0:09 This is The GPL Podcast, the production of gopherpucklive.com. 0:22 Now, let's join Cami, Vego, and your host, Jupiter. 0:38 Good evening, and we are back for the beginning of season number four of The GPL Podcast. 0:46 Looks like a couple of you are listening live, so thanks for listening in. 0:51 Was it a great season ending last year? 0:55 But as typically happens, you know, whenever we lose the last game of the season, I don't feel like doing a podcast, and that's just what happened. 1:05 But of course, joining me again this year is Mr. 1:09 Hammy and Mr. 1:10 Vegoe. 1:10 Say hello, guys. 1:11 How you doing? 1:12 Doing well. 1:14 Doing great. 1:14 New addition to the family this season, so always a good start. 1:21 New addition, a baby girl, I hear. 1:23 Baby Romar, yes. 1:25 Oh, boy. 1:26 Hopefully no podcasting from the car this year? 1:29 Well, I got a house now in Northeast Minneapolis, so should be a little easier. 1:34 It should be, but you just never know with kids. 1:39 Exactly. 1:39 You just never know. 1:40 This one is a little bit better at sleeping than Henrik. 1:43 Was at the same age, so hopefully it will be easier podcasting. 1:48 Well, guys, the last time we talked, we were going to the Frozen Four, the Gophers had a wonderful win over UND with 0.6 seconds left. 2:02 Then two days later, oh boy, what a disappointment, huh, Hammeh? 2:05 Losing to Union? 2:08 Yeah, well, I mean, Union wasn't exactly a neophyte in terms of experience. 2:13 They had some real good players. 2:16 And I think it kind of goes to show you in that one-and-done nature, it doesn't take a heck of a lot. 2:20 If you have one little bad stretch during a game, you could really be digging yourself out of a hole. 2:26 That's kind of what happened late in that first period. 2:28 So you got to tip your hat to them and give them all the credit for taking it to us. 2:33 And I like the fight that I saw in the guys the rest of the game, but it just didn't work out in the end. 2:39 What do you think, Vegoe? 2:39 Were you as pissed as I was? 2:42 Well, I mean, it's frustrating. 2:43 I mean, it was such a good team and it's such a, you know, a stretch of great play to even get there. 2:51 Because, you know, college hockey, it's a one-game event, and you're just trying to survive, and they got all the way to the final. 2:59 And, you know, for a team that had played so well defensively, they gave up that many goals was tough to stomach. 3:06 And they were bad goals, just terrible coverage out front. 3:11 Yeah, I mean, it was a team loss on giving up those goals. 3:14 It was kind of shocking to see for a team that had such good structure all season to have let that happen. 3:21 Yeah, yeah. 3:23 Oh, running with dogs wants a marathon recap. 3:26 How was the marathon? 3:28 I did run Twin Cities this past weekend. 3:31 It was my fifth marathon. 3:33 And I did finish. 3:35 It was a little chilly. 3:37 So I got to about mile 18. 3:39 And my quads decided to stop running consistent miles. 3:43 So I had to walk a little bit. 3:44 And I got across in 514. 3:47 So that's not bad for a guy in the 240s. 3:51 I'm impressed no matter what. 3:52 So, and if you are listening live, you know, you could just tweet us, use the hashtag GPL Podcast. 3:59 And we'll try to read whatever you have or whatever question you may have on the air. 4:04 So that was running with dogs. 4:06 A dogs fan, which by the way, we get to start off the season this year with the dogs. 4:11 We'll get to more about that later. 4:13 But, Hammeh, first I kind of want to hit you up on the freshman this year. 4:20 Big freshman class coming in. 4:23 Let me see, bring up my little recruiting page. 4:25 Let's start out with the Swede himself, Leon Brischstedt. 4:29 What are your thoughts on this guy? 4:31 Well, I mean, it's interesting because obviously most of us, he's not the typical recruit where we get to see a lot of them, either locally or, you know, even if you go to some USHO game. 4:40 So he's a little bit of a mystery in that sense. 4:43 But I remember when he committed last year talking to, we'll say, a scout that has seen him play quite a bit. 4:51 And the description I got with the, of course, the asterisk that, you know, he's not the same as this player, but it was like a poor man's Zach Parisi was the response that I got. 5:03 And essentially, you know, the comparison was that he's kind of a smaller guy, but he works real hard, has a gritty side to him, has a goal score. 5:12 So he's got the skill there, and it'll be interesting to see where they, you know, kind of fit him into the lineup once he is able to play. 5:19 I'm assuming they're bringing him in to play a scoring role. 5:22 So I'm sure he'll get an opportunity to fit in somewhere in that top six once he gets in on the ice. 5:27 And right off the bat, Brian Stark is wondering, where do we see Bristead in the lineup after his two-game suspension? 5:34 Well, I mean, that's, I mean, that's the interesting thing. 5:37 I, you know, before the podcast, I was thinking, you know, what are the couple of the key things that I'm looking forward to this season, especially early on. 5:44 And one of the things for me was who's going to fill out the top six? 5:49 We know that Rao and Fashing and Cammie and Clues are likely going to be in the top six, but there's a couple wing spots that they're going to probably rotating some guys in and out and seeing who's going to be a good fit chemistry wise. 6:00 And I think Bristead will be, you know, one of those guys that they're going to give an opportunity to. 6:06 Well, you know, he is one guy that I did notice out on the ice during the exhibition. 6:11 You know, I kind of went down there, Marriott, she didn't take any photographs, just kind of relaxed. 6:16 And I noticed him on the ice. 6:19 He's kind of a little bugger out there. 