0:09 This is The GPL Podcast, a production of gopherpucklive.com. 0:22 Now, let's join Cami, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter. 0:35 Welcome to The GPL Podcast. 0:38 It's been a little while since we've had a show, since the team's been on a break for quite a while, but we are back. 0:45 And before we get started with our guest, we need to know, Vegoe, what car are you in tonight? 0:51 I'm inside. 0:52 It's definitely way too cold. 0:53 Too cold for you? 0:54 No podcasting from the car, huh? 0:56 Exactly. 0:58 I close on my house at the end of the month, so I hope the little one stays quiet for you. 1:05 Yeah, he might. 1:06 He's getting better at sleeping. 1:07 He's getting that gene. 1:08 How old is he now? 1:10 15 months. 1:11 Oh, boy. 1:12 Oh, that's chasing everywhere. 1:14 Oh, yeah. 1:15 I remember those days. 1:17 It keeps you going. 1:19 Well, we have a special guest on this evening. 1:22 You may recognize him from Channel 11, and he is a sports guy. 1:28 But more important to us, he's a hockey guy, Dave Schwartz. 1:32 Nice to have you with us. 1:34 It's a pleasure to be with you guys. 1:35 How are you? 1:36 We are doing well. 1:39 I've seen you on the scene for the last few years, and I've noticed you're a hockey guy. 1:43 I am. 1:44 Yeah, Gopher is charged. 1:45 There's not too many hockey guys in the media. 1:48 We got a little bit of Jeff Dubay, and he obviously had his troubles, but it's nice to have someone who seems to really kind of support and have love for hockey. 1:59 Where do you get this love? 2:00 Where are you from? 2:01 Give us some little feedback on your story. 2:04 Yeah. 2:04 You know, I grew up playing, actually. 2:07 I grew up just outside of Albany, New York, and I started playing when I was about 10 years old. 2:12 I played all the way up through juniors in college, and then finally realized that it was either chase a dream of hockey or actually get a job and go with something that would actually pay me because I just didn't see hockey doing that. 2:28 So I had a fun time, played juniors in Western New York for a couple of years, and then decided that it was time to give it up. 2:37 I actually called hockey games for the next three years at college and got into journalism, and hockey has always had a soft spot for me. 2:45 I just, you know, talking with hockey guys just seems a little easier. 2:51 We're a different breed. 2:53 Yeah, it's just that, you know, I think we all speak each other's language a little bit better, and I've certainly found that out. 2:58 And you spent some time in Bemidji, so you were subjected to college hockey fairly early. 3:05 The first coach I ever got to cover was Tom Saratori, and if you guys ever interacted with him, he is so entertaining. 3:13 Gosh, he's entertaining, and he was a great guy. 3:15 Really good guy to learn from, very patient for young journalists because they have a small television station up there. 3:21 But I would have a standing date with him every single week. 3:24 I believe it was Mondays, and he was always there, and boy, if he was five minutes late, he'd apologize, and we always did our interview. 3:31 He was great. 3:33 I owe a lot to that guy. 3:35 Well, we're glad to have you as part of the hockey community because, like I said, hockey is put on the back burner for a lot of media coverage here in the cities. 3:47 But it's nice to have you on board, I tell you. 3:50 Which always amazes me. 3:51 It always amazes me how that is, when so many people in the state love the game like they do. 4:00 I would agree. 4:01 You're definitely preaching to the choir here. 4:04 It just seems like some of the top sports guys are either football or basketball guys, and that's just the way it is. 4:10 Even some of the big writers of the newspapers, they're basketball, football. 4:15 I mean, that's just kind of the way it is. 4:18 I will say, and I'll put a plug out there for Mike Russo, because he is honestly one of the best writers of any sports out there. 4:24 He is the best hockey writer, I think, in the nation for any level, and we're friends too, but I think we have a great writer in him. 4:33 Well, you have recently become a hockey writer too, haven't you? 4:36 I have. 4:37 I've done a little writing. 4:38 I'm doing some writing now for Minnesota Hockey Magazine. 4:41 Thank you for letting me plug them. 4:43 Oh, that's great. 4:43 Yeah. 4:44 Yeah, I'm enjoying it. 4:45 It's a lot of fun. 4:45 I've done a little bit of writing in the past, but nothing like this, and it's fun to be able to, it's always fun to explore a little different medium. 4:54 TV is TV, but it's fun to branch out and do some other things too. 4:58 It definitely is. 5:01 Well, boys, we've had a month off, and here we are. 5:05 Just had the Mariucci Classic, probably not going the way we thought it would, Hammey, but nonetheless, a tie and a win, but everyone's gonna think of that tie as a loss because yet again, another shootout loss for the Gophers. 5:22 Yeah, you know, it's always kind of fun watching people overreact to one game. 5:25 I think GPL was pretty much a meltdown mode after that game. 5:30 I mean, everybody, you'd think that it was actually the middle of March or something as opposed to the beginning of January. 5:37 So yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of an overreaction. 5:40 But we didn't get the one versus two match up. 5:42 That was the only real disappointment or the major disappointment of the weekend. 5:45 But I don't really see what people can expect. 5:48 The team was almost off for an entire month. 5:51 And even if you're practicing, you're still gonna be a little bit rusty. 