0:09 This is The GPL Podcast, the production of gopherpucklive.com. 0:22 Now, let's join Tammy Vego and your host, Jupiter. 0:36 Jeez, I'm already having technical problems, guys. 0:39 Jeez, tough week already. 0:43 Well, we are here, back on The GPL Podcast, and hopefully the whole thing records, because right in the middle of the intro, it just stopped. 0:49 Isn't that great for those listening live? 0:51 Not really. 0:53 But that's what a month off will do to you. 0:55 Hammy, Vego, did you guys have a nice break from us, from the podcast? 1:02 Oh, I can't complain. 1:03 Sure you can, the team has sucked. 1:06 Well, they've only played basically two games since we last chatted or whatever. 1:10 Actually, no, we did have the Michigan State Series. 1:12 Well, four games. 1:13 But that series ended up going kind of what I expected. 1:18 But as a trend, I don't think it's looking that great right now, Veegs. 1:25 Vigo, are you there? 1:27 Did we lose Vigo? 1:29 I don't know. 1:29 Did he drop out? 1:30 I don't show him his drop out. 1:31 Either that or he's very upset about it. 1:33 There he is. 1:35 I heard something from him. 1:39 Am I here? 1:40 You're there now. 1:42 Okay. 1:43 I didn't think this last weekend was quite as bad as everybody was thinking. 1:48 I thought they were a little indirect with some of their play and a little passive. 1:52 But I thought it was better than some of the games going into the break. 1:58 You know, they got a ton of shots, but like Lucia said, they're a little snake bit on the scoring there, aren't they, Hammeh? 2:06 Well, I think a lot of it is, in my opinion at least, is that if you're going to take shots like they do from certain areas, you have to have guys that are willing to pay a price around the net to get rebounds. 2:18 I mean, the whole shot chart and all that kind of stuff, it's like you could take shots from a low percentage, but if you're not going to have guys around the net that are going to clean up some rebounds, that's sort of a pointless endeavor because most goalies are, unless you're playing for the wild, most goalies are going to save easy shots like that. 2:37 Already starting the cheap shots with the wild, aren't you? 2:40 Well, you know, anyways, so I guess that's one of the issues that I see is that I just don't see enough gritty play from some of the forwards. 2:51 You know, this isn't a gritty big team up front as it is, but some of these guys that, you know, they need to get their nose around the net or on the crease and start getting some rebounds. 3:03 Well, kind of on that point, you know, I was tweeting all this past weekend, Veegs, shoot low, shoot low, get rebounds, get guys to the net and boy, they just love to hit the goalie right in the middle of the belly or miss the net completely, not taking advantage of shooting low. 3:22 Vegoe? 3:24 It must be technical difficulties with the... 3:28 We're just having bugs all night tonight, aren't we? 3:30 It must be his web connection. 3:33 Could be. 3:34 Well, what do you think, Hammeh? 3:35 I've been saying shoot low, shoot low. 3:38 It's so frustrating. 3:39 I don't disagree with that, but like I said... 3:42 Oh, there's Vegoe! 3:46 Veegs? 3:48 You know, I think I should just hang up on him. 3:50 Geez, Veegs. 3:51 Now we just completely lost him. 3:53 Well, anyways, I don't have a problem with shooting low, but you're going to have guys around there to clean up the rebounds, you know what I mean? 4:01 I talked about this on GPL right before the end of the... 4:05 or right after the break. 4:07 And from a forward standpoint, we're not really scoring that much less through the same amount of games as we did last year, but you have some guys like Ambrose, his minus six goals compared to what he was at last year. 4:20 I mean, that's a huge drop. 4:22 You know, Cammie's down a little bit, but some of these guys, they just need to get more gritty, get a little bit more of a hard-nosed attitude around the net. 4:30 They can't be so perimeter. 4:32 So that to me is a big part of the problem. 4:35 If you want to shoot low, that's great, but you got to have guys that are going to be willing to pay the price to get the rebounds. 4:39 That's true, but I was talking with a few guys in the media after Saturday's game that they won in overtime, and they were, I won't say who it is, but they were quite disappointed in Ambrose and Camerata this year. 4:52 I mean, one goal, each of them so far this year, they need to start contributing. 4:58 Yeah, I mean, I thought going into the year that we'd see more from Ambrose. 5:02 I mean, he was one of the guys that I really pointed towards as somebody I thought would have maybe not a surprise year per se, at least not, I mean, he had some decent goal scoring last year, but I just thought he'd be stepping up now that he's playing a leadership role. 5:16 And he just hasn't, that third line to me has been a real disappointment. 5:20 And I don't know what Cammie's issue is. 5:22 I mean, he's always been sort of a little bit of a hit and miss guy from an intensity standpoint. 5:27 But he usually gets his points and he just hasn't been producing, at least as far as goal scoring goes. 5:33 Well, definitely not goals. 5:35 He's got 12 assists. 5:36 Obviously, we'll take that anytime. 