6:23 Yeah, well, I mean, he's not afraid to, you know, like I said, it sounds like he's the kind of guy that's afraid, not afraid to mix it up despite being only 5'8, a buck 80, you know, which is, you know, pretty compact for a 5'8 guy. 6:34 But, you know, he's, and, you know, yeah, there's that, of course, reputation some Europeans get that, you know, they're not going to be a gritty player and all that kind of stuff. 6:42 But from everything I hear, he doesn't really fit into that stereotype. 6:48 Well, I would say another player that I did notice this past Saturday night was number three, Jack Glover, not Glover, make sure you say Glover now, people. 6:59 He was noticeable on the offensive side. 7:01 But one thing I really noticed is that he likes to pinch that may cause problems when you start going against different competition. 7:08 But Vegoe, I think this Glover guy is going to be an impact player as well. 7:14 Well, they need some big guys who can play defense. 7:17 At Media Day, Lucio was talking about how they've got plenty of guys who can bring the offense with Marshall, Raleigh, Brad Zinski. 7:25 What they need is some guys who can play solid D, make that first pass, kind of play that Brady Shea kind of game. 7:31 And I think with Genzel, he's going to coach that out of them. 7:36 They don't let too many... 7:37 I hope so because it kind of concerned me a few times. 7:39 He was pinching a lot. 7:40 They don't let too many Riverboat Gamblers play D at the U. 7:43 So I think Genzel will get that coach to know him. 7:46 And if not, there's a lot of competition. 7:48 They've got eight strong guys looking for spots. 7:52 I know Bischoff is going to play probably a more steady role this year because he is that kind of steady defense first kind of guy. 8:00 But Gopher, you know, he's big. 8:02 So that's always fun to see. 8:05 Someone even beg your hammy. 8:06 I noticed skinny, but very tall. 8:08 Mr. 8:09 Ryan Collins back there on defense. 8:12 He looked huge out there. 8:15 Yeah, I mean. 8:15 He's 6'5. 8:16 You put him on skates. 8:17 That's 6'7. 8:18 That's a tall kid. 8:20 Yeah, I mean, he's definitely, you know, he's more of obviously the defense of defenseman type. 8:25 He's not going to be, you know, razzle dazzle with the moves, with the puck and everything. 8:30 And he's a little bit different. 8:32 You know, he and Gopher, they went to BSM together, so they kind of been playing together for a while. 8:37 And, you know, Gopher, getting back to him real briefly, he's kind of to me this year's Hudson fashion in a sense, because, you know, he had a lot of hype on him, you know, last year in his draft year. 8:48 And I think a lot of teams kind of expected a lot more of him than what he produced in his last year at the national program. 8:55 And so what will be interesting to see if he takes a step up like fashion did as a freshman at the U. 9:01 And as far as Collins goes, you know, I think that he'll be a steady presence back there. 9:05 I don't think that, you know, he'll be the kind of guy that's going to be, like I said, skating up the ice a tremendous amount and turning a puck over and taking a lot of risks. 9:13 I expect that he'll be more the kind of guy that's going to be defensive minded first and kind of let the rest of it take care of itself. 9:20 And I also think we're going to see, we're not going to see these guys all the time either. 9:23 It's going to be quite a competitive back there for those eight spots. 9:28 Well, yeah, and that's the thing I was, like I said earlier, the two questions I had were who were going to fill out the top six, but then also who's going to round out, you know, what's the rotation going to be for the defensive group? 9:38 Because you have eight guys, all that are NHL draft picks, which means on any given game night, two NHL draft picks are going to be sitting in the stands. 9:46 And that's obviously not a common thing in college hockey. 9:49 And, you know, we're going to have, I think Riley and Shea are going to be in the lineup pretty much every night. 9:55 You know, I know Ben Marshall gets a lot of grief for some of the turnovers, but, you know, he's a senior, he's got a lot of games under his belt, and, you know, he's got a lot of skill and he's willing to mix it up. 10:06 So I think he's going to be in most nights, and it's going to be all about, you know, rotating the other three spots amongst those five underclassmen. 10:13 And that'll be the interesting situation moving forward. 10:17 Well, we've got another Swede, Robin Hoagland, 6'3, 200 pounds, Hammey. 10:23 Honestly, I didn't notice him out there on Saturday. 10:27 I really wasn't looking for him either, but what can you tell us about him? 10:31 Well, I mean, he's going to be, from my feelings, he's going to be playing more of a depth role. 10:35 He's going to bring that physical element. 10:38 He played in the NHL, you know, previously. 10:41 So I'm not expecting him to come in and kind of, you know, be one of those top six types of forward. 10:46 He's probably going to be more of one of those role players that are going to give you some grit, maybe pitch in a few goals and some energy out there. 10:55 I wouldn't say he's going to be exactly like Seratori was because I think Seratori is a little bit different, but, you know, kind of in that same role. 11:02 That would be what I would expect. 11:03 Of course, you can't rule out everything in college, you know, when they're four years. 11:07 But we'll see how it goes. 11:09 But I think that's kind of what I would see him as moving forward. 11:11 And he's got some good size, too. 11:14 Right. 11:14 So, I mean, he'll be like a fit. 11:15 Like I said, I think he'll be a physical presence. 