5:54 So it wasn't a huge shock to me that that game didn't go entirely smoothly. 6:00 Veegs, I'm guessing the Big Ten Network was not happy about the Gophers not making it to the championship game. 6:06 Because they came in specifically for that reason. 6:09 You know they weren't gonna come in just for RPI. 6:13 Yeah, I think it was a little bit of a surprise to everyone. 6:15 And then to see Colgate beat Ferris State in the championship game that was played at 4 o'clock was also very surprising. 6:23 So I think people underestimated Colgate quite a bit. 6:27 I know Colgate probably gave Minnesota too much respect in the opening five minutes of the game on Friday night. 6:33 And then they recovered really quickly. 6:35 And after that, you know, they probably were chance for chance for the Gophers the rest of the way throughout the game. 6:41 Now, Dave, as a guy in television, how mad do you think those guys at Big Ten Network were that they did not get their matchup? 6:51 I mean, you got these guys driving in or coming in all over the place. 6:54 They could not be happy about that. 6:56 I can tell you this probably has to be the first time in a long time that a championship game has been played at 4 o'clock. 7:03 And that they put the third place game to 7, which obviously that's what everyone wants. 7:09 Yeah, with the TV and everything and the crowd. 7:11 I mean, that's the way it goes. 7:13 That's the risk you take when you pick up these tournaments. 7:16 And I'm sure that they were a little annoyed that they're... 7:20 But honestly, I don't know. 7:21 They still get the big audience at 7 o'clock to watch the Gophers. 7:25 So whether it's a championship game or a consolation game to them, they still get the numbers. 7:29 So I don't know how much it would annoy them other than the fact that if you're the broadcasters and the championship game is the 4 o'clock game and, you know, big deal. 7:39 I think they were probably all right with it. 7:40 They still got the numbers they needed. 7:41 Yeah, they definitely did. 7:43 I mean, one thing about Gopher Hockey, it's always been, is that if they're on TV, people are watching. 7:48 And we've seen it in the past. 7:50 You know, whatever it was, it was Midwest Sports Channel or Fox Sports. 7:54 They get good numbers for Gopher Hockey, which is just the one unique thing about this market that you don't see in other areas. 8:01 And on the plus side, it gave, what, a couple more hours for Lucia to get back in time from Sweden. 8:08 Well, yeah, that was a little disappointing, I think. 8:12 I think he would have rather not been at the game. 8:15 Yeah. 8:16 Well, unless he really wanted to give him a talking to after the Friday night game. 8:19 Oh, I'm guessing that old Gensel was not happy Friday night. 8:25 Could have been. 8:26 Hammey, 0-3 in the shootout. 8:29 What is the deal? 8:31 Yeah, I mean, it's a little surprising considering the Gophers usually are probably one of the more skilled teams in college hockey, and certainly a lot of these guys coming from juniors, it's not like they're coming right from high school where there are no shootouts. 8:42 They're coming, a lot of them, from junior hockey. 8:44 And so they have plenty of experience in that kind of a situation. 8:47 So it's a little bit surprising. 8:49 I don't know if it's just, I think, what did I see that they practice it once a week? 8:53 I mean, I don't know what it is. 8:54 And granted, it hasn't really been a huge factor thus far in terms of Big Ten, which is where it only really matters in the grand scheme and Big Ten conference play. 9:04 But it is a little surprising. 9:06 I don't know if they need to change up who they have shooting early on or what, but it certainly is an interesting situation. 9:14 And the biggest concern, Vegoe, I have is that, you know, they might get in their heads. 9:19 You know, oh, and three, we keep losing these shootouts. 9:21 And now it's going to count for a lot more in these Big Ten matchups. 9:27 Yeah, I think Kyle Rauh was one of the guys who was more frustrated than anyone. 9:31 You know, he's a skilled guy, and he's a guy who expects to score. 9:33 And I think he got his first shootout goal in, you know, the three attempts he's had. 9:38 And it's not that these guys aren't skilled. 9:41 It's just, you know, it's a different animal than a breakaway in a game. 9:45 And so I thought coming into the year that Wilcox always seems to bail out his team when they give up two on ones and breakaways. 9:53 And he hasn't looked very good in the shootouts either. 9:56 So, you know, maybe it's just getting in their heads a little bit. 9:58 Maybe the fact that they're only doing it once a week. 10:01 Maybe the coaches should start putting something on the line, you know, putting three guys against three guys and having some conditioning to the losers or something. 10:08 But, you know, they've got to change something up so the guys are either a little looser or a little more experienced at it. 10:14 Well, obviously, Colgate goes on, wins the shootout, goes on, defeats Ferris, you know, pretty handily. 10:22 And then following that, the Gophers beat RIP, or RPI, RIP. 10:27 Yeah, that's who it is. 10:28 Yeah, RIP to them, right? 10:31 Yes, they're dead. 10:33 They beat them 6 to 2, but it was a little closer. 10:36 For a while, they're hammy, and there was a crucial part of that game where Lucia had been saying all game that there's been a lot of interference on the face-offs and lo and behold, Marco Hunt pulls his whistle out and calls one at a critical time, right as RPI scored. 