy He has a ton of great relationships, which is a huge part of that. 44:34 Cappy And like I said, he has experience to like a lot of people say they could do it, but they don't have any actual experience in it. 44:41 Cappy You don't know. 44:43 Cappy You have an idea of what you think is going on, but you don't know it like except for being in the role. 44:47 Cappy So I think that is a thing that actually would help them, too. 44:50 Cappy But yeah, I would be great. 44:53 Cappy It just brings some conformity to things and a final say to things, I think, which would help. 44:58 Cappy And the whole on-campus thing. 45:03 Cappy I talked about it with guys in the locker room at Men's League Skates, and everybody wants to see that. 45:10 Jûpe Well, not everybody, Veegs. 45:14 Cappy Well, yes, buddy, that's not, I don't even know who doesn't. 45:19 Cappy I mean, to be honest, who are the actual, I don't know. 45:22 Jûpe I think Bob's one. 45:24 Cappy He, did he still? 45:26 Cappy I mean, I don't even think they're mine. 45:27 Vegoe Bob doesn't want to stick out his neck on us. 45:28 Jûpe And that's just it. 45:29 Vegoe Because he'll get blamed for it either way. 45:30 Vegoe Exactly. 45:31 Vegoe He's wise enough to know, I'm not going to go wrestle in the mud on this issue, because whatever I say, I'm going to get people that will just say the opposite. 45:40 Vegoe He doesn't mind Fargo and Sioux Falls, that's fine. 45:43 Vegoe He wishes there were better solutions, but he's not going to waste his capital on this debate. 45:50 Jûpe I really thought we'd get some questioning last year with Penn State as the four seed, Maine coming in as a one seed. 45:56 Jûpe They had to go to basically a home game for Penn State. 46:00 Cappy Yeah. 46:01 Cappy Well, I mean, that's going to be similar this year with North Dakota, obviously is going to be in Sioux Falls. 46:07 Cappy Denver is where we're looking at right now. 46:10 Cappy Could be, they could be a three, but what if they end up being a four seed? 46:14 Cappy And then you're going to have Michigan. 46:16 Cappy What are they going to do? 46:18 Cappy Are you going to put Michigan or Michigan State out there? 46:22 Cappy If you're number one or overall seed, going to play pretty much a road game. 46:27 Cappy I was in Loveland three years ago and Denver was the number one seed, but they, the barn was sold out for their two games. 46:34 Cappy It was a complete home game. 46:35 Cappy It was a great atmosphere. 46:37 Cappy It was exactly like Allentown for Penn State. 46:40 Cappy But are you going to put the number, Penn State or Michigan was not the number one overall seed? 46:44 Jûpe They were not. 46:45 Jûpe They were number three. 46:46 Cappy Or the two. 46:47 Cappy They were three or four, right? 46:48 Jûpe They were three. 46:49 Cappy Three. 46:50 Cappy Okay. 46:50 Cappy That'll be very interesting to see how that shakes down. 46:55 Cappy Because now we'll see Denver, I don't think will end up as a four. 46:58 Cappy They're probably going to be a two or a three. 47:00 Jûpe But it's still home. 47:02 Cappy Oh, no. 47:03 Cappy It's happening. 47:03 Cappy And what if Penn State is the fourth? 47:06 Cappy Right now, it's hairline between them and Western Michigan. 47:10 Cappy So obviously, one of those teams is going to have to play, you know, Denver on home ice or whatever you want to call. 47:17 Jûpe I am thinking they would try to keep Penn State in the East, but because they're the furthest East. 47:25 Cappy You're probably getting Michigan State out there. 47:27 Cappy And, you know, at night, that team, they're like David Carl. 47:30 Cappy David Carl went out to Worcester last year or whichever place, and they came out of it. 47:37 Cappy They had to play the first game. 47:38 Cappy They were the early game. 47:39 Cappy They played, would have been like noon mountain time. 47:43 Jûpe And they took off BC. 47:44 Cappy They didn't complain. 47:45 Cappy They won and they won. 47:47 Jûpe Yep. 47:48 Cappy You know, so Michigan State seems like a team that's like that, too. 47:51 Cappy Like, we'll play wherever we have to play, but it's still a thing. 47:56 Cappy The East one's, what's, it's Albany and is it Worcester this year? 48:02 Cappy I know Albany is one of them, which is a dicey one, as always. 48:06 Cappy I don't think anyone really gets a home ice advantage in Albany. 