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. 0:16 Wow. 0:16 We just got finished. 0:21 That sounds kind of weird. 0:23 It kind of sounds weird, sound like 99's New Lions. 0:29 But the Big Ten's a bad conference. 0:31 That's a joke. 0:32 If this gets clipped, that's a joke. 0:34 Oh, no, no. 0:36 Definitely clipped in that one now. 0:40 He was freezing up a little bit big, so I'm a little worried. 0:42 Oh, see, that's what's happening. 0:44 Big TV star, Cappy. 0:46 Oh. 0:48 He didn't. 0:49 I've been on once in October. 0:54 Now, here's Jupiter and Vegoe. 1:01 Jûpe Good evening and welcome to The GPL Podcast, episode number three hundred and five. 1:09 Jûpe Good evening, Veegs. 1:10 Jûpe Hi. 1:10 Jûpe You ready for some high school hockey besides college hockey here? 1:14 Vegoe Yeah, I'm headed down to Grand Casino tomorrow for some of the double A games. 1:19 Vegoe I'm looking forward to it. 1:20 Vegoe You know, it's not quite like first round of the NCAA tournament, but it's a pretty pretty high pace hockey and it'll be fun to see the building rocking for the high schoolers. 1:30 Jûpe Well, our guest tonight, he's been on a couple of times. 1:34 Jûpe But Veegs, we always had him on for Michigan, not Michigan State. 1:39 Speaker 4 He's branching out, though. 1:40 Jûpe So, well, he got a real job after college. 1:48 Jûpe That's essentially what happened. 1:50 Jûpe Well, let's bring him in. 1:51 Jûpe Connor Eargood of, well, let me press the right button. 1:55 Jûpe Here we go, of the Detroit News, not the Michigan Daily anymore, but it's like it's a big boy job now, isn't it? 2:03 Connor Yeah. 2:04 Connor Watching the clip in the intro, I look like a child. 2:11 Connor He's all grown up now, folks. 2:15 Jûpe So we talked a little bit before, you know, you were at the Michigan Daily, you're schooling, you're a big Michigan fan, and now you've moved over to covering the biggest Michigan rivalry in Michigan State, but it's turned out to be pretty cool for you, hasn't it? 2:32 Connor Yeah, it's a great beat. 2:34 Connor It's Big Ten Sports, right? 2:36 Connor And, you know, grew up about an hour from each school, had friends that went to each school and tons of connections. 2:44 Connor So it wasn't too different covering Michigan, other than, you know, I don't have to pay tuition. 2:49 Connor So that's pretty sweet. 2:52 Jûpe Yeah. 2:57 Jûpe Well, Veegs this past weekend, Minnesota at Michigan, 4-2 win and a 4-2 loss. 3:04 Jûpe I would say based on this season so far, that's a pretty good result for Minnesota at Yost. 3:09 Jûpe And Bob keeps his record really good at Yost. 3:13 Vegoe Yeah, for whatever reason, the Gophers when they go to Yost, good things happen. 3:18 Vegoe You know, I think one thing when they play the Wolverines is they're not going to sit back. 3:23 Vegoe You know, they want to trade chances. 3:24 Vegoe They want to get going. 3:25 Vegoe They've got high talent players, too. 3:27 Vegoe And it's a game of mistakes. 3:29 Vegoe And you look at Friday's game, Michigan made some mistakes. 3:32 Vegoe Gophers got in transition. 3:35 Vegoe They've got some guys who can really score in transition, like Brody Ziemer and LJ Mooney. 3:39 Vegoe And, you know, they finished their chances and they came out on top. 3:42 Vegoe You know, Saturday, Gophers didn't quite get the chances that they got on Friday night. 3:48 Vegoe Had a big power play that they could have scored on late in the game that would have helped. 3:52 Vegoe But Michigan's talent came out on top. 3:56 Jûpe And on the flip side, Connor, you know, Michigan State, OSU took four out of six points. 4:04 Jûpe You know, we had that long shootout on Saturday, but Friday night, it was 5-1 Ohio State. 4:11 Jûpe Kind of showing that all these bottom teams could be a legitimate threat in the playoffs coming up. 4:16 Connor Yeah, I asked Adam Nightingale about that earlier this week, how sort of playing a tough conference prepares you in the postseason. 4:23 Connor I think this might be the best Big Ten I've seen. 4:26 Connor Now, granted, I'm a youngin. 4:28 Connor I don't remember the early, you know, 2020 teams. 4:32 Connor I guess it wasn't even early, mid-20 teams, but it seems like it's stronger than ever. 4:38 Connor Tons of good teams, but that wasn't a result Michigan State wanted to see. 4:42 Connor If you remember last year, obviously, winning the series against the Gophers at MUN set them up to win an outright Big Ten title, and I ended up tying for the thing at the end of the year because they kept split in series and not playing their best hockey at the end of the year. 4:54 Connor For a Michigan State team that the answers lie in the postseason and what they can do in an NCAA tournament, it wasn't a very promising result. 5:02 Connor The one caveat to that was they got better Friday to Saturday and closed it out in an improved fashion, scored on the power play, getting out in transition a little bit better. 5:14 Connor There's signs that they're in the right direction, and they certainly have a little bit of leash to play with, but still not the greatest result for them at all. 5:24 Jûpe Veegs, Bob was even saying at the availability yesterday that he thought Minnesota played better against Michigan and similar to how Michigan State played better in that second game. 5:38 Jûpe Minnesota didn't win that second game. 5:40 Vegoe Well, it just shows you the coaches are always looking at the process, not so much the results. 5:45 Vegoe You know, Bob's trying to get this team ready for the postseason, and he's trying to get them ready for a run in the Big Ten tournament, and hopefully the NCAA tournament. 5:55 Vegoe But you've got to be playing good hockey at this time of year. 5:57 Vegoe And I think one thing about Minnesota that I've noticed is the season's kind of gone here. 6:02 Vegoe They've been doing a little bit more of a defensive structure. 6:06 Vegoe And I think, you know, especially in the second game against Michigan last week, you know, they did a pretty good job of keeping the Wolverines to the perimeter, and they're getting good goal-tending from Luka in that. 6:16 Vegoe And I think that's a difference maker for them in these big matchups. 6:20 Vegoe You know, they've got some defensive structure and a great goal-tender that's going to allow them to maybe let their top line and power play be dangerous as the season winds down. 6:31 Jûpe So I've heard that the entire Michigan State staff is coming this weekend, athletic director and all here to Mariucci. 6:39 Jûpe They want to sell it. 6:39 Jûpe They want to get a trophy. 6:42 Jûpe I'm curious, Connor, what is the tiebreaker with Michigan? 6:46 Jûpe Who wins that? 6:47 Jûpe Because, you know, Michigan State could easily get two in tie. 6:51 Jûpe Do you know what the tiebreaker is between those schools? 6:54 Connor I want to say it's regulation wins. 6:56 Connor And I think Michigan has it. 6:58 Connor I'm thinking conference play. 7:00 Connor So it could be a tied title. 7:02 Connor And Michigan State has to play on the Wednesday for the Big Ten Tournament, which is new and I like. 7:07 Connor I actually like it a lot. 7:09 Connor So, you know, it speeds things up. 7:11 Connor But I think that's a game if you're Michigan State and you're sort of getting banged up here throughout the end of the season, no serious injuries. 7:18 Connor But, you know, you don't want to get one right in an extra game. 7:22 Connor I think the pitch count gives you an extra incentive to go get three if they can. 7:28 Connor But again, playing on the road at Minnesota, it's not a venue that's treated Michigan State well over the years. 7:32 Connor Even some of the better teams in these recent years, right? 7:36 Connor I think if Nightingale's first team needed points in Minnesota to make the NCAA tournament, and I ended up not getting those, and that was a big deal that first year. 7:44 Connor So it's a tough place to play. 7:46 Connor It's going to be a tough, you know, contested series. 