11:17 And I would expect that he'll be kind of a more of a lower line type of guy, at least, you know, his first year or so. 11:24 And he's 21 years old already. 11:26 So, you know, he's got some some games under him. 11:31 Well, that's always good, you know, because we need those older guys to we need. 11:35 We're always claiming that we're too young. 11:37 We're too young. 11:38 Well, we could use some of that age now. 11:41 Then we've got Steve Johnson on defense. 11:43 What do you know about him, Hammeh? 11:46 Well, I mean, he's kind of like the classic late bloomer. 11:49 I mean, he's a guy that, you know, when he was around here in the high school, I mean, he really wasn't even on the radar. 11:55 And he's a guy that worked real hard and really kind of progressed, you know, in a similar sense like Stu Bickel was, of course, different games, but kind of a late bloomer, you know, Minnetonka kid. 12:06 And, you know, so it's like one of those things where he kind of popped on the radar late and was really a productive guy in the USHL for Omaha. 12:15 And I think that, you know, he's the defenseman that I'm actually most curious about coming into the season and in a sense of how he's going to play. 12:23 I mean, I think that the younger guys, you know, they get some of the hype because of the upside factor. 12:29 But, you know, sometimes those late bloomers can be very intriguing in terms of what they might bring to the table right out of the gate. 12:36 And he's an older player. 12:37 So it'll be interesting to see how he does this year. 12:41 There's one last freshman that's this year is Nick Lair, a goaltender and Vegoe, like Lucia said on media day, not likely going to see him. 12:52 No, he's going to have some time to develop. 12:54 And he saw a lot of pucks last year in the NHL for, you know, not the best team in the world. 13:00 But, you know, he won't see the puck much this year in games at least. 13:04 So, he needs to go to school, he's too. 13:06 Let's hope he doesn't see any. 13:08 Exactly. 13:09 Well, from what Lucia said on media day, he says, you know, it's him the whole time. 13:15 There's going to be no one else in goal really. 13:17 There's no one else that's really going to compete for a goal either. 13:22 Well, I'm talking more from the health standpoint, obviously. 13:25 Let's hope he stays healthy. 13:26 And I'm sure he will, but let's hope he does. 13:29 Yeah. 13:30 Yeah. 13:31 All right. 13:31 Well, we've got a few questions here. 13:33 I know Drunk Hockey Guy is bitter that he's not on. 13:35 We don't care. 13:35 Drunk Hockey Guy, Beer Song, your little support group. 13:39 You go form your own damn podcast. 13:41 Maybe we'll have you on later in the year when Duluth actually matters. 13:47 Here we go. 13:47 We got Mark Erickson wondering who's likely to have a career year this year. 13:52 Vegoe, let's start with you. 13:54 Who's going to step up? 13:56 Well, I think if you're looking for someone to step up, it's going to be Conor Riley. 14:01 He came in with the most hype of anybody in his class, and he had the knee injury, and it takes a year plus to get back from that. 14:10 He's going to have a shot to fill one of those two spots on the top nine. 14:15 He's a talented guy. 14:16 I thought he was the player who made that fourth line work when Lucio was going with that young guy fourth line. 14:23 When they took him off that line, that line stagnated. 14:28 So, I think he's going to get the opportunity to slot somewhere in that top nine or the top six. 14:35 And he could have a career breakout year. 14:38 Who's your guy to jump up this year, Hammeh? 14:43 You know, it's kind of a tough question because I mean, I don't know that this is like necessarily a reflection on that he's had a, I mean, he had a pretty good season last year. 14:52 But I kind of look for Seth Ambrose to step it up another notch again. 14:56 I think that he really had a good year. 15:01 I mean, what, he had 14 goals, I believe. 15:03 And a lot of them, he had a few of them in the key moments and he certainly brings that physical element. 15:08 And yeah, he's not going to be necessarily playing on those top line minutes or whatever. 15:13 But I think that he brings that kind of element of goal scoring to kind of balances out the lineup a little bit more. 15:19 And I would not be surprised if he has another similar type of season, maybe a little bit more from a goal scoring standpoint. 15:28 So that would be my guy. 15:29 There's a couple of guys that I could name, but he'd be the one that kind of pops into my head that I think could have another good year. 15:35 For me, I'm going to go with Clues. 15:36 I know he was pretty impact last year, but I think he's going to make another big jump above from what he did last year. 15:44 See, it's hard for me to pick those guys because to me, he had a standout year as a freshman. 15:48 So it's hard for me. 15:50 I mean, yeah, he might have like a 45, 50 point season. 15:55 I mean, that would be great, but I'm going to go for a little bit more of the unsung types of guys, I guess, on this question. 16:02 I think the biggest thing with Clues for me this year is to see how he produces when there's possession in the offensive zone. 16:10 Looked like so many times he was getting his points off a transition, and playing with Minnesota and the kind of schedule they'll have, and the teams they're playing against, I think there isn't going to be a ton of space for him to get a 45-point season that way. 16:24 I think I'll be most intrigued to see how he plays in the zone. 16:29 We'll just have to wait and see. 16:31 Tim Hapke, I think, is trying to get me going on Twitter. 16:33 He wants to know our thoughts on the ticket prices for Gopher Games this year. 16:38 He must have read some of my tweets from earlier today. 