48:10 Cappy So I could see that being where Michigan goes, honestly. 48:15 Cappy If it stays this way, obviously. 48:16 Cappy I mean, if Michigan State sweeps the series this weekend, they might move up to number one. 48:21 Jûpe It's Albany and Worcester. 48:23 Cappy Yeah. 48:23 Cappy I mean, so Worcester, maybe BC could be the 13th seed and they're the 4th seed. 48:28 Cappy And you're getting a bit of a home cooking maybe there. 48:34 Cappy It is what it is. 48:35 Cappy I mean, you got to go and play and you got to go win. 48:39 Cappy So it's the way it is for the next two years, at least. 48:44 Jûpe Yeah. 48:45 Cappy I just want to really go to Las Vegas this year. 48:51 Jûpe You just want at least one Big Ten team to make it, don't you? 48:54 Cappy Well, that might not matter this year, to be honest. 48:57 Cappy So we'll see. 48:58 Cappy It's not official, official yet. 49:01 Cappy Still waiting for the official. 49:02 Cappy It's been verbally acknowledged or whatever that possibly I could be working with ESPN for both regional and for the Frozen Four. 49:13 Jûpe Big TV superstar. 49:15 Cappy Yeah, right. 49:17 Cappy For two weeks. 49:19 Cappy No, but going back to that game that was on in October, they added that Michigan Sadius. 49:24 Cappy They did the end game, and it was one of the best games viewership-wise they've had. 49:31 Cappy So it's tough for them, I guess, to find. 49:35 Cappy I wish they could find more spots for College Hockey. 49:39 Cappy And the Big Ten obviously can't do any games unless they're the road team to some of those others. 49:45 Cappy But I'm all about growing the game. 49:48 Cappy I want Peacock to add more games. 49:50 Cappy I'd love for them to do more. 49:52 Cappy You know, hey, two weeks ago, FS1 added this game this Friday night, Michigan and Michigan State. 49:59 Cappy This was just added because of the growth and the popularity there, and they know it's going to bring a lot of viewership. 50:07 Cappy That game Friday night was not a TV game, is now on FS1 tomorrow, on Friday night. 50:13 Cappy That's a win for the league. 50:14 Cappy And I think it's going to get a ton of people, especially in the Mitten State. 50:18 Cappy So I'm all for getting more and more on TV, more viewership, grow the game, get it where you can. 50:26 Jûpe And Veegs, it's a big weekend in women's as well. 50:29 Jûpe One, two in men, one, two in women. 50:33 Jûpe It's a huge weekend. 50:34 Vegoe And then we got the Olympics coming up. 50:36 Vegoe You know, it's a great time to start a game. 50:38 Cappy Let's play tomorrow. 50:39 Jûpe Tomorrow night or tomorrow morning, 10. 50:42 Cappy Isn't that the best time? 50:44 Cappy People are playing and I'm like, dude, I'm going to get up at 10 o'clock and watch hockey. 50:48 Jûpe And I think Vosters is going to be calling some of those games, too. 50:51 Cappy Is he doing women, too, or is he just doing the men? 50:54 Cappy I think he's the second with the men. 50:57 Cappy I'm not sure exactly if he's doing any of the bosses. 50:59 Jûpe He might be cool. 51:01 Cappy But yeah, they're all calling it. 51:03 Jûpe They're calling it from a studio, but they're not there. 51:05 Jûpe But Vosters, is that true? 51:07 Cappy I thought they were going. 51:08 Cappy They're not going. 51:09 Jûpe He mentioned it one of his tweets that they were not actually there. 51:11 Cappy I thought he was. 51:12 Cappy I thought they were. 51:12 Jûpe And I think he did that, too, in the summer when he was doing the kayak stuff. 51:17 Cappy I think he was not that I remember because there's so many sports going on there, especially in the summer. 51:22 Cappy That makes sense. 51:24 Cappy I thought maybe, you know, the winter is a little more, you know, and hockey is one of the. 51:30 Jûpe Yeah. 51:31 Cappy But, you know, COVID. 51:32 Cappy You're telling me Kenny Albert's not going to be there. 51:35 Cappy We'll see. 51:35 Jûpe I don't know about that. 51:36 Jûpe I don't know about that. 51:37 Cappy I don't. 51:38 Cappy I think he's just maybe his. 51:40 Cappy I don't know. 51:42 Cappy You saw whatever he wrote. 51:43 Cappy I would be. 51:44 Jûpe You text and text more than anyone knows. 51:46 Cappy I could text the bosses and find out. 51:48 Cappy I might do that right now. 51:49 Jûpe Do that right now. 51:51 Jûpe Send them a link. 51:52 Cappy I'm on the phone with you guys right now. 51:54 Cappy I can't use my phone. 