7:49 Connor Michigan State's got a lot to prove. 7:52 Jûpe Well, the funny thing is, Veegs, I think it was just a couple of weeks ago, or maybe a month ago, we were talking on the podcast, how, you know, Michigan, Michigan State, they might not have a lot to play for at the end of the season. 8:03 Jûpe You know, they kind of got their NCAA wrapped up, but it turns out these past two weekends, Minnesota has been very involved in who's going to win the league. 8:13 Vegoe Yeah, I mean, Minnesota is playing well right now, and they're not an easy team to play against, and you know, they're competing really hard. 8:19 Vegoe You see the physical play, you see the block shots, you know, Minnesota's invested in not giving away points to anybody. 8:26 Vegoe You know, the players were talking about that last weekend, Michigan is like, we don't want to give them a chance at the title. 8:32 Vegoe We want to be spoilers a little bit. 8:34 Vegoe And I don't think Minnesota has often played the spoiler, and they'll have another chance to do that again this weekend against Sparty. 8:42 Jûpe Yeah, Bob was going to talk about that. 8:44 Jûpe He's like, we kind of slowed down, you know, Michigan winning the title. 8:48 Jûpe And now they're hoping to slow down and maybe even prevent Michigan State, but then Veegs, but then Michigan gets their first and only title. 8:57 Jûpe They've never won the regular season before. 9:00 Vegoe Which is pretty crazy with all the talent it is that Michigan's had over the years. 9:04 Vegoe But again, I often look at the discipline of the Wolverines and how it disappears at times. 9:10 Vegoe You know, Draper, clear cross check to Javon Moore in the dying minutes of the game, put the Gophers on a five minute power play. 9:18 Vegoe You just can't do that really. 9:20 Vegoe And they got away with it. 9:21 Vegoe You know, the Gophers had some really good looks on that five minute power play. 9:25 Vegoe You know, it's one of the best units in the country. 9:28 Vegoe Zeamer had some good looks. 9:29 Vegoe Mooney had some good looks. 9:30 Vegoe They just couldn't get it to go. 9:32 Vegoe But like that's just a symptom of what I've seen from Michigan over the years where they just make a critical discipline mistake at a time you can't make it and then let other teams into it. 9:41 Vegoe And you know, so far this season, they've been able to outscore their mistakes. 9:45 Vegoe And that's been the difference. 9:49 Jûpe What has been the difference for Michigan State? 9:51 Jûpe Obviously, Trey Augustine could be a pretty big difference, Connor. 9:55 Jûpe Obviously, a new coach in the last couple of years, better recruiting. 9:59 Jûpe I mean, there was a time where Michigan State had lost 14 straight games against Minnesota. 10:06 Jûpe And you know, they came into the league kind of in a downtime and they were kind of at the bottom of the league for many years. 10:13 Jûpe But is there anything else there besides just kind of new look, new coach, new everything? 10:20 Connor Yeah, I think they have a good crop of upperclassmen. 10:23 Connor I think that's a big key. 10:24 Connor I think Matt Baskill is a guy who isn't this highly touted recruit and is rock solid on that blue line. 10:30 Connor Colin Ralph obviously helps. 10:31 Connor I think he's going to be one heck of a pro. 10:34 Connor I look at the goaltending obviously with Trey. 10:37 Connor He's been exceptional with the team playing a little bit looser in front of him than maybe a year ago. 10:42 Connor And I think he's had to make some pretty key stops to sort of stay in games. 10:45 Connor I would have liked a few more on the Friday night against Ohio State. 10:48 Connor And I think that's a game that when people throw Hobie around, right, it's hard for a goalie to win. 10:53 Connor I think that's a result that's going to probably hold him back from that. 10:56 Connor But he's still one of the top goalies in easily the conference, probably the country, just for impact to a team, right? 11:03 Connor And he sort of got this thing started for Michigan State. 11:05 Connor But I also look at the forward court at a guy like Porter Marton who came in and didn't have any sort of the freshman struggles. 11:12 Connor I think he's still tied with Charlie Stramel for the team leading points or maybe he's a point hat. 11:16 Connor And obviously Charlie Stramel's, you know, continued growth year over year, he's found a lot more command in his offense. 11:24 Connor Last year, he sort of was Robin to Isaac Howard's Batman. 11:28 Connor This year, he's sort of his own hero. 11:29 Connor I'm not a huge comic book nerd, so I can't think of a great analogy for it. 11:33 Connor But he's coming out of his shell and he's playing pretty well. 11:36 Connor And some of the wild fans are probably excited to see whether that's a trade asset or not. 11:41 Connor I've heard so many people ask about that and if he's legit. 11:45 Connor But I think he's having a great season and the finishing has improved so much. 11:49 Connor I think that's a big, big sign for Michigan State. 11:51 Jûpe Well, Veegs, we talked about it last week about Stramel, that it just wasn't a good fit at Wisconsin. 12:00 Jûpe The style of play and plus, he needed to put a commitment to it as well. 12:06 Jûpe Ben Holden last week is saying, he's built like an Adonis now and he wasn't before. 12:12 Vegoe No, I think we remember having Tom Mielewski on when Stramel first got there. 12:16 Vegoe When he was at the program, people called Stramel the big unit. 12:21 Vegoe He was coming down the tracks, going to the net, and when he got to Wisconsin, he was not that same kind of player. 12:27 Vegoe He couldn't play that game. 12:29 Vegoe He wasn't physically mature enough. 12:30 Vegoe He hadn't put in the time. 12:32 Vegoe It seemed like when things weren't going well for him, he got away from that. 12:36 Vegoe Resetting at Michigan State really seemed to change his trajectory, and he's been really good. 12:41 Vegoe And I think the key for Michigan State is they've got a lot of upperclassmen that's allowed some of their younger players to just step into roles and not have to be an everything player. 12:53 Vegoe Like they can just come in and find where they can contribute. 12:56 Vegoe And that's probably the issue with Minnesota this year is we haven't had enough depth up top to create a safe space for those young players to develop. 13:06 Vegoe You know, you look at the game on Saturday, you know, the Gophers make a couple mistakes with young players getting themselves out of position and they just hand goals to Michigan. 13:15 Vegoe And you can't do that this time of year. 13:17 Vegoe You got to make the other team earn goals. 13:19 Vegoe And that's been an issue all year for Minnesota. 13:24 Jûpe Connor, I do think that, you know, we had a little back and forth with Cappy and you saying, you know, this could be an interesting Wednesday playoff. 13:33 Jûpe Some of these teams on the bottom, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Ohio State, have shown they can win against the top teams. 13:40 Jûpe But he also kind of said to us, maybe it puts some fear in these top teams as well, saying, hey guys, we cannot look past the Notre Dame, a Minnesota, an Ohio State, because, you know, it could mess up a seeding for the NCAA tournament for them. 13:56 Connor Yeah, no, I could see that for sure. 13:58 Connor And I think too, one of the things with the Big Ten is the way the tournament started so slow, right? 14:05 Connor Like you go, one team is going to have a week off, there's the quarterfinal. 14:08 Connor It might go three games in a weekend, but I usually saw that with the four or five, right, used to play. 14:16 Connor I'm not good with numbers today. 14:17 Connor That's gotten a lot worse since I graduated. 