16:40 Obviously, single tickets went on sale this week. 16:45 Some of the bigger games are 55 bucks a ticket compared to someone like Michigan who's the 30 bucks. 16:54 We've always been the most expensive ticket in the league, but is it getting a little ridiculous there, Veegs? 17:00 You know, I actually kind of got motivated to look at what the Wild charge for a lower level seat. 17:05 This is the Prozo. 17:07 Hey, it's a big city town. 17:09 Yeah. 17:09 You know, everything's expensive in the city. 17:11 You know, out in Ann Arbor, there isn't much else besides Michigan hockey. 17:16 In Madison, there isn't much besides Badger hockey. 17:19 Here, there's all kinds of things to compete with, and there's all kinds of city with, or money, from all that big company money in the city, so 55 bucks isn't that much when you compare it to everything else. 17:31 Really, I think it's a little spendy. 17:34 I mean, you want to take a family of four to a game, that is awful steep. 17:38 I mean, back in the day, it was a very blue collar crowd, and now, we just, it's not that anymore. 17:47 It's the rich people, literally. 17:49 Do you see the facilities they're trying to build on campus, and the ones they just built in Grand Forks? 17:55 But it just seems like they, whenever they want to gouge a fan group, but it's the hockey and basketball group, and, you know, is there going to be a point where people are going to stop paying for it? 18:07 We'll see. 18:08 We'll see what the market will bear. 18:11 I don't know. 18:11 Do you have any thoughts on that, Hammeh? 18:13 The only thought I have is that I don't want them to do anything like they did up in North Dakota. 18:18 If I wanted to play laser tag, I'd go to a mall. 18:25 Well, we do know there's some improvements coming to Mariucci, hopefully within maybe next off season. 18:29 I'm not sure. 18:29 I don't know. 18:30 They want to redo all the player area, maybe redo some of the ice and stuff like that. 18:35 But that's coming from other stuff. 18:37 These ticket prices, I don't know. 18:41 I texted that to my wife yesterday saying, oh yeah, ticket is $55 a piece. 18:46 She's like, no thank you. 18:49 And I think a lot of people do feel that way. 18:52 They're pricing some of the more blue collar fans out. 18:56 You know, I probably wouldn't be going that much if I didn't have a press pass, because it's just damn expensive. 19:02 But I mean, I think that's, I mean, I'm not excusing it, because I would like to see it be more of a balance than what it has been. 19:09 But I think that's pretty much the trend that it has been going on for quite a while. 19:14 It just, the prices keep going up, you know. 19:16 And I do think it'll be an interesting situation to see if they're going to eventually hit a point where they're going to have to put the brakes on. 19:25 But you know, we'll see what happens. 19:28 I don't, you know, among my circles, I mean, you hear some of that complaining every so often, but I think people just get more wound up in the hockey itself, and they just swallow hard and pay the money. 19:39 So. 19:40 Plus, when I tweet that stuff, I do kind of like just to get the fans going, which is fun. 19:46 Well, and I think if you're going to one of the non-marquis games, if you're trying to see them play Michigan or Wisconsin or Boston College, you're going to pay more. 19:55 But if you're going to go see them play Ohio State in February, you can probably go to that game pretty reasonably paying a scalper. 20:03 Exactly. 20:04 Go for the scalper. 20:05 Yeah. 20:05 But I see that Michigan, they're doing 30 bucks for the big games, they're doing 20 bucks for the non-conference games. 20:12 I mean, they're playing somebody like New Hampshire, $20 ticket. 20:18 That's a pretty good price compared to a $55 that we would pay to see someone like BC or whoever else. 20:25 Well, I got to admit, it would be interesting to see how they justify this in their own meetings, how they go for these different price points. 20:36 Of course, we're not a part of those discussions, but the research involved in terms of why they do what they do, it'd be interesting to be a fly in the wall to hear that. 20:48 All right, guys, we've got the ice breaker this weekend. 20:52 Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth, Notre Dame and RPI, we kick it off Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. 21:00 Central against those Bulldogs out of Duluth. 21:05 Initial thoughts, Hammy. 21:08 For one thing, one o'clock on a Friday blows. 21:12 Well, yeah, what are you going to do? 21:14 First of all, it's the ice breaker. 21:16 We don't control a lot of this stuff. 21:18 You know what I mean? 21:20 Everybody was whining about the TV stuff and all that. 21:23 And in the end, it still ends up being a pretty good deal. 21:26 And I don't get involved in all that stuff. 21:29 I just let it play out. 21:30 I let you stir things up and let everybody... 21:33 Inevitably, everybody whines about the TV stuff in August and September and, Oh, my God, the world's going to come to an end and go for hockey. 21:42 They're not going to, you know, the importance is going down. 21:45 But then in the end, it always ends up being like 90 percent of the games on TV. 21:50 Most of them nationally broadcast. 21:52 It's like everybody just needs to shut up and... 21:56 Oh, you want to get me started on that, don't you? 21:58 No, I'm not saying you, but I'm just saying, like, in general, like you see these... 