51:55 Cappy You know, my iPad messed up. 51:57 Vegoe So I'm surprised we didn't get a gear reveal. 52:00 Cappy Maybe and maybe in the post game show, I'll do a live text. 52:04 Cappy Well, you know, they didn't go on. 52:06 Cappy But yeah, I mean, it's just I think the sports in a great spot. 52:11 Cappy You do an outdoor games. 52:12 Cappy I just hope they continues to grow. 52:16 Cappy Like I said, the Big Ten, you know, they signed that deal with NBC. 52:21 Cappy You know, if Big Ten Networks not covering some of these games, like a Minnesota, Michigan games, not on national TV, I know it'll be on locally in Minnesota. 52:31 Cappy But heck, I think it'd get a pretty good crowd on a Friday, Saturday night in February, Michigan, Minnesota on NBCSN or on Peacock. 52:41 Jûpe Well, I think one of them, but I think they are. 52:45 Cappy What's that? 52:46 Cappy When Minnesota goes to Michigan, it's on Big Ten, but that's on anything else. 52:52 Cappy And actually, I don't, both games might be on Big Ten, but it wouldn't be on any other network other than that or FS1. 53:00 Jûpe Yeah, they're on Big Ten. 53:01 Jûpe Yeah, both on Big Ten. 53:02 Cappy Yeah, no. 53:04 Cappy Yeah. 53:04 Cappy So like, you know, but Big Ten's got a ton of sports. 53:07 Cappy They can't cover all the, especially conference games. 53:10 Jûpe And at Michigan also is a Thursday, Friday series as well. 53:14 Cappy Yeah. 53:15 Cappy I think that, oh, OK, that's two weeks from now. 53:18 Cappy Because we have a Thursday, Friday, and then I have Friday, Saturday, and the Friday is a doubleheader with Penn State, Ohio State. 53:26 Cappy That's the only other two games I'm calling here. 53:28 Jûpe Michigan, Minnesota's end of February 26th and 27th. 53:31 Cappy OK. 53:32 Cappy Well, that's because Thursday, Friday, because every series is Thursday, Friday. 53:36 Cappy Yep. 53:37 Jûpe Because of the Wednesday following. 53:38 Cappy Or no. 53:39 Cappy Well, because the next weekend is Thursday, Friday too, because it's the last weekend of the series. 53:44 Cappy And then I think that's something, and I guess I don't know if you guys are going to bring this up, but Minnesota here is starting to peak at the right time at the end of the year. 53:53 Cappy The way the playoffs are set up now, it makes it a lot more realistic for a four, five, six seed to make a final and maybe win the league when you only got to play three games to do it. 54:06 Jûpe And Veegs, they're only two points behind Wisconsin after that weekend. 54:13 Vegoe Yeah. 54:13 Vegoe And I have to say Minnesota is looking a lot better than Wisconsin right now. 54:17 Cappy Sure. 54:17 Vegoe The key for Minnesota is if they get into Ohio State here this weekend, you know, they have to have a good weekend. 54:24 Vegoe You know, this is really important for them. 54:26 Vegoe If they want to get a home ice game in the Big Ten to get off to a good start, you know, they have to win these games. 54:32 Vegoe And, you know, they got four of the six points in the last series. 54:37 Vegoe You know, they almost got all six. 54:39 Vegoe You know, they kind of let up on the gas a little bit and Ohio State took advantage. 54:44 Vegoe Minnesota needs to have a more consistent weekend. 54:46 Vegoe I'm waiting to see if that energy that we saw against Wisconsin can carry over into a game that's probably going to be a little bit more structured and not as high pace. 54:56 Vegoe And the chances won't come as easily. 54:59 Vegoe I think that's going to be a huge challenge for this young gopher team. 55:03 Jûpe What are your thoughts, Cappy? 55:05 Cappy Yeah, I mean, Ohio State actually played really well this last weekend, but they used the home juices that they did have. 55:12 Cappy And I mean, look, they had the lead going into the, no, it was a late tie, 4-4 going into the third period on Friday. 55:21 Cappy And then they go to overtime and lose Saturday against the number one team in the country. 55:28 Cappy The goal-tending has been, you know, not, has probably been their weakest link in terms of expectations. 