10:54 And boy, that was a big change in the game. 10:57 Yeah, I mean, but the thing is, it's not one of those situations where it's like the ref just raises his arm after he sees the goal. 11:04 Correct. 11:05 You can see in that replay that the ref had raised his arm like immediately. 11:09 So it's irrelevant that the puck went in the net. 11:13 I mean, he was going to call that one way or the other. 11:15 So I get where, if I were a fan of RPI, I would be a little bit probably upset about it on one hand, but at the same time, it was pretty clear that he was going to call it. 11:24 So, you know, he kind of did what he had to. 11:26 And this comes back to, you know, Lucia being on him the whole game about it. 11:30 No, tell him, hey, they're interfering with us. 11:32 They're interfering with us. 11:33 And, you know, by him doing that throughout the earlier parts of the game, Marco makes the call. 11:39 They don't get the goal. 11:40 We get the power play and score. 11:41 And it was just a huge turnaround. 11:45 Yeah, I mean, I think the other thing, too, is what I was really happy with this weekend. 11:51 I thought that the puck movement was pretty good as far as in the Sunday game or the Saturday game, excuse me, in terms of, you know, the power play, I thought was a little bit more effective. 12:00 And they almost had two power play goals in that game. 12:02 I mean, that one, that clue score was kind of, you know, late after the power play had just ended. 12:08 So, I mean, I thought they did pretty well on that. 12:10 The power play is improving. 12:12 I thought they had the game pretty well in hand. 12:14 I mean, I know that that play seemed like it was, you know, pretty big at the time. 12:18 But, like I said, he was going to call that anyway. 12:21 And so, to me, it's sort of an irrelevant point, you know, that it would have pulled him within one. 12:25 He was in the count, so. 12:28 And I think one thing is that Serratore made the extra effort to try to get around LeBouf on that one. 12:35 And if he doesn't do that extra effort and almost draw the call, it's going to be a goal. 12:41 So, I think that's good effort. 12:43 And I think that's probably also the coaches telling the players, hey, you got to fight through it. 12:47 Like, you just can't let them wall you off from getting to the shooter. 12:50 You really got to make the effort and then maybe the rest will call it. 12:53 Or at least act like it, right? 12:55 Yeah. 12:55 I mean, they're not going to call that ever. 13:00 Yeah, I almost look like I got shot on that one. 13:05 Hey, that's Serratore's job, isn't it? 13:08 It's in his blood, I guess. 13:10 Well, obviously, not the greatest weekend for the Gophers. 13:14 We'll deal with it. 13:15 It's a tie, it's a win. 13:16 We now move on. 13:18 We've got Penn State coming up this weekend. 13:20 I don't know if we're really going to talk too much about Penn State because I don't think any of us knows a thing about them. 13:26 I mean, Dave, do you know anything about Penn State hockey? 13:30 I can tell you, they're not very good. 13:31 Yeah, that's pretty much what everyone says. 13:34 Which is what we are, which is what we all know. 13:36 They give up a lot of goals, they don't score a whole lot. 13:40 You know, they're 0-2 in the Big Ten, in the Big Ten where granted, you have a, you know, the top three are pretty good, the bottom three obviously a lot less. 13:50 But yeah, I mean, I don't know a ton about Penn State other than the fact that they're starting things up, they're trying to get going from the ground up. 13:56 And you know, it's tough to compete at a big school like that, especially when you got big time football like they have, big time, I mean, there's even been times where basketball has been big over there. 14:07 And you know, to start up a program and get the support you need to really get it off the ground, it's hard, I mean, it's very difficult. 14:16 Well, the fans have been showing up, so that's a good thing. 14:18 I don't know if the Gophers are gonna be prepared for that because it sounds like Vegoe that they have quite the raucous crowd there. 14:26 Yeah, I think it's gonna be pretty close to a sellout for the games this weekend. 14:29 And you know, one of the reasons Gopher fans are upset is because of the Sunday Monday Series. 14:34 And they want to blame that on Big Ten Network or whatever. 14:37 But it's actually the school's choice. 14:40 Yeah, exactly. 14:40 Wham. 14:41 Yeah. 14:42 And I think it's good for the school to do their schedule, wait for the students get back because the atmosphere is everything, especially for a team like this against a team like Minnesota. 14:52 You know, if your building can get into it, you know, it's gonna give you a little bit extra energy. 14:56 And it puts that much more pressure on the Gophers. 14:58 I mean, you get five, ten, fifteen minutes in the game and they don't have a goal. 15:04 That just tremendous pressure comes down on to them. 15:09 And I feel like at times that this team can can have an ebb and flow based on the atmosphere at home, away. 15:18 I mean, we've seen it in years past. 15:19 I know that that sometimes this team thinks that it's just going to kind of come to them and it doesn't. 15:25 And I think that's what happens sometimes when you get in those environments, especially where all of a sudden, every time you touch a puck, they're screaming and booing at you. 15:31 And you don't know how to react to that as much if you're not prepared for it. 15:37 It's not like you're going into Roth Engelstedt here where you know every time you're going to boo and they're going to scream at you, throw stuff at you and whatever. 