5:38 But like I said, one goal. 5:39 And then you got Ambrose with one goal and one assist so far. 5:43 Ouch. 5:45 Yeah, and he's one of those guys, like I said, you kind of need to step up and play a little bit more of a gritty roll around the net and clean up some of those rebounds. 5:53 And we just haven't seen that. 5:55 Really, when you look at the top six, I mean, really, Fashing is the only guy that you kind of see as a kind of a net front presence that's going to really be consistently be there. 6:04 I mean, Rao does that, but I mean, playing his role, he's not quite the same as he was when he was playing with Bukstad and kind of cleaning up things on that weak side of the net. 6:15 So I just think that it's a combination of factors, but I certainly think if you're going to shoot low and shoot a lot, you need to have some guys around the net more. 6:24 By the way, I'm trying to get Vegoe back here, but I don't know if he's having technical difficulties or what. 6:29 I try to keep adding him back to the conversation and he just doesn't connect, so. 6:33 Yeah, I think it's his web connection. 6:35 He's probably going wireless and he's probably just sucking it. 6:38 Could be. 6:39 It might be just you and I tonight. 6:40 Boy, that will be exciting for the fans. 6:43 Sorry people. 6:44 Well, let's talk about Fashing. 6:46 Mr. 6:46 Fashing, obviously they could not push him more during the juniors. 6:51 They really liked the way he played and I liked the way he played in the juniors. 6:53 He didn't have the goals, but he was playing very gritty and he was setting up, I can't remember his name, a lot in the juniors. 7:04 So we really need him to come back and be a presence. 7:09 Yeah, and I don't necessarily think he's been a bad person. 7:13 I think it's just been a little bit of inconsistency. 7:19 I think the effort has always been there with him. 7:21 I think he's always a hardworking kid, so I'm not really concerned about that part of it with him. 7:25 I think that that will pick up. 7:28 And I think that I don't really have an issue with him or Rao. 7:35 I think Clues has probably been our most consistent forward from a scoring standpoint as far as being a threat goes. 7:43 Some of those guys, but for me, it's the warnings, the camaradas, a few of those guys on the third line. 7:51 Boyd was out, so we can't really rip on him too much. 7:53 He was doing pretty well before he got hurt. 7:56 So some of those lower line guys, they've been very disappointing. 8:00 I mean, if you're not going to score goals, we don't expect a lot of scoring from third and fourth line guys, but you have to bring other things to the table to help the team. 8:10 And for instance, setting a tone physically, where's the guys that like Saraturi used to be? 8:16 He wasn't going to score much, but you knew he was going to bring it every game and kind of set a tone physically for the team. 8:22 You see, that's where I think somebody like an Isaacson, Michelson, a Leterri, those guys are the guys that need to go out there and be that Saraturi, the guys going out there cracking some skulls, get this thing going. 8:37 Well, that's what I'm trying to, that's what I'm saying, I don't see those guys doing, now that's not necessarily a strong point to these guys as far as like, it's not like Isaacson's always been a big bruiser or Michael's. 8:50 I mean, those guys were more finesse players coming up, but the reality is that being a physical player is not like a rocket science. 8:58 You're just going hard, you know what I mean? 9:01 It's just not that difficult. 9:02 I know exactly what you mean. 9:03 It's an attitude thing, and it's not that challenging to do if you're, you just have to bring that attitude to the table. 9:09 And it's frustrating for me because these guys, if you're gonna earn your scholarship, you're not earning it scoring obviously, so do something. 9:18 I completely agree. 9:19 I mean, when you're getting 80, 90% scholarship or whatever, it's like, Jesus, dude, if you're not gonna score, do something. 9:26 Get off your ass and do something. 9:27 You know, Rao is leading the team in points, but I've even noticed kind of Rao is not doing what he used to do. 9:35 You know, he used to agitate and do a lot of that stuff, and he's not doing that as much either. 9:40 Well, you know, we can go all psychological on everything. 9:44 You know what I mean? 9:45 And really, if you think about this team, the talent is there, and I said this on Twitter. 9:52 There's just something missing. 9:53 There's an edge there missing. 9:55 There's a passion there that's missing. 9:57 There's a chemistry something's going on. 9:59 I know that, you know, I've heard things behind the scenes about maybe some chemistry issues with whether it's player situation or maybe even some coaching disagreements on certain things and that maybe that's contributing. 10:16 I'm not there. 10:16 I can't say if that's accurate or not. 10:20 I hear that kind of stuff, and I'm sure that might play a little bit of a role, but nonetheless, it's like something is missing from a certain standpoint, an intangible standpoint. 10:31 Vegoe, are you there? 10:37 I hear a lot of static. 10:38 I hear the static. 10:40 I'm trying to be. 10:41 It must be the cold weather. 10:47 Vegs, just go ahead and talk. 10:50 Why don't you just go ahead and talk? 10:52 I got the new car, but I don't have the new internet. 