55:36 Cappy You know, Christopher Eberle has just been okay, and now he's not playing as much. 55:40 Cappy The young guy, Hillenbrand, has played more. 55:43 Cappy But he, you know, he plays a good game, but it's not, he's not going to steal you a game, at least he hasn't. 55:52 Cappy I think Minnesota's just got to, you know, if they keep their confidence going but not get too confident and just think, okay, we can come out here and play, like you said, like kind of like a rat hockey game, like freewheeling, you're going to have to play with the discipline because Ohio State still brings that D structure. 56:13 Cappy But if they, they can use their speed and Mooney and those guys and then the power play because Ohio State's Penalty Kills not has been good as it's been in the past years. 56:25 Cappy You know, Minnesota can ride that momentum, but, you know, Ohio State will bring their effort. 56:30 Cappy They always bring their effort. 56:33 Cappy I just lacking on offense to get a ton of scoring and then the goal tenning has just not been where you want it. 56:40 Cappy I'm sure for Steve Rollock, when he came in this year having it, you know, Christopher Eberle, a junior that has had a lot of games. 56:48 Cappy And, you know, it's not all his fault. 56:50 Cappy You know, it's a team game when you're giving up, you know, the goals. 56:53 Cappy But it's set up for Minnesota right now if they can kind of ride their wave of, you know, confidence from last weekend, you know, another home series. 57:04 Jûpe For me, similar to what you said, Veegs, you know, they need to show the consistency. 57:10 Jûpe You know, we've seen this a lot this season, you know, up one game, completely opposite the other game. 57:15 Jûpe So, like you just said, kind of interesting to see how they do. 57:20 Jûpe If we could see some consistent move up as, you know, they build hopefully for a playoff run. 57:27 Jûpe You know, I've run some of the numbers, even if they were to win the rest of their games, just throwing those in, they're still only about 18, 16 in the NPI. 57:37 Jûpe So, obviously, could change. 57:41 Jûpe We'd have to see based on other results. 57:43 Jûpe But just winning them all isn't going to do them any good. 57:47 Jûpe But if they get better, that's like what Cappy says, Veegs, you know, it's one game thing you never know. 57:54 Vegoe Yeah. 57:54 Vegoe I mean, the playoff format suits Minnesota really well. 57:57 Vegoe You know, they've got good goaltending, good power play. 58:00 Vegoe They just need a little bit more consistently from their depth. 58:04 Vegoe I thought John Whipple had a good weekend. 58:05 Vegoe I thought Leo Gruba had a good weekend. 58:07 Vegoe You know, they need Jacob Rombach to get back on the horse too. 58:11 Vegoe You know, he had a really good finish the first half. 58:13 Vegoe The break hurt him a little bit. 58:15 Vegoe He came back, didn't play his best. 58:17 Vegoe You know, he's going to get an opportunity in this game. 58:19 Vegoe There's maybe a little bit more structure to it, to have some time and space to make some plays and find his game again. 58:27 Vegoe I think it's a really important weekend for him. 58:30 Jûpe What are your picks then, Veegs? 58:35 Vegoe Six points, Gophers. 58:39 Vegoe They look good right now. 58:40 Vegoe They look good. 58:40 Vegoe That's the best I've seen Minnesota play over a weekend, probably since Faber-Lacombe were running the show. 58:50 Jûpe Those are big words there. 58:52 Cappy Cappy? 58:54 Cappy I'm, I, phew, hi, hi, it's tough. 58:57 Cappy I, I want to say, I want to give my Buckeyes a point. 59:04 Cappy I just don't know. 59:05 Cappy I think, I think, I think, I think Minnesota is going to get both. 59:09 Cappy I think maybe it's close to one game or a one goal. 59:15 Cappy You know, maybe it, and I just, I don't know if they got it. 59:18 Cappy They're just, they're not getting the goal-tending on the road where I can trust them right now to go win against the team now. 59:26 Cappy It's changes fast, right? 59:28 Cappy I mean, they just came off seven game losing streak and now they're the hottest team in the league, right? 59:32 Cappy Or, you know, but the way you win, it's how you win too. 59:36 Jûpe It's how you win. 59:37 Cappy It's how you eek them out, right? 59:39 Jûpe It's how they want, you know, and then you look at the week before, they lost three to one and three to two at Michigan State, didn't play terrible. 59:46 Cappy No, tough schedule. 