15:45 You're not prepared at what this is going to be. 15:47 So this is going to be different. 15:49 UND fans throw stuff? 15:50 No. 15:52 They're all angels up there. 15:54 Well, you know, see, here's the thing. 15:55 I'm trying to make friends with you guys. 15:56 And so I knew if I insulted UND, then maybe I'd get on your good side. 16:02 Well, Hammy has a history with those UND fans. 16:04 They just love him, right, Hammy? 16:07 Yeah. 16:08 Well, now that Dave's here, I will save my cheap shots for next week. 16:14 I'm not a UND fan. 16:17 Well, I know you're not. 16:18 But I mean, apparently, you're going to take over that role tonight for the cheap shotting of UND, which is perfectly fine. 16:25 So I'll save them for next week. 16:28 Well, I'll save them for next week. 16:30 Remember, you can always send us questions via Twitter, at Gopher Puck Live. 16:34 I would have then tell you about the voicemail, but nobody's doing it, you lazy slackers. 16:39 Get up, leave us a call. 16:40 We'll put you on the air. 16:41 We've got people done in the past, do it again. 16:46 320-321-9584, leave a voicemail. 16:48 We'll get you on the air. 16:49 We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about. 16:51 Hey, Hammeh, we've got a tweet here. 16:53 Should Lucia keep the line changes? 16:55 He made Saturday going forward, and he's kind of wondering, how do we jumpstart Condon and Warning? 17:01 Because honestly, those two have kind of disappeared. 17:06 Yeah, well, it's hard to argue with that. 17:08 I mean, Warning had such a hot start to the season, and he's basically falling off. 17:12 I mean, he's still leading the team in scoring, but I mean, he hasn't really done a hell of a lot in the last, what, you know, four to six weeks, whatever it's been. 17:18 And so that's been a little bit surprising. 17:21 You know, on the flip side of the coin, it's been nice to see Rao kind of stepping up. 17:24 It was nice to see him do well this last weekend. 17:27 So hopefully, that's kind of an omen for the future. 17:31 But I mean, yeah, I think I'm surprised Condon hasn't done as well. 17:33 He actually has not played very well. 17:35 I was really disappointed with that turnover. 17:38 I mean, I know it was a 2-1-0 the other direction, and people want to kind of blame it as a line change issue, which it was to some extent. 17:45 But when you have the puck and you get the long change, you have to get that puck deep and make sure that your guys can make that change. 17:53 And Condon was screwing around too much at the blue line. 17:55 And I mean, that was kind of a problem. 17:56 And it's been a problem the whole year for the team, I think, at times, is they've been turning the puck too much, turning it over too much, the blue line, on our offensive blue line, and it's going the other direction and creating opportunities for other teams. 18:09 So, they got to clean that up. 18:10 Figgs, what's happened to Condon's speed? 18:13 You know, that was one thing we've seen in the past. 18:15 You know, I'll never forget that the West Regional against UND on the shorthand. 18:21 The kid just flew up the ice. 18:23 The UND guy had no chance to score, makes the score five to one. 18:27 The crowd goes crazy. 18:28 This kid has had speed, and I just have not seen that speed this year. 18:32 Yeah, I think moving to wing this year has maybe been a little bit more of a challenge than he'd like to admit. 18:38 I think he's a little more comfortable at center. 18:41 Sometimes when you're playing center, it's a little bit easier to get into the game because you have that freedom to kind of get up and back and forth. 18:49 And I think it's just been a struggle for him. 18:51 And on Saturday, when he moved back to center, he looked a lot more comfortable. 18:54 He made better decisions, and he looked faster. 18:57 So I don't know if it's anything physical with him. 19:00 I think it was more mental than anything. 19:02 And, you know, camera out on clues, they kind of have that chemistry back and forth, and maybe he just got caught on the outside of that. 19:08 And maybe putting in with Warren might jump start both of them. 19:12 Well, that would be nice, because those two have got skill, and maybe they just need to get that goal, to get it off their shoulders or something. 19:18 Who knows? 19:19 Well, and I like the line changes. 19:21 I mean, I think they needed to shake it up, I think, to an extent. 19:25 I mean, you can't just keep going if it's not working for a few guys. 19:29 But, you know, at the same time, they're getting scoring for pretty much all their lines. 19:32 I mean, you know, especially that third line has been real good. 19:35 And so, you know, how much do you really want to tinker with things? 19:38 I mean, you don't want to do it too much. 19:40 So I could see tweaking it, but I wouldn't want to tinker with it too much. 19:44 I think the thing that's one of the things that's driving me nuts in the in the from what I've seen of Condon and different from years past, he's just not shooting as much. 19:53 I mean, he just his shots and, you know, just looking briefly at the shots, if you look at the top, you know, six forwards, nine forwards, his shots on goal are just are down. 20:03 I don't know if he's just missing the mark. 20:04 He's just not shooting and neither is Sam Warner, just as much as he has in the past. 20:10 And I think, you know, I think you make a good point. 20:12 I think the switch to a different position to the wing has been, it's a different, it's different for him. 20:19 And one thing about warning is that that's his bread and butter is shooting. 20:23 Yeah, that's really where he's been. 20:25 First month, he was sniping goals left and right. 