14:19 Connor But, no, it's, you know, the slower pace, I think this sped up process is going to be a lot better, just to prepare teams for the postseason. 14:28 Connor I think that's what you want out of a conference tournament is sort of a dry run. 14:31 Connor Yes, it's going to determine an auto bid. 14:33 Connor Yes, that's in the cards for some of the conferences, sort of lower teams in the standings that maybe aren't so high in the NPI. 14:39 Connor But, you know, getting the top teams and even the team that might break through ready for the postseason should be the ultimate goal. 14:47 Vegoe I do think, though, looking at like the playoffstatus.com stuff where they're looking at, you know, what seeds teams can get. 14:55 Vegoe Michigan locked into a top four seed. 14:58 Vegoe They're going to be a one seed somehow. 15:00 Vegoe Michigan State, it's less than 1% that they're a two seed. 15:04 Vegoe So, they're almost locked in as a one. 15:06 Vegoe And we've seen this with Minnesota over the years. 15:08 Vegoe When they already have that seed pretty much locked in, you know, they're playing for a conference title. 15:14 Vegoe But you know, that's not the goal in any of these players' minds. 15:18 Vegoe They want an NCAA title at the end of the year. 15:20 Vegoe So like, that's where the focus is. 15:22 Vegoe And as Connor is saying, you know, this Big Ten is as deep as it's ever been. 15:27 Vegoe You know, I think there's six teams that are really good. 15:30 Vegoe I think Notre Dame can beat you with some of their talent. 15:33 Vegoe But the top six teams are all tough teams this year. 15:38 Jûpe Oh, it's going to be interesting. 15:39 Jûpe And you know, just last weekend, you had the CCHA Veegs where was it four or five teams could have won the league on the last night? 15:48 Vegoe Yeah, it's crazy. 15:49 Vegoe And they're all on the bubble. 15:50 Jûpe They are all in. 15:51 Vegoe Only probably one of them is going to make it, which is just crazy. 15:55 Jûpe That's the best time of year, though. 15:57 Jûpe That's when you get all that chaos. 15:58 Jûpe And, you know, I was looking at the NBA just a little bit here. 16:02 Jûpe Yeah, you've got Wisconsin's at 12. 16:05 Jûpe They could be close. 16:07 Jûpe Boston College. 16:08 Jûpe Augustana is the top CCHA team. 16:10 Jûpe But, you know, Minnesota State won the league. 16:12 Jûpe They're right at 16 weeks. 16:13 Jûpe So you might be right. 16:16 Jûpe Or any one of those teams could upset and knock somebody else out. 16:21 Jûpe It does make a fun time of the year, Connor. 16:23 Jûpe It really does. 16:26 Connor Absolutely. 16:27 Speaker 5 Yeah. 16:29 Jûpe All right. 16:30 Jûpe OK, we need to get to your poll this week first, Veegs. 16:34 Jûpe But before that, we need to talk about Cascade CBX and their great offer right now, Veegs. 16:42 Vegoe Yeah, that's right. 16:42 Vegoe There's such big believers in their product and they're in startup mode right now. 16:47 Vegoe You can visit cascadecbxsport.com/team. 16:51 Vegoe And for just five bucks, you can get a 300-milligram sample jar of this stuff that retails for $25. 16:57 Vegoe Shipping is included. 16:58 Vegoe It's free. 16:59 Vegoe So $5, you can try it out. 17:01 Vegoe You know, they're in startup mode. 17:02 Vegoe They're trying to build some believers. 17:04 Vegoe And this stuff, it relieves pain, relieves inflammation, relieves stress. 17:10 Vegoe And if you're looking to try something that soothes those aches and pains, like I've had a long hockey coaching season. 17:15 Vegoe I've got a bunch of them right now. 17:17 Vegoe This stuff works great. 17:18 Vegoe So check it out, cascadecbxsport.com/team and see what all the fuss is about. 17:23 Vegoe Trust the shield, stay on the field. 17:26 Jûpe Of course, we thank CascadeCBXSport for sponsoring The GPL Podcast. 17:32 Jûpe All right, Veegs, you're top 20 this week. 17:36 Jûpe You put North Dakota up at the top because, well, they won the title on the road against Western Michigan. 17:41 Jûpe And then, you know, kind of rested a few guys the next night. 17:45 Jûpe The thing is, the NPI doesn't care of who you rest. 17:48 Jûpe So you kind of rank them how you feel the teams are going right now. 17:51 Vegoe Yeah, a little bit. 17:52 Vegoe You know, the USCHO poll had Michigan as the number one team this week, which surprised me because they split with the 37th team in MPI. 18:03 Vegoe That would be the Gophers 37th and MPI. 18:06 Vegoe I can't see how you can get a split and then you rank them number one. 18:10 Vegoe So I had to go with the Penrose Cup Chance. 18:12 Vegoe North Dakota is my number one. 18:14 Vegoe Michigan State, their season has been great other than losing a couple of points at Ohio State. 18:20 Vegoe So I've got them ahead right now. 18:22 Vegoe Then I've got Western and Denver. 18:24 Vegoe At NCHC, they're just creeping to the top of my poll after a stranglehold of the Big Ten earlier in the year. 18:32 Jûpe That's a lot of Western teams though, Connor. 18:33 Jûpe You know, North Dakota, Michigan, Michigan State, Western, Denver. 18:38 Jûpe Penn State's kind of a Western team. 18:41 Jûpe But spiritually, it's just it's going to be interesting, guys, to see what happens this year in the NCAA tournament with such a dry East Coast bias. 18:56 Jûpe Thoughts? 18:58 Vegoe Yeah, I mean, I've been high on Providence all year, probably an outlier among a lot of people. 19:04 Vegoe I believe a lot what Nate Lehmann does over there. 19:06 Vegoe You know, he has some good major junior kids that came into the bulls of that roster, Rampaknold, Kwiatopiak again, just getting it done out there. 19:15 Vegoe You know, maybe a challenge from some other teams in the ECAC, but they found a way and they're going to be back in it for sure. 19:23 Jûpe And here's the NPI just showing you numbers a little differently. 19:28 Jûpe And that's where it kind of shows. 19:30 Jûpe We know North Dakota would probably be higher if they wouldn't have lost that game to Minnesota. 19:34 Jûpe I think I calculated they would be like a full point higher. 19:37 Jûpe So they might even be number one right now. 19:39 Vegoe If they lose you when you lose the bad teams and the NPI and the Parawise type stuff, it really hurts you. 19:47 Connor The thing I'll point out too, like you look how many Western teams are there for the regional sites, it's going to be really interesting. 19:54 Connor Like that almost gives you something more to play for these next couple weeks, more so than conference titles matter. 19:59 Connor I shouldn't say that the site's going to matter more than that. 20:02 Connor But if you're playing in a semifinal, right? 20:03 Connor Or you got a final series, that's a big deal. 20:06 Connor If you got to go out to, what is it, Colorado? 20:08 Connor Or is it Sioux Falls this year as well? 20:10 Jûpe Sioux Falls and Loveland out here, yeah. 20:11 Connor Yeah, like if you play in some North Dakota fans, I mean, you'll play them anywhere, but the concentration might be higher in some of these spots. 20:19 Connor So, you know, it'll be interesting. 20:22 Jûpe And Denver's going to be a number two or number three there, Veegs, that's going to be it. 20:27 Jûpe They're going to be at Loveland, and that's going to be a tough spot for someone like a Michigan State or Michigan or Western to go to. 20:35 Vegoe Or maybe Quinnipiac or Providence being the higher seed and having to play at Denver is going to be interesting. 20:41 Vegoe You know, what are you going to be in that situation? 20:44 Vegoe And they've got to play Denver and Loveland. 20:48 Jûpe Is there a new coach, a whiny guy like the previous one? 20:50 Vegoe I think this is all about that. 20:53 Vegoe So Big Red will have Big Red faces when they see where they land in the tournament. 20:58 Vegoe But you know, it's the format we have set up. 21:02 Vegoe We've talked about it for years, how we'd like to see campus sites to the high seed for the first round. 