22:02 Well, it is, the coverage is going down a little bit more and a little bit more each year. 22:08 But you have to understand that there is quite a bit of competition as far as, you know, I know nobody's basketball fans, apparently, but I mean, you know, you got the basketball, you got the wild. 22:20 It's not like we're the only game in town. 22:22 And certainly I don't entirely understand all the workings of Fox Sports, but if they're getting certain things said to them from some other state, you know, like in LA or whatever, there's only so much that the Gophers can do about that. 22:40 So I think that the whining sometimes is a little bit misplaced. 22:44 Well, I do know that Fox is not doing a pregame this year and they're not doing a postgame, which means, well, no more woo, which might be a good thing. 22:53 But they're going to only have four cameras at the games. 22:57 They're going to use their lowest end truck possible. 23:00 So it's not going to be a well-produced machine like it has been in the past. 23:06 Well, I guess to me, it's better than nothing. 23:08 True, yeah. 23:09 I'm glad that they're on. 23:11 I mean, a lot of, I mean, pretty much every program would kill to have the same broadcast schedule. 23:14 So I'm not going to whine about what we have. 23:17 And, you know, the other thing is, is that, you know, not every, I can understand they have a business decisions to make. 23:24 And I just don't really get involved in all that kind of stuff, as long as we have an opportunity to watch most of the games. 23:31 And with streaming nowadays, if I have to stream a few different games rather than watch it on TV, then so be it. 23:37 Well, speaking of streaming, it was just recently added to the schedule. 23:41 Those icebreaker games will be streamed by Watch ND. 23:47 You can just go to the Gopher Puck Live slash schedule and you'll be able to, you can click on the little stream and it will bring you to Notre Dame's website for streaming free this weekend. 23:58 Obviously, Big Ten to go will be streaming quite a bit this season. 24:03 And now the new BTN Plus, which is a paid service, is sort of taking over for the Gold Zone. 24:10 So there will be a lot of ways to stream this year. 24:13 Obviously, the television is not as good as it used to be. 24:15 But like you said, it's still way better than anyone else. 24:20 I am surprised that the NCA doesn't figure a way to get the icebreaker televised though. 24:25 I think it's a part of their event or College Hockey Inc. 24:30 You think they could work a deal somehow with NBC SN or ESPN and get that figured out. 24:36 Because they do it every year. 24:38 It's an annual deal. 24:39 You think they could figure out TV coverage for at least that. 24:43 Yeah, I don't know what the deal is, but I don't recall ever an opening game ever not being on television, especially against a good rival in Minnesota Duluth. 24:53 So, who knows? 24:56 Well, let's get to the game, though. 24:58 Hammy, Gophers, Minnesota Duluth, you know, they just had a game against Lake Something. 25:05 We just had an exhibition against Northern Alberta. 25:09 Hopefully, you know, both teams got a little bit of the cobwebs out and they're ready to play Friday. 25:14 Yeah, I mean, it's always hard to tell. 25:16 It's hard, you know, it's tough to read into any of these early season things. 25:20 I know UMD kind of kind of had to come back late in their exhibition to win that game. 25:26 It'll be interesting. 25:27 I think UMD has got a pretty good team. 25:29 They've got some veteran guys. 25:31 They've got some young talent. 25:33 I think that everybody kind of looks at the the goaltending situation as being the question mark and how those guys are going to step up because that was kind of the issue. 25:41 I think last year, that was a big part of their issue. 25:45 So it'll be interesting to see if they've answered that. 25:48 I know that they are pretty high on this young freshman kid. 25:51 So I might even attempt to say the name. 25:54 But in any case, it'll be an interesting first game. 25:58 I'd never know what to expect in these early games. 26:01 And I try not to read too much into them because you just don't know how guys... 26:06 There's a lot of chemistry things that you still have to be worked out and special teams. 26:10 And these guys have really only been in official practices for a week. 26:14 So it's going to be tough to really have a good feel for what to expect coming into this game. 26:21 What do you think, Veegs? 26:23 I think it's a good test right from the start. 26:27 It is difficult because they've only been practicing for a week. 26:31 Their first practice was the morning before their exhibition last week. 26:36 So it's hard to tell. 26:36 Luckily, Minnesota's got a lot of guys coming back for all their special teams. 26:41 I think they're looking for some penalty killers still coming out of their bottom six. 26:46 But hopefully that power play starts clicking right away. 26:49 They got some talent. 26:51 But they've got so many returning players and Wilcox on top of it. 26:55 He can bail them out of a lot of mistakes. 26:58 He actually had to bail them out quite a few times in the first period in the exhibition when quite a few defensive lapses against Northern Alberta Oaks. 27:11 You just wanted to throw that name on there. 27:13 Oh, I had to. 27:14 Oaks. 27:14 I mean, really? 27:16 Some kind of owl. 27:18 It is a real animal unlike the mythical sea wolves of Alaska Anchorage. 27:23 But they did go down in blank UNO, which I'm sure Dean Blaze is just full of pride there. 27:35 Yeah, I read the post game on that one. 27:37 He didn't seem too happy. 27:39 You think? 27:40 I don't think he can get rid of his whole team though in a week. 27:43 So I think I have to live with it. 27:46 He's not going to get rid of his goalies like he always has in the past? 27:50 I don't think it was just a goalie thing from the sound of it. 27:52 When you don't score a goal, I don't think that's quite a goalie thing. 27:55 I think that's a team thing. 27:56 Especially against a team that had played a couple of days before. 