59:49 Jûpe Yeah, and yeah, tough schedule. 59:51 Jûpe Big Ten's good this year. 59:55 Jûpe You know. 59:57 Cappy I said, I'm this week, I'm staying this week for Minnesota. 1:00:00 Jûpe Lighter weeks coming up. 1:00:02 Jûpe So, you know, really, Veegs. 1:00:05 Jûpe I'm going to pick Sweep as well. 1:00:07 Cappy Because they're at Notre Dame after that. 1:00:09 Jûpe Yeah, really. 1:00:10 Jûpe It's 12 points or busts, isn't it, Veegs? 1:00:13 Vegoe It certainly feels like that. 1:00:15 Vegoe You know, I didn't think Minnesota played very well in the first game against Michigan. 1:00:19 Vegoe But other than that, I felt like they've played pretty well so far in 2026. 1:00:25 Vegoe And that's just a good sign with the young team to go through that and then have a weekend like they did against Wisconsin. 1:00:33 Cappy I mean, right, they're almost, it's like the playoff, you know, except for who's number one and two, you know, three through, like, Ohio State, Notre Dame are six, seven. 1:00:44 Cappy I don't know, I don't think that's almost possible to change. 1:00:47 Jûpe Well, they still have a couple of games in hand. 1:00:48 Vegoe Four or five. 1:00:49 Cappy What's that? 1:00:50 Jûpe Well, both Notre Dame and Ohio State have played two less games than everyone else. 1:00:54 Cappy Right. 1:00:55 Jûpe And we'll start, that will start leveling out each week. 1:00:58 Cappy Notre Dame is seven. 1:01:00 Cappy Are we pretty close to, and Ohio State I think is six. 1:01:04 Cappy I think now you're talking Wisconsin and Minnesota fighting for home ice in that four or five game. 1:01:10 Cappy And then it's a matter of who is two and three to play against six and seven. 1:01:16 Vegoe And who knows how Penn State is going to handle the microscope here. 1:01:19 Cappy Sure. 1:01:20 Cappy But there aren't that many games left. 1:01:22 Cappy You're right. 1:01:25 Cappy No, I mean that could go any which way. 1:01:28 Cappy That could galvanize them or it could split them. 1:01:33 Cappy I don't think it's going to, they have Ohio State coming up in a couple of weeks. 1:01:39 Cappy He's most likely going to be playing, I would assume. 1:01:43 Cappy Unless, just like you talked about, precedent of other sports and other incidences. 1:01:49 Cappy I'd find it hard to believe that he won't. 1:01:52 Cappy But it looks, the league is kind of, and it's got its little tiers right now. 1:01:58 Cappy It could change. 1:01:59 Cappy There's a month of hockey, 10 games or so. 1:02:03 Cappy But it's just, this league looks in tiers. 1:02:09 Cappy There's like a 3-2-2 tier right now, to an extent. 1:02:14 Cappy And different levels in those tiers. 1:02:16 Cappy And we'll see how it shakes out. 1:02:19 Cappy This is a great month, like tons of games on TV, tons of important months. 1:02:25 Cappy February is when things get decided. 1:02:30 Cappy Now, I guess with March too, because we have a weekend in March of regular season. 1:02:34 Cappy But this is when hockey now is getting its time. 1:02:38 Cappy Football's over. 1:02:40 Cappy You know, it's where you make your money now this time of year. 1:02:46 Jûpe All right. 1:02:48 Jûpe I think I'm ready for overtime. 1:02:50 Jûpe You guys ready for overtime? 1:02:51 Vegoe Let's do it. 1:02:52 Cappy Do it. 1:02:54 Jûpe All right. 1:02:55 Jûpe I'm with you guys. 1:02:56 Jûpe Well, that'll do it for this episode of the GPL Podcast. 1:02:58 Jûpe Of course, we thank Cappy for coming on the show. 1:03:01 Jûpe He's always here with us multiple times a season. 1:03:04 Jûpe We've got Tim Bruhle from USCHO, the creator and president of that site coming up next week. 1:03:12 Jûpe I just looked it up. 1:03:13 Jûpe He has not been on since season one of the GPL Podcast. 1:03:16 Jûpe So it'll be fun to have Tim back on the show. 1:03:20 Jûpe For those of you watching live here on X Facebook and YouTube, stay tuned for overtime. 1:03:25 Jûpe For the rest, you will catch you next week on the GPL Podcast. 1:03:41 Jûpe If you are watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and get notified each time we go live or post a video. 1:03:47 Jûpe If you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please rate our show and leave a review. 1:03:58 Jûpe For those of you watching live, you know what's next. 1:04:01 Jûpe It's Vegoe's Beverage of the Week. 1:04:05 Jûpe It's time for Overtime.