21:07 Vegoe And same for the second round, I think it makes for a better atmosphere, better hockey. 21:12 Vegoe And we've heard lots of coaches say they'd rather play in a packed building and have an exciting atmosphere than have to create their own energy. 21:20 Vegoe And I thought it was interesting. 21:22 Vegoe Adam O'Don from College Hockey News this week was talking about how that home road waiting should just be tossed out. 21:29 Vegoe Because over the conference season, it hasn't really been a big factor if you're playing at home or on the road. 21:35 Vegoe And yet it hurts you when you win at home or when you, you know, lose at home or when you lose at home or on the road. 21:43 Vegoe You know, it's it's factoring in that it shouldn't. 21:46 Vegoe And hey, why not take that same philosophy of the NCAA tournament? 21:51 Jûpe Well, we know how Adam is. 21:53 Vegoe I know. 21:53 Vegoe I know. 21:54 Vegoe I just had to bring it up. 21:55 Jûpe But some of it's legit, though, because, you know, if you play an unbalanced schedule, you might you're not like in Big Ten. 22:02 Jûpe It's balanced. 22:03 Jûpe A lot of other leagues are not balanced. 22:04 Jûpe So. 22:06 Vegoe Yeah, like NCHC has the pods, you know, where you play your rivals and you miss out on some other teams. 22:11 Vegoe So it could it could impact you. 22:14 Jûpe Gentlemen, we it looks like we have a new Division One hockey team, Maryville. 22:21 Jûpe I believe they hosted the regional for the big regional was Michigan, Michigan State and North Dakota. 22:28 Jûpe Weren't you all there back in Maryville? 22:30 Jûpe Was it the Maryville of Rena and St. 22:32 Jûpe Louis that all those big, huge schools went to just a few years ago? 22:38 Vegoe Yeah, that's why it was such a success as a regional, because you took like the four biggest schools and put them in the smallest rank. 22:44 Jûpe So did you go to that one, Connor? 22:47 Connor No, so I was I was sort of lame duck senior just just writing columns. 22:53 Connor I didn't travel down. 22:55 Connor I didn't make it to the Frozen Four that year either. 22:57 Connor That was in Minnesota that I should have gone to. 23:00 Connor I know. 23:01 Connor But there was a Puerto Rico spring break trip that was pretty stale. 23:07 Connor I couldn't move for three days when I got back because my son burned on the back. 23:12 Jûpe But he's a smart college boy back there, wasn't he? 23:17 Jûpe Well, wait a minute. 23:19 Jûpe Veegs was only at half the Frozen Four Minnesota that year because him, he went to Cabo. 23:27 Vegoe Yeah, had to go to Cabo. 23:28 Vegoe So I hear you, Connor. 23:30 Vegoe Sometimes you get the end of this winner. 23:32 Vegoe And if your team's not there or you have the opportunity to get somewhere warm, you want to take it. 23:38 Vegoe But I think Maryville is like the perfect program to go D1. 23:42 Vegoe I think we've talked about this a couple of times where like in Illinois and Oregon, those schools are going to have a hard time sponsoring hockey because there's such big athletic departments already. 23:53 Vegoe They've got Title IX concerns. 23:55 Vegoe They've got revenue share. 23:56 Vegoe You know, I think we're looking at what are some smaller schools that don't have those concerns that could add hockey and Maryville is that perfect fit for that. 24:05 Vegoe You know, their athletic department doesn't have all those big concerns and they can really focus on a successful hockey program launch. 24:12 Jûpe Does it save the Alaska schools and Lindenwood and Long Island who don't have a conference? 24:18 Jûpe Now we've got six independent teams, Veegs. 24:22 Jûpe They could form a conference. 24:25 Vegoe There's a lot of travel there, but it makes a ton of sense for them to bond together and get through it. 24:31 Vegoe So we can see it. 24:32 Vegoe We can hope. 24:33 Vegoe And I think it'd be great for all those schools. 24:36 Vegoe There's plenty of college hockey players out there. 24:38 Vegoe You know, the league has never been deeper with all the college players coming from Canada and the CHL now. 24:44 Vegoe And you can put together a pretty competitive roster very quickly. 24:49 Jûpe Connor, any thoughts on Maryville? 24:52 Connor I'm with it. 24:53 Connor I think expansion of the game is good. 24:55 Connor Like part of, I don't know, you get in these conversations of like, do you dilute the player pool? 25:00 Connor Is a program going to be sustainable? 25:03 Connor I think those are always some something to consider. 25:05 Connor But with the CHL decision and how many players are available, and players who want to come play college hockey, right? 25:12 Connor I think we've seen that increase and yeah, I think if it helps some of the independents, whether or not they would want to want to form a conference, or it's just someone new to play. 25:21 Connor I think the Alaska teams play each other like six games in a row. 25:25 Jûpe Yeah, I mentioned that. 25:27 Jûpe I got the Alaska blog, the Alaska Fairbanks blog guys going after he goes, there's a 100 year old program. 25:32 Jûpe I'm like, yeah, I understand the history, but it's not a winning formula to play your rival without a conference six times in a row to end the season. 25:42 Connor It's just not healthy. 25:46 Connor It's sad. 25:47 Jûpe And they're like, well, look at your rankings and MPI, you should be worried about your own team. 25:50 Jûpe I'm like, no, I'm worried about College Hockey and Veegs. 25:55 Jûpe Sure, I'm probably stirring the pot a little bit, but I personally think that's just not a good way to go. 26:01 Jûpe He essentially caused the WCHA to form a new league to get rid of those schools. 26:09 Vegoe It's challenging to figure out the travel and the NCAA tries to give the extra game if you can go play at the Alaska schools. 26:16 Vegoe But I think at the end of the year, it makes it really hard for them to figure out their schedules. 26:22 Jûpe Well, they're doing their own little regular season tournament. 26:25 Vegoe Yeah, which has been a good solution for them because there's that one year that one of the Alaska schools was on the bubble for the NCAA tournament and every game they played just kind of hurt their strength the schedule and their RPI just was a tough situation for them. 26:40 Vegoe So getting into a league and having an auto bid would probably be great for them. 26:44 Vegoe And interesting for College Hockey to then have another league with an auto bid and the bubble would get even smaller. 26:52 Jûpe They bring back maybe the Great Western Conference. 26:57 Vegoe Maybe there's another league shakeup coming. 26:59 Vegoe You know, we always thought that when Josh Fenton left the NCHC, you know, was there another league that was maybe bubbling up somewhere? 27:09 Jûpe Yeah, there's enough teams. 27:11 Jûpe I mean, because some of these conferences have quite a few teams. 27:13 Jûpe Even the NCHC, what, they had 10 now or 11? 27:16 Jûpe I mean, it's gotten to the point where they, you know, like Arizona State, our former recruit, Cruz Lucius, no longer playing. 27:24 Jûpe His college career is done. 27:27 Vegoe Pretty interesting that two of the top scorers in the NCHC were from ASU and they weren't up for player of the year, which I thought was interesting. 27:39 Vegoe Not a surprise, but just interesting. 27:44 Jûpe So yeah, I stirred the pot a little bit this week. 27:47 Jûpe Got a little bit people all ask because of 100 years old. 27:49 Jûpe I'm like, yeah, but you know, Anchorage is not doing good. 27:52 Jûpe We've seen it for years. 27:55 Jûpe Hopefully Maryville comes in in a couple seasons and they can create a conference because that or maybe it does cause a shake up because I have a feeling that it's just not sustainable. 28:08 Jûpe Is it for Alaska schools or at least one of them? 28:10 Jûpe Maybe they can bind. 28:12 Jûpe I don't know. 28:14 Vegoe Yeah, I'm not the expert like the Alaska Hockey bloggers might be on this topic, but I know it's good for college hockey to have more teams and there's certainly enough players out there to populate rosters as we've seen. 28:27 Jûpe How have you felt about the Canadian juniors coming in this year, Connor? 