28:00 That Northern Alberta team had already played six games before they even came to Minnesota. 28:04 So it's not like these kids are just getting going either. 28:08 But to lose for nothing, that's got to be a bit of a concern for UNO. 28:14 Well, they're a pretty young team. 28:16 I mean, they're going to be, I don't know. 28:17 I'll be honest, one of the things that was so different about last year is the fact that a lot of the teams I used to follow a little more closely, I didn't even pay hardly any attention to throughout a lot of the season. 28:29 I mean, whether it was them or North Dakota is another one. 28:32 I mean, as much as people talk about them being a big rival, I mean, honest to God, I might have looked at a few box scores here or there, or their stat sheets once in a while, but I did not pay hardly any attention in North Dakota the whole year up until, of course, when we were going to play them in the Frozen Four. 28:48 But before that, it was like out of sight, out of mind. 28:52 So it was weird in that sense. 28:54 But it was an odd year. 28:56 With the new schedule, the new leagues, it was just an odd year, an odd feeling. 28:59 And I think a lot of fans had the same feeling as you did. 29:04 Well, the thing is, when I look back on last year, I think that from a Big Ten perspective, I thought it was a good first year. 29:11 I mean, the teams that we thought were going to be good were pretty good. 29:15 We knew what the top three was likely going to be like. 29:17 We knew the bottom three were going to be kind of an enigma. 29:20 We knew Penn State probably was going to be great, of course. 29:24 And I thought from the playoff perspective, I mean, everybody's got to get a grip. 29:29 We're not going to ever go back to the final five. 29:31 I don't care what conference you're in. 29:34 No conference is going to go back to that. 29:35 So get over it and try to make the best of what you have in front of you. 29:39 And then as far as the off the ice stuff, I really liked how much the BTN has improved. 29:46 I mean, if you compare how it was three, four years ago, when everybody remembers some of the snafus that went on, and they compare to what it's like now, and it's like night and day. 29:55 And I like that Rick comes to GPL to get feedback from the fans. 30:00 And so I think that from an overall perspective, that was good. 30:03 But yeah, as far as following different teams and being as informed and whatever, I mean, everybody's going to have their own feel for how much they're going to follow non-conference situations. 30:13 But it was definitely different as far as which teams I was more focused on last year. 30:21 Well, you know, I think it's kind of hard to talk about this weekend, just because you just never know what to expect the first weekend. 30:28 Obviously, I've seen Drunk Hockey Guy all week. 30:31 You know, he's still Bulldogs are going to lose single digits this year. 30:35 That's all they're going to lose. 30:35 They're going to be the best team ever. 30:38 Nobody knows Drunk Hockey Guy. 30:41 We don't know. 30:42 You don't know. 30:44 It's very unknown. 30:46 On paper, Minnesota has a lot coming back, but you just never know how things come together. 30:51 We saw that in the 2003, 2004 season. 30:55 Minnesota had a ton coming back and they pretty much wet the pants. 31:00 Or wet the pad or whatever. 31:02 You just never know. 31:04 Well the thing is, if we're going to talk about the Big Ten, if this is going to be about a Big Ten focused thing, I mean really, that's the only thing I feel pretty comfortable with from a Gopher perspective, saying that I think there's no reason why we shouldn't win the Big Ten. 31:20 I mean, Wisconsin is very young. 31:22 They lost a lot of guys off their team. 31:26 We have Michigan. 31:27 They're talented, but they're still pretty young and they have some defensive issues that they're trying to get better at. 31:34 We know the other three teams, I mean, they're kind of enigmas. 31:36 And Penn State's just not going to be a top three team all of a sudden. 31:40 I was even looking at USCHO as far as their preseason analysis, and they didn't even have, other than the Gophers, it was like, I think one had Wisconsin second, another had Michigan second, and one had, I think, Michigan fourth, or Wisconsin, I don't remember, but it was like all over the map. 31:59 So I think the Gophers, considering what they have coming back, there should be no reason why they don't win the Big Ten. 32:05 After that, all bets are off. 32:06 I mean, it was good of an argument as anybody to be a favorite for the national title, but there's a lot of games to go and in a one-and-done situation, you can't count on anything. 32:16 Well, let's get into that a little bit, Veegs. 32:19 Minnesota, prohibitive favorite for the Big Ten. 32:22 I would predict them to win the league running away, you never know, but after that, you do have Wisconsin, you got Michigan. 32:31 The other three, who knows? 32:33 Obviously, Ohio State came on strong at the very end of last year and had a great Big Ten playoff run or a good run. 32:42 What do you think? 32:43 What's going to happen? 32:45 Well, I think the big thing is Minnesota is the clear favorite. 32:48 I mean, I wonder if they're going to even lose three games that they lost last year in the conference, because Minnesota, they can score goals and they can keep you from scoring goals. 33:00 You look at a team like Michigan, they can score goals, but they give up a ton of shots. 33:05 You look at a team like Wisconsin, they don't score a lot, but they haven't given up a lot. 33:10 So, I mean, you've got these other teams in that second tier, who kind of don't have a complete team. 33:18 They're going to have deficiencies that they're going to have to overwork, and East is going to have his hands full with all those freshmen in his line up. 33:26 And I think Ohio State is going to have a hard time replacing Zingel. 