20:29 Yeah, I totally agree. 20:30 I mean, if you look back to even his junior hockey days, I mean, that was really where he was at his best was scoring goals. 20:36 And so, you know, hopefully they're going to get on and kind of pull the trigger. 20:40 You know, it's like the old Wayne Gretzky saying about, you know, you're going to miss all, you know, whatever it was, you know, we can't, you're going to miss all the shots you don't take, whatever it is. 20:48 I don't remember how he said it exactly. 20:50 But so, you know, I just think it's one of those situations where he's got to start pulling a trigger. 20:56 Some of these guys that have scored goals in the past, you know, they can't be deferring to puck as often. 21:00 I think they try to be a little too cute with the puck. 21:03 So, just starts firing a puck and then going to the net hard. 21:07 Things will happen. 21:07 I think that's, it's 100% of the shots you don't take, don't go in. 21:12 Yeah, whatever. 21:12 I do something like that. 21:14 I'm a huge Gretzky fan. 21:16 That's the only reason I know that one. 21:17 Because that shot I took never went in when I played. 21:20 That's why. 21:21 Wow. 21:22 Well, Vegoe, have your shots been going in for the Rubes yet? 21:26 You know, I took last night off to watch a football game. 21:28 Are you serious? 21:30 You skipped a hockey game to watch football? 21:33 And it was a good one. 21:34 I think it was a good decision. 21:35 The Rubes skated to a 6-6 tie. 21:37 Oh, wow. 21:38 Low scoring. 21:39 Yeah. 21:40 A lot of defense in the men's league. 21:42 See, Dave, the Rubes is a hockey team that plays up in the Super Rink League that Vegoe is part of, I used to be part of, and we're kind of vicariously living through Vegoe since he still plays with the team. 21:52 But I'm a little disappointed that he didn't play last night. 21:56 A lot of good goalies in that league? 22:00 Oh, a lot of big guts in that league. 22:03 Mine was one of them and I'm too old for it now. 22:07 Is that the league with North Dakota and UMD and those teams? 22:14 No comment. 22:15 We do get nachos sometimes. 22:17 It's a super league. 22:18 Nachos and beer. 22:20 Yeah. 22:21 Well, let's take advantage of Mr. 22:23 Dave Schwartz here. 22:24 I have got some questions for you being Mr. 22:26 TV guy. 22:28 Goodness. 22:28 All right. 22:29 What is the deal with you and Jared Sebesta on Twitter? 22:33 Oh. 22:34 You two are back and forth all the time and I see this all the time. 22:37 You just get him going. 22:39 You're bitching about the weather, blah, blah, blah. 22:41 It just seems like you guys, it seems like fun, but sometimes it seems like you're serious. 22:47 No, no. 22:48 Actually, he and I are really, really good friends actually. 22:51 We hang out a lot. 22:53 I like to get at it because I think being a meteorologist is the easiest job in the world. 22:58 Yeah. 23:00 Those fighting words. 23:00 I like to do as much as I can. 23:03 He's a good sport about it. 23:05 The only time I think I really miffed him a little is when he was taping weather updates and I stole his clicker, his little clicker that advances the graphics. 23:14 He actually left it somewhere and I saw it, grabbed it, and saw the opportunity ahead of me. 23:20 As he was trying to record all of his updates at 9.30, he wanted to get it done so he could go watch basketball, which I didn't care about, but he wanted to go watch basketball. 23:29 I sat there and I kept, so he'd start doing his weather forecast and then I'd start frenetically pushing the clicker and advancing all his graphics. 23:36 It took him three or four times before he realized that someone was doing that to him. 23:41 Yeah, we have a lot of fun. 23:42 He likes to come after me and I like to go after him, but it's all I promise, all in good fun. 23:47 Did he sick Belinda Jensen on you? 23:50 Did he tell on you? 23:51 I wish, hey, there's nothing wrong with that. 23:57 We settled it like men. 23:58 I don't remember what we did. 23:59 I think I apologized. 24:00 Over a beer, I hope. 24:02 I'm sure it was. 24:03 I'm sure. 24:05 Vegoe, you got to be careful now. 24:06 I was taught by Belinda's husband at Carlson. 24:10 He's a good guy. 24:11 Oh, goodness. 24:13 He's a very nice guy. 24:14 Dave's a good guy. 24:15 Oh, okay. 24:17 Now, I understand that you get to go to Sochi. 24:20 Is this correct? 24:21 Yeah, you've done your homework. 24:22 I like this. 24:24 That has got to be exciting. 24:26 Not just as a professional thing, but just as a personal thing to head over to way halfway across the world and see the Olympic Games. 24:36 You know, I can honestly tell you, I don't know if Russia was ever on my bucket list, but I'm pretty excited. 24:42 I'm really excited to watch Olympic Hockey, especially since half the women's team is Minnesotans and about three quarters of the men's team are Minnesotans. 24:49 So I'm going to be, well, I think I'm going to spend a lot of my time there, which is just great, but it'll be a lot of fun. 24:57 Yeah, it's definitely going to be the high point of my career so far, I think. 25:03 I'm looking forward to it. 25:03 In fact, I got a couple more weeks here to try to get everything in order, and there's a lot to go into it. 25:08 So is it you and a camera guy and maybe a producer, or is it three of you? 25:13 I mean, how does this whole thing work? 25:15 Well, a lot different than it used to. 25:17 Used to be there'd be a crew of about five or six people. 25:20 Now there's two of us. 25:22 It's myself and a photographer who also does social media, but I have, at the Olympics a lot of times, that because it's so far away and because the travel cost is so ridiculous, that I'll actually have a camera and shoot some stuff myself. 