28:31 Jûpe It's been a pretty good boon for Michigan State. 28:35 Connor Yeah, Marton has been a real good player for them and fun to cover as well. 28:41 Connor You get a lot of cool personalities and different folks that come in. 28:44 Connor But it hasn't worked for everyone. 28:46 Connor Kaden Lindstrom is proof of that, right? 28:48 Connor He's not scored at the rate that I think people expected. 28:51 Connor Granted, scoring wasn't always his knack and it's not his role necessarily as a player, but it's been frustrating for him at times this year and he's shown it with the penalties he's taken. 29:00 Connor He said it again because the misconducts he accumulated. 29:04 Connor You don't see that from a first round pick in college hockey as much. 29:07 Connor But I do think it's good for the sport. 29:12 Connor It gets rid of some of the decision making, right? 29:16 Connor To say, I'm gonna go play in Canadian Juniors or I'm gonna play college hockey. 29:21 Connor It gets rid of the rigidity of those decisions and opens up some decisions for players that they can do what's right for them on a year to year basis. 29:29 Connor We already do that in college sports, right? 29:31 Connor With the transfer portal and all these different decisions players can make. 29:34 Connor It's really not that different from Canadian major juniors, but I'm all for it. 29:39 Connor I think it's a great thing. 29:40 Jûpe Well, Veegs, we've talked about it. 29:41 Jûpe It's probably a lot better than the Canadian Juniors. 29:44 Jûpe I mean, especially if you go to one of the blue chip schools like Michigan State, Minnesota, North Dakota, the food, the airline travel, the training. 29:58 Jûpe We kind of talked earlier this season that like a lot of these guys, McKenna and Marton and stuff like that, they're going to go talk to their friends back in Canada. 30:06 Jûpe Say, hey, this is a pretty good deal. 30:10 Vegoe Yeah, I think a lot of the players are impressed with what College Hockey has to offer. 30:14 Vegoe What I'm interested to see is how long these players stick around. 30:18 Vegoe You know, does Marton stick around for two or three years or is he a one and done? 30:24 Vegoe You know, Lindstrom obviously limits his options by the year he's had, but is he a two and done type player? 30:30 Vegoe And I think that's one of the things that we're waiting to see in College Hockey is how much these guys trust College Hockey to be part of their path rather than just a stepping stone to a pro career. 30:44 Jûpe Only time will tell. 30:46 Jûpe Time will tell. 30:47 Jûpe Oh, before we get to this weekend, games with Michigan State Vs, Cub Foods. 30:54 Jûpe What have you been at Cub Foods for recently? 30:56 Jûpe Getting a lot of pizza ingredients? 30:58 Vegoe Well, actually this week I made like a beef stroganoff. 31:01 Vegoe Oh, I was missing a few key ingredients for my stroganoff. 31:04 Vegoe So I had to go get some onions down there. 31:06 Vegoe I had to go get some creme fraiche. 31:08 Vegoe I had to get some egg noodles and I went down to Cub and sure enough everything was in stock. 31:12 Vegoe You know, it was quick. 31:13 Vegoe I had a good shopping experience. 31:15 Vegoe There are a couple other seasonal items I was picking up as well. 31:18 Vegoe So just a great trip down to my Quarry Cub. 31:21 Vegoe And you know, they're one of us. 31:22 Vegoe They support Gopher Sports. 31:24 Vegoe They support our podcasts. 31:26 Vegoe They support a lot of the Pulltab Sports podcasts. 31:29 Vegoe So why don't you support them? 31:31 Vegoe Because they're local. 31:34 Vegoe You can shop happy, shop cub. 31:37 Jûpe Of course, we thank Cub for being a sponsor of The GPL Podcast. 31:42 Jûpe Michigan State coming to town. 31:44 Jûpe Unfortunately, you're not going to come this week, Connor. 31:46 Jûpe You got other things to do. 31:48 Jûpe So we're going to miss you here. 31:50 Jûpe But hopefully, I'm thinking if Minnesota happens to win on a Wednesday coming up, we might I might travel to Michigan State. 32:00 Jûpe I might just hit the road veegs and travel. 32:04 Vegoe Have you been to Monterey before? 32:06 Jûpe I have not. 32:09 Vegoe It's been quite the place lately, hasn't it been, Connor? 32:11 Connor Yeah. 32:12 Connor The renovations were pricey, certainly out of my budget. 32:16 Connor But it's a beautiful rink. 32:19 Connor It's well taken care of. 32:21 Connor There's so much history. 32:23 Connor You look at some of the banners that hang there, the guys who've played there, that have fond memories and frequently talk about them. 32:31 Connor It's a great barn for College Hockey. 32:33 Connor I don't think there's a bad venue in the Big Ten. 32:37 Connor Obviously depends on who's good and what fans are rocking. 32:40 Connor But it's been a very, very tough ticket to come by for East Lansing folks. 32:45 Connor I know some students that were scratching a claw to get some tickets from friends and line things up. 32:51 Connor But even during spring break, I mean, there were students that stayed. 32:56 Connor I wouldn't have been one of them. 32:58 Connor In those shoes, I would have been going to Puerto Rico. 33:00 Connor But they were in my hearts for it. 33:03 Connor And I know the players appreciated that too. 33:05 Connor So yeah, it's rocking. 33:08 Connor You should definitely come out. 33:12 Jûpe I'm trying to think, Veegs, you know, do we have we heard about OSU's arena yet? 33:18 Jûpe When is that being decided? 33:20 Jûpe Isn't that coming up? 33:21 Vegoe I feel like there's a Board of Trustees meeting for Ohio State this week, where there might be some facility news that was hinted at by Cappy when he was on our show a couple weeks ago. 33:34 Vegoe I've been a little busy this week, so I haven't checked on the status of those documents yet. 33:39 Vegoe But you know, Ohio State's probably got the worst venue in the Big Ten, especially for the women. 33:44 Jûpe That is just the women. 33:46 Vegoe It's a crime. 33:48 Vegoe It's hard to believe how successful they've been and the rink that they play in for their home games and the rink they practice in. 33:55 Vegoe It's just I can't believe it. 33:57 Vegoe Almost like I can't believe Michigan doesn't have a women's team somewhere in the big state of theirs. 34:02 Vegoe But anyway, it should be some news, hopefully, out of Ohio State soon what they're going to do. 34:09 Jûpe And that can be big, Connor. 34:11 Jûpe I mean, yeah, we don't like we don't like. 34:14 Vegoe We don't like Michigan. 34:14 Jûpe We don't like any of these teams. 34:15 Jûpe But we still want the conferences to be successful. 34:19 Jûpe And Ohio State getting a Notre Dame or Penn State size arena. 34:26 Jûpe That could be really big for that program. 34:29 Connor Yeah, absolutely. 34:30 Connor And I think you've seen the talent too, that they've gotten. 34:32 Connor Carabella is a good player. 34:34 Connor He would impress the hack out of me over the weekend. 34:37 Connor And I think, you know, you look at the venue, there's energy there, right? 34:41 Connor I remember when Michigan played there, Nick Blankenberg scored a goal and celebrated. 34:45 Connor There's a dog in the class. 34:46 Connor It was awesome. 34:47 Connor He like went to go pet the dog. 34:48 Connor It was sweet. 34:50 Connor You know, you don't get that in a lot of venues. 34:52 Connor And it's a great basketball venue as well. 34:55 Connor I've had the fortune to see both sports played there. 34:57 Connor And it's just too big for college hockey. 35:01 Connor That's the problem. 35:02 Connor The crowd is there. 35:03 Connor The amenities are there in theory, but it's just the space, right? 35:09 Connor And the ice is usually bad because of that space. 