33:32 He was kind of their bread and butter last year. 33:35 And then Michigan State, I can't see, besides Barry, much offense coming from them. 33:42 And Penn State, obviously, they just don't have the depth yet to compete. 33:45 So, I think it is real clear cut with that top three with Minnesota far ahead of Michigan and Wisconsin. 33:55 Well, we'll just have to wait and see, I guess. 33:58 I would agree with you guys. 34:00 It's pretty much Minnesota's to lose. 34:02 They really could wrap it up fairly early, which is probably not the greatest thing. 34:09 I wouldn't want to jinx it, but this is very dependent on Wilcox. 34:14 He's the man. 34:14 It always is. 34:15 Everything depends on Wilcox. 34:18 If something were to happen there, I think it's wide open. 34:22 Even with the depth that Minnesota has, that would be a scary season without him. 34:28 Well, I think that's the one thing about the Big Ten, is most of the teams have good goalies. 34:32 That's the one thing that Wisconsin has a good goalie coming back, Michigan does. 34:38 You have that to at least bridge some of the issues that you might face early on. 34:44 But I think, like Vegas was talking about, from a depth standpoint, from a scoring, and just overall defensive standpoint, I don't know that any of the teams really match up well to the Gophers over the long haul in the Big Ten. 34:58 Well, we won't learn much about the Big Ten for quite a while. 35:01 I mean, they don't play their first contest until December against Michigan State, and then there's not another one until, you know, at Michigan in early January. 35:10 So, you know, it's a lot of non-conference up until then, you know, we've got a pair with Notre Dame, a pair with St. 35:16 Cloud State, Bemidji, you know, they go, they actually travel out east this year, folks. 35:21 I know it's amazing, but, you know, they're going to go see Boston College in Northeastern. 35:26 You know, the first half is going to be some pretty good competition, Hammeh. 35:31 Yeah, I mean, I think that's one of the things that I was always looking forward to with these conference changes is the fact that we were going to have a little bit more of a flexible non-conference schedule. 35:44 You know, granted, we still filled it out with some Minnesota teams, so that didn't really change in it tremendously, but it did give a little bit of additional flexibility moving forward. 35:52 And so I was always hoping that they would be scheduling some of these good teams, you know, that were out east or in Notre Dame. 36:01 And, you know, so that's one of the things I was real happy about. 36:03 I'm, you know, all apologies to the North Dakota whiners who always want them on the schedule. 36:10 But I don't give a rat's ass about that. 36:11 I want, you know, I want some variety. 36:14 So I'm fine with what they have. 36:16 But yeah, it should be fun. 36:18 Vegoe, one thing I see on the schedule that I know you might not like that I don't like is a home and home with Duluth. 36:26 That that sucks. 36:28 That was my favorite trip, you know, going to Duluth. 36:31 And I don't want to go up there for one night. 36:34 Yeah, that's that's an unfortunate thing with the new schedule. 36:37 I think the UMD road trip is a favorite of all Gopher fans. 36:41 I know I've made it many times, a couple of times younger and a couple of times older, and they're both fun. 36:47 You know, it's a weekend for Gopher fans to experience a great town that loves their hockey program. 36:52 And now that they've got that new rink there, it's an even better viewing experience. 36:57 And I would have I would have rather had them, you know, you know, if it's Minnesota this year, stay in Minnesota next year, go up there. 37:03 But I know that Don really loves that home and home format. 37:06 And nobody else does. 37:10 Yeah, I'm sure Duluth doesn't like that they're going to drive home on Friday night and then have to play Saturday. 37:16 Well, you know, the almighty dollar doesn't always fits into the, you know, the equation to for these guys, it's like staying overnight and all that kind of stuff. 37:26 I mean, you know, they're trying to cut costs, I'm sure, on some aspect. 37:30 So I get it. 37:32 You know, I understand why that sucks from a fan standpoint, but I get why they do it. 37:37 We got another question from Tim Hapke. 37:40 Let's hear your thoughts on this, Hammeh. 37:42 How long do you think that Don keeps coaching? 37:47 I don't know. 37:47 Does he play out his current contract? 37:49 Does he keep going another 10 years? 37:50 Is he going to be a Red Berenson? 37:52 What's going to happen? 37:54 You know, it doesn't seem like he's slowing down at all. 37:58 And from that standpoint, I mean, I think that once he got his health in order, he seemed a little bit re-energized. 38:03 You know, I think that obviously when that health issue was going on, there was probably a lot of frustration for himself and for, you know, even the team, you know. 38:11 So I think that it's hard to say. 38:14 I mean, what's his current contract? 38:17 I don't remember what his last deal was for how long. 38:20 But, you know, it wouldn't shock me if he signs another deal when the time comes. 38:26 He's still a relatively young guy. 38:27 And but you never know. 38:29 I mean, when you're making that kind of money, I mean, maybe he decides that, you know, hey, I've done enough here and or, you know, I don't suspect it's gonna be a situation where if he ever won like another national title, like he's gonna, I'm gonna go out on top and that's it for me. 38:43 I doubt it would be like that. 38:44 But so I don't know. 38:46 I don't have a good question or a good answer for that question. 