25:39 Which is, you know, it's a little camera, it's easy and it's cost effective, so you send two people instead of four and then you still get to go. 25:48 But that's kind of the way. 25:49 Back in the day they'd send 10, 15 people when they were printing money, but it's a little different these days as everything is. 25:55 Well, plus I would say it might be easier these days as well with the way the world communications are and it just seems like it would be easier to do something like this than it was back in the day with all the satellite trucks and all this strange stuff. 26:09 It seems like it would be a little easier. 26:12 And not to get too technical, but honestly with my little camera and my laptop, it all fits in one backpack and it's so insanely easy. 26:22 And to be honest with you, it's kind of nice to just do it all yourself. 26:26 You don't have to wait for someone to get ready or the producer to get you in the right spot and the camera guy to get his focus. 26:32 And I just click and go. 26:34 And the cameras are so easy that even a dummy like me can use them and it's point and shoot. 26:40 And it's real easy. 26:41 And yeah, it's simple and it's done and done. 26:43 But it's a lot of fun. 26:44 A lot of curling coverage, I assume, as well, because you've been covering that a lot lately as well. 26:49 I love, I'll tell you what, I am hooked on curling. 26:52 I mean, were you doing it yourself? 26:54 Did you get to try it? 26:55 Yeah, I had a couple of the women from the women's team show with me, and I had a good time. 27:04 It was really interesting. 27:05 I mean, it's a fun game. 27:06 It's like shuffleboard on ice, but you can drink beer while you do it. 27:09 So it's a great game. 27:11 Yeah, I've really gotten very into it. 27:17 It's kind of neat. 27:18 It's a neat aspect of my job to be able to go and all of a sudden learn from the best. 27:23 It'd be like being able to sit down on the ice with Zach Parisi before the Olympics and have him show me how to pick corners. 27:31 So I got to talk to John Schuster, who's the skip of the men's team and how he does things, and Jessica Schultz, who's on the women's team, and she would talk to her. 27:41 To be able to just go and talk to people who are at the top of their profession is so phenomenally interesting to me, and I've had a great time. 27:51 So what you're saying is at the Olympics, the curlers, instead of having Gatorade in their bottles, they have beer in their bottles? 27:57 Nice! 27:58 Well, you know what, though? 28:01 They don't, because there's such an amazing science to it. 28:05 I mean, you're talking, and I didn't realize this, but you're talking centimeters where you have to hit that rock. 28:11 You don't have a big window, because if you miss it by an inch one way or a centimeter the other, it affects where the rock goes, how it comes off of it, how it hits the other rocks and clears out what they call the house, which is that big target. 28:26 And it's, I mean, it's not easy. 28:28 It really is. 28:29 It looks super easy, but it's not. 28:31 How much leeway did they get with the sweeping, though? 28:33 Yeah, I was going to say, what's a sweeper? 28:36 Well, you can sweep as much or as little as you need to, but it's whether you want to slow the rock down, whether you want to speed it up, whether you want to try to make it curl a little more to the left or go a little more to the right. 28:47 There's even a science to the sweeping too. 28:50 Yeah, because I'm wondering how much depth they can give it or take it away with not sweeping or sweeping because they just judge it so well. 28:58 Yeah, they judge it because they know how long it should take for the rock, how long it should take for it to leave the throwers hand and to make it down there to hit the rock and then you know what that speed needs to be so that you can get the other rock to go off of it. 29:14 But the ice is actually beaded so it's not like the ice on a skating rink or a hockey rink where it's completely smooth. 29:21 It's actually beaded so what you do when you sweep is you're actually wearing down those beads to get it to go faster or not doing that a lot so that it will stay the same speed or even slow down. 29:31 So, by beaded you mean it's like a texture? 29:34 Yes. 29:35 It's like little pebbles of ice. 29:37 There's little texture on the ice. 29:39 Wow. 29:41 We're getting a curling lesson in on this. 29:43 I'm fascinated by it because when I watch the Olympics I tend to watch all that other stuff that you never watch. 29:48 Same thing with the Summer Olympics. 29:50 And I've had myself on MSNBC at midnight watching live curling before during the Olympics because I find it fascinating. 30:02 It's almost like I was watching the trials on CNBC. 30:06 Oh, the trial. 30:07 Okay. 30:09 So, I saw Schuster and they had to come back. 30:11 They had a three game series and they pulled it out and it was exciting. 30:14 That was a crazy game. 30:15 And Schuster is a very interesting, he's a really cool guy. 30:19 He's very intense and there's been a lot of drama between he and Pete Fenson over the years. 30:25 They used to be on the same team and now they're not, which they insisted both to me is just part of curling. 30:30 But the other part of me says, if you used to be on the same team and now you're not, then something didn't work. 30:37 Are they going to drop the gloves? 30:40 Those rocks are pretty heavy and you can throw those and then you got the brooms to try to hit with. 30:45 I don't know. 30:46 I've never seen that happen. 