35:11 Connor But obviously, their women's program has been a powerhouse in recent years. 35:16 Connor It's a shame where they play. 35:18 Connor I think if you can get a new facility and you can put both teams, I think that's the blueprint for a team like Michigan, right? 35:24 Connor You know, if Michigan State, I don't think there's a desire to add another team right now with some of the athletic department shakeups at MSU. 35:32 Connor But the path forward would probably require new facilities just for practice time. 35:36 Connor You know, the juggling is already crazy with youth sports that are played at both venues. 35:41 Connor So that's the path forward for sure. 35:44 Connor And it'll be something to watch at U of M if there aren't decisions as well with Yost. 35:47 Connor Even if it's historic, you know, there's going to have to be some tough conversations at. 35:52 Jûpe I think we've talked about that a little bit, haven't we Biggs? 35:55 Jûpe They're looking at like a Mariucci type sized arena. 36:01 Vegoe It could be. 36:01 Vegoe It's hard to know what they're going to decide. 36:03 Vegoe You know, they've had plans for both ways. 36:05 Vegoe You know, Steve Rollock obviously would like something that would be big enough for both programs to play in, but small enough for great atmosphere. 36:12 Vegoe But it's hard to know. 36:13 Vegoe Connor, how closely have you followed the finances these days in Michigan State and the Big Ten? 36:19 Vegoe I know Scott Dockerman published a little article this week in the Athletic where he was looking at finances and the athletic budgets. 36:27 Vegoe You know, he also called out that Minnesota's hockey program made more money than a lot of basketball programs and the Big Ten did this last year. 36:36 Vegoe Have you seen how the books are looking at Michigan State? 36:39 Vegoe How they're handling everything? 36:40 Connor Not good. 36:41 Connor But no one's looking great with revenue share. 36:44 Connor I want to say Michigan State is 196 million. 36:48 Connor There might be more buyouts added to that in the whole. 36:51 Connor And granted, there's been year over year deficits just from a lack of funding and poor football, right? 36:56 Connor That's what's going to dictate what your books look like in a lot of ways. 36:59 Connor Michigan State has had some pretty down years since 21. 37:03 Connor So there's a lot of change that's happened because of that. 37:06 Connor That's the reason J.Batt is the new Athletic Director. 37:08 Connor It's the reason they're adding a third party entity to house some of the corporate side sports. 37:16 Connor You know, you think ticketing, you think of information, you think of NIL and the ways they can move there. 37:23 Connor They're sort of cutting that off of the athletic department to make this third party entity. 37:28 Connor It's non-profit, but then there's a for-profit arm as well. 37:32 Connor There's a lot of legalese I've had to learn. 37:35 Connor I never would have thought. 37:37 Connor But no, it's been a very complicated, complex thing. 37:41 Connor But as I said, I don't know if women's hockey's been discussed other than just like it would be nice. 37:47 Connor The sport at Michigan State, especially in the women's side to watch, is women's basketball. 37:51 Connor That is a sport that the university has invested in in some ways and has the right coach in place. 37:57 Connor That's one that could be really interesting. 37:59 Connor They just won at Minnesota I think last week and played one heck of a game there. 38:03 Connor So that's a program, I think, to watch it at Michigan State. 38:07 Connor There could be moves there and some further investment. 38:12 Jûpe Well, we even talked about it with Ben Holden last week. 38:16 Jûpe Who scored the winning gold winning goal for the women? 38:20 Jûpe Megan Keller out of Michigan. 38:23 Jûpe She couldn't play at any Michigan school. 38:26 Connor Boston College. 38:27 Connor It's sad. 38:28 Jûpe I mean, well, all we can do is hope. 38:32 Jûpe I mean, it would be cool to say. 38:35 Jûpe I mean, seven division one schools and none of them play that. 38:40 Jûpe It's just, and there's a lot of women probably playing hockey, youth hockey in Michigan, isn't there? 38:46 Connor I mean, it's a AAA factory. 38:48 Connor Oh, you look at the players who've played AAA in the Detroit metro area. 38:51 Connor It's insane. 38:53 Connor And, you know, if it's not U of M or MSU, someone, like if you're in first in the state of Michigan and you keep kids local, powerhouse, like the talent you can recruit and the kids who want to stay local, you know, that's the one thing that all these stories about the state of Michigan and this lack of a program, everyone says they want to stay local. 39:15 Connor They want mom and dad and their grandparents and everyone to cover their games. 39:20 Connor If you're, you know, probably not Lake State, but... 39:23 Vegoe Western, Western, Western, Western. 39:25 Vegoe You know, they're getting that new facility. 39:28 Vegoe You know, there's a way to build in some extra space so a women's program could go in and succeed. 39:33 Vegoe You know, Western doesn't have the big football budget and revs share that other schools have to deal with. 39:39 Vegoe You know, it's a little bit smaller program. 39:40 Vegoe So it would make a lot of sense to me, but I don't write the checks. 39:45 Connor I don't suppose to. 39:47 Vegoe Yep. 39:47 Speaker 5 Yeah. 39:49 Jûpe So, this weekend, Veegs, we heard from Leo Gruba saying, hey, we're in this together. 39:59 Jûpe Burn the boats is what he said, which is kind of, you know, an old-time reference of, well, basically, let's see, we got is a powerful historical rooted metaphor for total commitment, urging individuals to eliminate all escape routes and backup plans to ensure success. 40:22 Jûpe I was kind of surprised that he kind of jumped out and went with this during that availability yesterday. 40:27 Vegoe Yeah. 40:27 Vegoe Leo's been putting himself out there with the media this year. 40:30 Vegoe It's something he's trying to build on, just like his hockey game, he's trying to build out his media relations duties as well. 40:38 Vegoe And I had a little look on my face when he said the goal is to give the seniors a national championship on their way out. 40:46 Vegoe But this team has a lot of quality wins. 40:49 Vegoe They beat North Dakota, they've beaten Denver, they beat Michigan. 40:54 Vegoe Maybe they'll beat Michigan State this weekend, we'll see. 40:56 Vegoe But they've been playing the number one strength of schedule in the country. 41:01 Vegoe Why not? 41:02 Jûpe Here's that clip I'll play here. 41:04 Speaker 4 You mentioned that you want to win the national championship. 41:08 Speaker 4 Is that something you guys are discussing? 41:09 Speaker 4 Is it something that's still the cherry on top, I guess? 41:13 Speaker 5 100%. 41:13 Speaker 5 We are, you might call us a delusional confidence, but we are very confident in our group. 41:19 Speaker 5 We know we played great hockey in the last month, and no one's packing their bags, no one's got spring rain clothes in the closet yet. 41:30 Speaker 5 We're going to be here for a few more weeks. 41:31 Speaker 5 We got a win two this weekend, that's our plan, and then six straight. 41:35 Speaker 5 And yeah, we actually, if you got the video, we got, this is our model here, going up the stretch, burning the boats. 41:41 Speaker 5 That's our plan. 41:42 Speaker 5 So we're not looking back, and it's going to be an exciting time here to play hockey. 41:50 Jûpe I was just surprised by that Veegs, it was kind of out of nowhere, wasn't it? 41:54 Vegoe Yeah, for sure. 41:55 Vegoe So it'll be something for fans to watch here as the stretch goes on. 41:59 Vegoe You know, they are playing some of their better hockey at this point of the year. 42:03 Vegoe You know, we've seen John Whipple emerge as a really strong player. 