38:49 What do you think Vig? 38:50 Do you know his current contract status? 38:53 I don't happen to know it. 38:55 They're not always as public with those contracts as people would think. 38:59 But I kind of joked that when they signed that contract to play North Dakota, that that was an indication that he might be done in after the next two years, so he doesn't have to go out to play them ever again. 39:12 So we'll see. 39:13 I mean, he's doing really healthy. 39:15 He ran the Twin Cities Marathon last year, so clearly he's got his health back. 39:19 And I saw him up and down River Road when I was training for my run as well this year. 39:23 So he looks like he's doing well and could coach for many years. 39:30 Well, yeah, we'll just have to wait and see. 39:31 I know Gensel is probably chomping at the bit to take over for him because I'm guessing he feels he's the next one in line, huh, Ami? 39:41 Well, he would be my choice. 39:42 I know that because I have a lot of respect for him. 39:46 He's obviously a very good coach, very good defensive coach. 39:48 He's very well respected in the recruiting circles. 39:53 So he definitely would be my next choice. 39:56 And I think that he would get another real good assistant to come along with Patoni. 40:00 So yeah, he'd be my choice. 40:03 But I guess there's a long way to go before we even probably have to talk about that. 40:08 I think we're all pretty hesitant of Patoni since he hadn't done any coaching when he came along. 40:13 But in the end, he could end up being the coach of Minnesota in 10, 15 years for all we know. 40:21 Well, I mean, you know what, I will admit, when they were deciding what they were going to do for that open spot, when he was going to be the volunteer coach, I was not really high on having him becoming the full-time coach because of that inexperience. 40:36 I wanted somebody to come in that had more of the recruiting contacts, more of the coaching experience. 40:42 So I have to admit that I wasn't really excited about that prospect. 40:48 But he's definitely proven to be up to the task, and I know he does a pretty good job with the recruiting. 40:53 When I see some of the recruits that they've got in particular, he does a lot of the legwork on that. 40:58 Of course, the other coaches are doing their part, but he does a lot of the scouting, a lot of that legwork, and he's done a great job, and he's got some real good inroads on some of these players and places. 41:11 He's done very well at Shattuck recently. 41:13 So I have to admit, I was a little bit wrong on that one. 41:18 Yeah, he's definitely hitting up on the recruiting scene. 41:20 So that's a huge plus. 41:25 All right, boys, anything else you guys want to talk about? 41:31 I think that's about it. 41:32 I mean, I'm sure that drunk hockey guy and whoever else. 41:36 Yeah, I'm sure he's probably upset that we didn't talk as much about the game itself, but the reality is it's so early on that we can't really say a hell of a lot about how things are going and how teams are looking, because it's still that early feeling out process. 41:50 So we'll see how it goes. 41:52 I'm hoping that, like Vig said, with the veteran talent and returning guys, that, you know, we won't have as much of that kind of early period where you're trying to find chemistry as much. 42:03 And I know that I think Lucia said that he's going to play all the veterans on, at least up front on that first game against UMD. 42:11 So the returning guys up front will get, will be all the veterans. 42:15 So I think that'll help matters in that first game too. 42:18 Yeah, from the, from the sounds of it, he's going to give the older guys the first chance. 42:22 And, you know, if they don't come through, you know, in the bottom of the line-up or on the second power play, he's not going to be afraid to pull the trigger, but they're going to get the first shot. 42:35 All right, boys, well, hockey is back, and that's all that really matters. 42:39 You know, we're not going to get to see him on TV, so what? 42:42 Watch it on your computer. 42:44 Welcome to the new age of hockey these days, people. 42:48 So just enjoy it. 42:50 Yeah, and a drunk hockey guy can stop posting those 85s and 86s on the golf courses, sandbagging his handicap. 42:59 Hey, if you have any, if you're ever curious about some of the recruits, we do have a new recruiting page on GPL. 43:05 Just go to Gopher Puck Live slash recruits, and, you know, we've got all info on the freshmen, future commitments and players to watch. 43:12 I know Iceberg and you, Hammey, have contributed to some of those stats and information, so. 43:19 Mostly Iceberg, to be honest with you, because I've been busy, but I will try to, as the season goes along, contribute things to that area. 43:27 It's just a nice place to go. 43:28 You could see a lot of these future guys have Twitter accounts. 43:32 You could follow them. 43:34 We've got links to their current teams. 43:38 It's just a good place to go to get all the information. 43:40 So Gopher Puck Live slash recruits. 43:42 It will bring you to the recruiting page. 43:45 I think that's going to do it for this week, guys. 43:49 Go Gophers. 43:49 Go Gophers. 43:51 We're not going to be back next week because the Gophers have the week off. 43:54 It's weird. 43:54 Start the season, then you take the week off. 43:57 But we'll be back to recap the icebreaker and preview the Bemidji State Beavers in a few weeks. 44:06 Remember, you can always follow Hammy on Twitter at Hammy Hockey. 44:10 Vegoe on Twitter at eVegoe and of course us at Gopher Puck Live. 44:16 Like I said, we'll be back in a couple weeks. 44:18 Hockey is back. 44:19 That's all that matters.