30:47 You never know though. 30:48 So do you have anything? 30:49 Go ahead, Hammeh. 30:50 I was going to say, are you heartbroken that you're not going to interview Lindsey Vonn now? 30:54 You know what? 30:54 I actually got to interview her already. 30:57 Oh, did you? 30:58 Yes. 30:59 It was one of the few times in my life that I was starstruck because she's something different than you've talked to before. 31:08 She's hot too. 31:10 She is beautiful. 31:11 Yeah. 31:12 You can tell us what you mean. 31:16 She's hot. 31:16 We get it. 31:17 She's very aware of everything she's saying and going on, and she's very aware of how she's taken by people who are talking to her. 31:28 She's very nice. 31:29 She's incredibly kind. 31:30 We were there on a day that she was at Afton Alps when she was meeting with some young kids. 31:36 She stayed there an hour and a half past the time she was supposed to be there, signing autographs, taking pictures, and everything for a bunch of kids who just worshiped her. 31:45 A couple of members of the media who are a bit starstruck by her. 31:49 Like you. 31:50 Yes. 31:52 Do you think she's sick of the Minnesota thing though? 31:56 No. 31:56 Because you know how we are here. 31:57 We got to make everybody ours, and she's been gone for quite some time. 32:01 I think she recognizes that that's an important part of her, and an important part of her fan base. 32:08 Because, I mean, I could tell you when Lindsay Vaughan skis, it always gets huge numbers here in Minnesota, or when we put any story up on our website at kare11.com, it gets huge hits. 32:20 People here are, and so that's a big part of her fan base, and she's very careful, I think, to feed her fan base and never alienate anybody. 32:28 She's, she's, it's very, it's a very exceptional, takes a very exceptional person to be as good at athletics as she is, and as good at her sport as she is, but also be so cognizant and so good as at the business side of it, and the perception side of it. 32:43 And now she's got the whole Tiger Woods thing, and that's just got to change the dynamic even more with her. 32:49 You'd think so, but as far as I can tell, she doesn't talk about it, it doesn't come up. 32:55 That's just kind of personal life, and she just happens to be dating Tiger Woods. 33:02 Just happens to be dating Tiger Woods. 33:04 It was also a pretty big deal in his own right. 33:06 Yeah, yeah. 33:08 He was good at one time. 33:09 He's a little afraid now. 33:12 So what are your plans for Sochi? 33:14 Obviously, you're going to be following a lot of the hockey and the curling. 33:19 Do you have any other things that you want to get out and see and report on that you could give us a little hint on? 33:25 Yeah. 33:25 Who are the other Minnesotans for medal? 33:28 Pardon? 33:29 And who are the other Minnesotans who are looking forward to get medals? 33:32 Yeah. 33:32 I mean, we'll talk. 33:34 I think both of the curling teams have a pretty good shot. 33:37 I think the women's team might have a better shot than the men's team, but that all depends on how well they play as far as curling. 33:45 Leif Nordgren is an interesting guy. 33:47 He's a biathlete from Marine on St. 33:50 Croix, and he's actually, he's young. 33:53 He's just a 24-year-old kid, and he insists to me that that's actually a disadvantage in his sport. 33:59 So we'll be, although, I mean, he's very good and he qualified, and they really think very highly of him, so he has a pretty good shot. 34:08 Not much in the speed skating side. 34:10 I will tell you that. 34:11 That actually, we talked to a couple speed skaters, and we just never, none of them ended up making the team. 34:18 There's a couple of skiers, but mainly it's curling hockey and biathlon, and I'll be working, we'll do other things. 34:25 We'll do slice of life stories where we'll show you the venues in Sochi and the area around, because I think a lot of people don't understand that this is going to blow your mind of what your notion of Russia is, because it's actually on the Black Sea, so there's palm trees, and it's a vacation area. 34:44 Yeah, and it doesn't get any colder than 30 degrees, and it doesn't get any warmer than 50, unless you go up into the mountain cluster where there it's a little bit colder. 34:52 It's kind of like Denver, isn't it? 34:53 A little bit like, you know, rock mountains, resorts. 34:57 Yeah, it is. 34:58 It's like Denver meets Key West, if you could do both things, is basically what it is. 35:03 And so we'll do a lot of that. 35:07 You know, I'm a foodie. 35:08 I like food, a lot of different food. 35:10 So I am guaranteed I'll give you a taste of what Russian food is going to be. 35:14 I don't quite know how I'm going to do that. 35:16 Vodka? 35:18 Probably. 35:18 I think that you... 35:20 Hammy, you've got a theme going on tonight, don't you? 35:23 You're in trouble. 35:24 Well, you think Russia, you know. 35:26 Yeah, you do. 35:26 Yeah. 35:27 And I'm sure that's part of it too. 35:28 But yeah, I mean, and a lot of it will just kind of develop as I get over there. 35:32 You know that? 35:32 Yeah, and that's kind of one of the things. 35:34 Yeah. 35:34 New stories will pop up, you know. 35:37 Things unexpected will pop up. 35:39 And who knows what this, you know, obviously Putin and his social things have been quite the story to you. 35:46 That might even come up. 35:47 So yeah, I really hope it doesn't because I like to stick to sports, but we'll see. 35:52 I have a feeling. 