42:06 Vegoe He played really well against the Wolverines, physical, blocking shots, breaking pucks out. 42:11 Vegoe I think we saw Rombach play a better weekend against Michigan than he's played. 42:15 Vegoe He got over 10 minutes of ice time, I think, both nights. 42:19 Vegoe So there's some signs of encouragement. 42:21 Vegoe And as long as that top line is healthy, they are probably one of the best lines in college hockey. 42:27 Vegoe You know, Lamb, Mooney and Zemer are dangerous every time they're on the ice. 42:31 Vegoe They just need a little bit of help. 42:33 Vegoe And we're starting to see that a little bit from Jevon Moore, from Becca Hendrickson. 42:37 Vegoe They just need a little bit more help. 42:40 Jûpe And on the Michigan State side, Connor, they hold their own fate in their own hands to win out the title by themselves over Michigan. 42:53 Vegoe Yeah. 42:54 Connor And that's the motivator, right? 42:56 Jûpe Yeah. 42:56 Connor They only need three points to not only win it, but kick their chief rival out of the picture as well. 43:03 Connor I almost think that's more motivating than a third. 43:05 Connor Like, you've won two Big Ten championships. 43:08 Connor I was laughing at the GLI because last year when they won it, they hadn't before. 43:13 Connor And the GLI is not the tournament it used to be. 43:16 Connor You would have thought it was a Super Bowl. 43:17 Connor Like Howard Snead with that thing. 43:19 Connor It was awesome to see just the euphoria. 43:22 Connor And then they went it this year. 43:23 Connor It's like, yeah, no, no, no, no extra sauce to it. 43:29 Connor I mean, they were happy to win a game, you know, and that was a good tech team they beat. 43:33 Connor But, you know, and then I think with the BigTen regular season title, there's more of a grind to it, right? 43:40 Connor You know, you play a 30 game season and you come out on the other end with some hardware. 43:45 Connor It's a big deal. 43:45 Connor And this senior class, right, could walk away with three of them. 43:48 Connor When they committed to a program, they didn't even know what things would look like with the new coaching staff. 43:53 Connor It was sort of sight unseen in a way. 43:54 Connor But, you know, I think the luster is beating your, you know, your chief rival out from being in that picture, as well as what it could do for the NPI for seeding, you know, where you're going to play those sorts of things. 44:08 Connor I think those are very real conversations that are going on. 44:11 Jûpe Really, I think this year, Veegs, that number one seed is really important since the team you're going to play just played a couple nights before that. 44:20 Jûpe So it's not like that full week off type of thing. 44:24 Jûpe It could be a nice advantage for either Michigan State or Michigan. 44:28 Vegoe Yeah, it could be a nice advantage. 44:29 Vegoe You know, it's only one game to get up for as well. 44:33 Vegoe So I think that rest plan against a tired team could help. 44:36 Vegoe I just, you know, look at Michigan State. 44:38 Vegoe You know, they haven't been to a Frozen Four in, I think, 20 years. 44:42 Vegoe So I think while, you know, a third regular season championship in a row, maybe a third conference tournament in a row are there. 44:48 Vegoe I'm sure a Frozen Four trip and making a run at the Nattie is probably top of mind. 44:54 Vegoe So it's a real challenge for Nightingale and his staff to kind of keep these guys focused on finishing out the season. 45:00 Vegoe You know, especially if they win on Friday, you know, or Thursday, maybe not much to play for on Friday. 45:05 Vegoe So we'll see how the weekend goes from that perspective. 45:10 Jûpe What does Michigan State need to do to win this weekend, Connor? 45:17 Connor Four-check harder, I think CRISPR as well. 45:21 Connor You know, connectivity was a big issue. 45:24 Connor The first night against Ohio State, and even the second, I think the second pairing of Patrick Geary and Max Sturback needs to play a lot better. 45:32 Connor Sturback had a pretty rough weekend, lots of turnovers, lots of poor passes, and sort of not being in the right position, wrong lanes, the whole nine. 45:42 Connor Like, burn the tape was what we were kind of agreeing on in the press box for him over the weekend. 45:48 Connor But I think you want to see a better showing from those two. 45:51 Connor And I think you want to see things a little bit harder around the net in front of Trey. 45:56 Connor I thought Ohio State got a little bit, you know, a little bit more space than they probably should have, especially on Saturday for a team that you just, you know, gave up five goals the night before for one of the best goalies in college hockey. 46:09 Connor They were not all his fault. 46:11 Connor And I think you look at some of the plays that Ohio State was able to generate with Carabella, especially. 46:16 Connor He's going to be one heck of a player as a senior. 46:18 Connor I'm really, really high on him. 46:21 Connor I think that's where you want to see growth, is sort of just playing in control, playing with the process. 46:28 Connor I think that's Michigan State's goal going into this and coming away with a ring. 46:32 Connor Like, you know, as much as it's probably not the chief goal, it's still something they want to walk away with. 46:38 Jûpe Well, Steve's reminding us here that, you know, Michigan State, Minnesota, the only teams that have won multiple regular season titles. 46:44 Connor Minnesota first four, right? 46:46 Jûpe Yeah, I think they've won seven now. 46:48 Jûpe So it's, I think they won six out of them, six out of the six out of eight or nine or so. 46:57 Jûpe It was it was the first four in a row. 46:59 Jûpe I know a lot. 47:00 Jûpe It was a lot. 47:01 Vegoe It's pretty funny. 47:02 Vegoe We're asking, you know, Bob about your regular season titles. 47:05 Vegoe He's like, yeah, nobody cares about that one. 47:07 Vegoe You know, everyone wants to win the big or they don't remember. 47:10 Vegoe They don't remember. 47:10 Vegoe Yeah. 47:11 Vegoe Because he's like, who won five or six years ago? 47:13 Vegoe And Randy is like, well, probably you. 47:15 Vegoe But he's like, yeah, and I'm still on the hot seat for all the fans here that we got to win one. 47:20 Vegoe So, you know, that's what that's what the programs care about. 47:23 Vegoe You know, when you haven't won a regular season title and you win one or you win two. 47:28 Vegoe OK, now what's next? 47:30 Vegoe Like we want to go to Vegas and see a frozen four. 47:33 Vegoe You know, that's where the fan base kind of tends to go around here is that, you know, waiting the regular season is great and all. 47:39 Vegoe But what can you do in the postseason that really matters? 47:43 Vegoe So I think it's a big challenge for both teams this weekend. 47:45 Vegoe Minnesota's got to keep playing the way they've been playing the last couple of weeks in competitive, strong hockey games. 47:52 Vegoe You know, this is a team right now that has to play a disciplined style. 47:56 Vegoe They're not going to go out and score five or six against good hockey teams. 47:59 Vegoe They just don't have the firepower in their lineup. 48:02 Vegoe So they have to look to win a three, two game or four, two game with an empty net or something like that. 48:07 Vegoe And so they've got to keep their focus on that and they've got to stay out of the box. 48:12 Vegoe You know, Michigan's power play looked really good again against the Gophers and the Gophers. 48:18 Vegoe We've talked about this a lot or last in the country with their PK and Michigan State, maybe not quite as high powered as Michigan's power play, but still pretty darn good. 48:31 Jûpe Yeah, it's, it's, we're just full of stats the last couple of years here at Connor. 