35:52 If you're there, I mean, you're the guy. 35:56 They're going to they're going to ask us and it'll be interesting because that is that's really other than, you know, the two random suicide bombings that happened a couple of weeks ago. 36:06 That is the biggest question right now is, is, you know, what's going to happen with the gay athletes and people want to know and how that's going to play out. 36:15 And so, yeah, there's a there are some things that are sure to happen over there that we didn't expect. 36:20 I think Putin will be on his best behavior. 36:22 He wants to look good for the world and he's already been doing that by obviously setting a lot of people free in his country. 36:29 So I think he'll be on his best behavior because he knows the world's eyes are on his country. 36:33 So yeah, this is his show. 36:35 This is his show to show everybody that Russia is great and he's got, I mean, let's not forget, this guy was with the KGB. 36:42 So he's got some connections to do what he needs to do to take care of business in Russia. 36:48 Dave Schwartz, don't let him in. 36:51 Don't get arrested. 36:52 Yeah, don't get arrested. 36:54 Be very careful how you tweet. 36:58 When you get ready to go, you have to do the safety course and NBC Universal sends you these e-mails. 37:04 And one of the things is, it's like they tell you is, if you see a rally going on or a protest, walk away. 37:12 Don't go near it. 37:13 Don't talk politics with anybody. 37:16 Don't talk about your sexual preference with anybody. 37:19 It's just crazy stuff that you wouldn't think of. 37:21 But yeah, you just keep your mouth shut and keep your head down. 37:24 Well, you've got to be just really jacked up about going. 37:27 I mean, it sounds like a great opportunity for you. 37:29 I am. 37:30 I'm excited. 37:31 It'll be a lot of fun. 37:31 I really am. 37:33 Well, guys, you've got one more. 37:36 Go ahead. 37:37 I want to know, Dave, what it's like to work with a babe like Raina Sargentopoulos. 37:45 I will tell you. 37:47 Is she a hockey fan? 37:50 She is kind of. 37:51 She's getting there. 37:54 She is becoming a good hockey fan. 37:56 But whatever you think of her on TV, she's actually even cooler off with the camera. 38:01 She is without a doubt one of the coolest people I've ever met. 38:03 She loves football, big NFL football fan. 38:08 So she's just a good person. 38:09 Yeah, if you haven't met her, you should because she's really cool. 38:13 She's very nice and very cool and we have a lot of fun. 38:15 She's an awesome person to work with. 38:18 That's great. 38:20 Well, we appreciate you joining us today with a little hockey talk, but it's kind of fun to talk to this Olympic stuff, and it's really nice to have a hockey guy in the media. 38:30 Supporting us. 38:31 Hey guys, anytime you want me back, just let me know, it's fun. 38:35 Because like I said, we've got our own little Jeff Dubay out there and he's coming back and actually we might have him on the podcast in the next couple of weeks because he's obviously a die-hard Gopher guy, but like I said, it's nice to have you out there. 38:48 I saw you covering the women's hockey team last year. 38:52 You were doing live remotes from Ritter Arena. 38:55 I didn't come up and introduce myself because you look like you're really busy, but it goes- 38:59 Did I? 39:00 Yeah. 39:00 It's amazing. 39:02 You know, I can act sometimes. 39:03 I figure if I look and see, I can't get in trouble. 39:06 But it's nice to have someone in the media who supports our love for hockey and you're a hockey guy, so that's why we wanted to have you on. 39:14 My pleasure. 39:14 Thank you, guys. 39:15 I appreciate it. 39:16 I do love Gopher Puck Live, so keep up the good work. 39:19 Well, we try to. 39:20 Vegoe does the writing. 39:22 Hammy keeps the controversy going with all the recruiting information, and I just take pictures at the game. 39:26 So, Hammy's my guy. 39:28 We have taken contact a number of times. 39:31 He's helped me out with some stuff. 39:32 I think Hammy works for the KGB, because he has so many sources with Gopher Hockey. 39:37 It's ridiculous. 39:38 I always appreciate your nuggets of information, Hammy. 39:43 Thank you very much. 39:44 I try to do my best. 39:45 I try to help out when I can, and I'll remember that the next time I come knocking on Kare 11's doors trying to get in to a tour or whatever. 39:52 Let me know. 39:53 I'll come let you in. 39:55 Okay, I'll hold you to that. 39:57 I'm only about a quarter or a half mile away. 39:59 Oh, geez. 40:00 No, he's going to start stalking you now. 40:03 Oh, there's better people to stalk. 40:04 I can help you. 40:06 Yeah, he's going to you to get to Rena. 40:08 That's all he's doing. 40:11 Well, that's it for this week's GPL Podcast. 40:14 Obviously, we didn't talk about Penn State much because we just have no clue what's going to happen with them. 40:19 And we'll talk about it more next week when they're done. 40:23 Obviously, it's a Sunday, Monday series. 40:26 Don't make it a big deal, folks, because it's not. 40:28 Just enjoy the games. 40:30 We'll be back next week. 40:32 We'll be talking with hopefully Mr. 40:35 Ryan Cardinal, who will be coming back for our 50th podcast. 40:41 So Ryan's going to be joining us next week. 40:43 He's not working for the Vikings, so he's got plenty of free time. 40:46 Yeah, he's got time now. 40:47 So he'll be coming back. 40:49 He has a little reunion for our, since he was back here at the beginning of The GPL Podcast. 40:54 And obviously we'll preview the big outdoor game coming up and what have you. 41:01 Thank you, Dave, for joining us. 41:02 We really appreciate it. 41:04 My pleasure. 41:05 Well, see you guys at the outdoor game. 41:07 Yes, you will. 41:08 All right. 41:09 Until then, thanks for listening.