48:36 Jûpe We had that, that, you know, goalless streak on the shootout, which got to 28 misses in a row. 48:43 Jûpe At one point, just a couple of weeks ago, number one in the power play, number 63 in the penalty kill. 48:49 Jûpe We just love the goofy stats here in Minnesota. 48:51 Jûpe We just embrace it. 48:52 Jûpe Oh, there goes my camera. 48:54 Jûpe Going goofy on me again, but we embrace this goofiness here. 48:59 Connor Yeah, it's it's a goofy season, too, I feel like in some ways. 49:04 Connor When I look at how Minnesota started the season, some of the wins probably didn't expect January to go the way it did. 49:10 Connor But I think no one in that Michigan State dressing room is taking this trip lightly. 49:15 Connor They know what Minnesota is capable of. 49:17 Connor I'm a big Zeamer fan. 49:19 Connor I think he's going to be a really, really good pro. 49:21 Connor Buffalo got one hell of a steal. 49:24 Connor I like this team. 49:26 Connor Whipple, obviously, Wingspick was familiar with him from Pocky News Days just a little bit, but it's a good group. 49:32 Connor Luka DePasquale, I don't think people realize how important he was for Trey Augustine. 49:37 Connor That's his guy. 49:38 Connor They are thick as thieves. 49:41 Connor You don't see many players come back where they transferred from and get a cheer. 49:45 Connor If that says anything about him and his character and how guys appreciated him, it'll be a fun series, especially seeing those two goalies go at it. 49:54 Connor It should be a good time. 49:56 Connor Wish I could make the trip. 49:58 Vegoe Oh, yeah. 49:58 Connor We wish you were here too. 50:00 Jûpe Hey, there's, well, you're at the Detroit News. 50:04 Jûpe I mean, yeah, you got a lot of, you're not just covering hockey. 50:09 Jûpe There's a pretty big basketball teams there. 50:14 Vegoe Yeah, Thomas is quite the guy. 50:17 Jûpe I am picking a split this weekend. 50:20 Jûpe So Michigan State is going to get their title. 50:23 Jûpe But I think it's going to have to wait until Saturday night. 50:29 Jûpe So Michigan State is going to sweat it out. 50:31 Jûpe Minnesota is going to win Friday. 50:33 Jûpe Michigan State will win Saturday. 50:34 Jûpe Oh yeah, sorry, Thursday, Friday. 50:37 Jûpe And Michigan State is going to sweat it out a little bit, make them nervous. 50:43 Jûpe Well, if that second game were to get to overtime and Michigan State needs that point, or they lose it based off of that, that would be interesting. 50:54 Jûpe But that's my pick, Connor. 50:57 Jûpe What are your picks for points this weekend? 50:59 Connor I also have a split. 51:00 Connor I think it's three and three. 51:02 Connor And I, part of me thinks to get to OT and it's a split that way, OT or shootout. 51:08 Connor But I think it'll be in regulation each night. 51:10 Connor I think Michigan State probably wins the first one. 51:12 Connor You're fired up, juiced up. 51:14 Connor It's a Thursday. 51:15 Connor It's been spring break all week for Michigan State. 51:17 Connor So they haven't had class or anything like that. 51:18 Connor They've been thinking about this and this whole thing. 51:22 Connor You know, I don't think anyone had any plans, but they're a little busy this time of year. 51:27 Connor I think that's going to be the game that they're probably at their best. 51:31 Connor And I think if they win that one, I'm not to say the focus gets frayed, but if you know you're playing for something else, you know, you think got things kind of locked up. 51:40 Connor I think that's when we see sort of a, not a drop off, but just not as crisp performance. 51:45 Connor And I think Minnesota is a team you can't afford that against. 51:49 Jûpe All right, Veegs, what do you got? 51:52 Vegoe I think we get the Ben Holden special this weekend. 51:56 Vegoe I think we see two overtime games. 51:58 Vegoe Oh, and I think Minnesota takes four of the six points. 52:04 Vegoe Oh, and we have a tie point wise for the Big Ten Championship. 52:10 Vegoe And I did look it up. 52:11 Vegoe They have the same number of regulation wins right now. 52:15 Connor So, then it's regulation losses, I think. 52:19 Vegoe Everybody go to the tiebreakers. 52:24 Jûpe I haven't looked at it recently, but it is on the Big Ten standings page. 52:29 Jûpe So, you have to check it out. 52:32 Jûpe I've got the notes there of what the tiebreaking procedure is. 52:37 Jûpe So, and Vegoe, there's always bonuses with that. 52:41 Jûpe Yeah, that's right. 52:42 Vegoe Coaches get bonuses. 52:43 Vegoe I still haven't got my contracts for Adam Nightingale and staff from Michigan State that I put in for about seven weeks ago. 52:50 Vegoe But someday I'll see those. 52:55 Jûpe Vegoe loves the freedom of information stuff. 52:58 Connor That tracks with the MSU. 52:59 Connor I don't have much better luck. 53:02 Vegoe I was pretty surprised I got Michigan's, you know, the same day everybody else did. 53:06 Vegoe They waited to release it to everybody on the same day. 53:08 Vegoe That was kind of funny. 53:09 Vegoe But yeah, they haven't seen Michigan State yet. 53:13 Connor The higher ed reporter hates that about the U of M boy. 53:17 Jûpe I bet they do. 53:22 Jûpe Oh, I like your pic, Veegsz, that's a little bold. 53:24 Jûpe I mean, it would certainly make for an interesting finish for the Big Ten regular season title and get people fired up. 53:32 Vegoe So I would love to see Michigan State pull their goalie on Friday night, trying to have like a four on three chance or something to win it and get the extra like a regulation or something like that. 53:43 Vegoe Yeah, something like tied late in the game and they want the regulation win. 53:49 Jûpe Oh, that would be interesting. 53:52 Vegoe It'd be a lot of fun to see. 53:53 Jûpe Oh, would you think Net and go will pull that counter? 53:56 Connor I don't think you would do that. 53:59 Jûpe I don't think he would. 54:03 Jûpe He might do it on the third on the second game. 54:05 Jûpe Friday, if they lost game one and then they need the three. 54:12 Jûpe And he knows what the tiebreakers are. 54:13 Jûpe You know, it's tied, you know, two minutes left in the third. 54:17 Jûpe He pulls the best goal in the country to try for the win. 54:22 Jûpe That would be fun, Veegs. 54:23 Jûpe That would be fun. 54:24 Vegoe Praying for that, praying for that chaos. 54:27 Jûpe I like it. 54:29 Jûpe I like, I like that you're praying for chaos because it just makes College Hockey even more fun, man. 54:33 Connor Good job, Harder. 54:34 Vegoe Exactly. 54:38 Jûpe Well, Connor, thanks for coming on the show, man. 54:40 Jûpe It's nice to have you back on. 54:42 Connor Absolutely. 54:43 Jûpe Can you stand for a bit of overtime here? 54:45 Connor Absolutely. 54:47 Connor Playing for it. 54:48 Jûpe Sweet. 54:48 Jûpe And while Veegs is waiting to hear the coaching numbers and everything from Michigan State, you got anything else in the hopper? 54:57 Connor Nope. 54:57 Vegoe I got a beer on deck for overtime. 54:59 Jûpe Oh, he's got a beer on deck in the hopper. 55:04 Jûpe Well, that's pretty fun. 55:06 Jûpe Well, that's going to do it for this episode of The GPL Podcast. 55:10 Jûpe We got a special show coming up on Saturday from the Let's Play Hockey Expo. 55:16 Jûpe We're going to have Brian Bonnan on in the afternoon, about four o'clock or so. 55:20 Jûpe But the regular show will be back on Monday, since it's a Wednesday game next week. 55:25 Jûpe We'll be back on Monday for our next full episode. 55:30 Jûpe So that will be fun. 55:31 Jûpe So for those of you watching right now live, stay tuned for overtime. 55:36 Jûpe For the rest of you, we'll catch you next time on The GPL Podcast. 55:53 Jûpe If you are watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and get notified each time we go live or post a video. 55:59 Jûpe If you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please rate our show and leave a review. 56:08 Jûpe For those of you watching live, you know what's next. 56:12 Jûpe It's Vegoe's Beverage of the Week. 56:16 Jûpe It's time for Overtime.