10:56 What's the new car? 11:00 I didn't think the last series was as bad as... 11:04 Well, I got a new Honda Pilot, so it's a mix of... 11:10 You're breaking up... 11:11 . 11:11 if I need you killers out there looking for one. 11:15 I can't understand anything. 11:16 I can't understand him either. 11:18 You might have to gas him. 11:23 Vegoe, what is the deal, man? 11:25 Take the night off, dude. 11:27 Can't understand you. 11:30 Now he's not even there. 11:31 Yeah, I'm just going to hang up on him. 11:32 Bye, Vegs. 11:35 We tried. 11:37 That's all I can say. 11:38 I tried. 11:38 His internet performance is about as good as Gopher's in the wild lately. 11:42 Oh, well, let's go over what we've missed in this last month. 11:45 Obviously, after our last podcast, they headed out to Michigan State, killed them the first night, five-zip, and then I would say a disappointing tie the next night, Tammy, three-to-three, they lost the points, I think. 12:03 Well, if you look at how things have been when we've traveled up there, to me, that was a typical series for the Gophers. 12:11 Four points, I don't really have it. 12:14 That's what I expected. 12:15 I will agree that the way that they played on that Saturday was disappointing. 12:20 When you get out shot, the way that they... 12:21 I mean, you don't expect the Michigan state to basically come close to doubling you up on shots. 12:26 I mean, that's ridiculous. 12:28 And especially for a team as skilled as the Gophers are, to me, that's... 12:33 I mean, I don't know if they... 12:35 I just think that that was just terrible from that standpoint. 12:39 You just don't expect it. 12:40 I could handle a tie game, but it's a situation where you're getting an outshot that badly by a team that's not known for its offense. 12:49 I mean, that's just not good, so... 12:52 Definitely, definitely. 12:52 And then they go on the break. 12:54 Come back for the Mary G Classic and another dud against Merrimack. 12:59 Are you kidding me, Hammeh? 13:02 Yeah, that was a very frustrating one for me. 13:04 I mean, when I watched that game, I was just like, what the hell? 13:07 You know, you thought it was... 13:08 start off all right, getting that one-nothing lead. 13:10 And then it just seemed like, I don't know, it just mentally some things were not there that, you know... 13:17 You know, granted, the goalie did make some great saves, a couple of great saves, but you know what? 13:21 It's still Merrimack. 13:23 And these are the teams that they need to beat. 13:26 Well, I mean, you know, Merrimack might not be your classic power school, but I mean, they've had an all right season. 13:32 So I don't know that I'm necessarily... 13:34 I mean, I think they were what? 13:35 They were in the top 13 of the pairwise. 13:37 Yeah, so what? 13:39 It's Merrimack. 13:39 I'm just saying, and granted, it is early for pairwise talk, but nonetheless, you have to look at that as like, it's not exactly like their Wisconsin-ness here or something like that. 13:48 So, well, I mean, that's truthful. 13:52 Wisconsin's got one win, right? 13:54 Or whatever. 13:54 So... 13:55 I think they did get their second win last week. 13:57 Oh, well, whatever. 13:58 After getting killed seven to one at Cole Center, oh, we feel so bad for the Badgers. 14:03 No, we don't. 14:04 So, well, in any case, the point being is that it's not like they were a terrible team, but yeah, I mean, they did shoot, you know, have a lot of shots, but we talked about it earlier. 14:12 If you're going to be shooting those low percentage shots, you got to have guys that are around the net. 14:17 And granted, to be fair, you know, we did have kind of a lineup that was a little bit screwy because guys were missing or hurt or whatever. 14:25 So, well, what's the excuse for RIT then? 14:29 Well, let me tell you, RIT is not a good team. 14:32 They were killed by a mass lull. 14:35 I thought it would be a blowout for the Gophers. 14:37 And the fact that we had to go to overtime to beat them, I thought was pathetic. 14:42 Well, I agree. 14:43 That to me was a joke. 14:44 But I guess, you say to yourself, okay, they've taken a number of weeks off. 14:51 They've had a little bit of practice. 14:52 Some guys were missing and finally came back. 14:55 How much of it is just all this discombobulated stuff? 14:58 I don't know. 15:00 It's difficult to explain. 15:02 You would hope that they would throw out that team with that much talent. 15:06 And just win that kind of a game. 15:08 It's overpower the opponent, but it didn't happen. 15:11 So I don't know what to say about it, other than you want a better performance, at least from a scoreboard standpoint than that. 15:18 Well, I'll just say, something must not be right over there. 15:21 Whether it's Lucia, Gensel, the players, something's going on over there. 15:26 We may never know until years down the road, but a team with this much talent that played so well together last year is basically three, four, and one since sweeping Notre Dame in early November. 15:40 That's not good for this team. 15:42 They need to be better than that. 15:44 Well, and I think sometimes you wonder from a psychological standpoint, especially for the guys that were sort of, are we gonna come back? 15:53 Are we gonna go pro? 15:55 You always wonder with some of those guys, are they mentally fully back? 16:00 Are they really 100% invested? 16:04 You know, we've seen that happen before. 16:06 What was it like? 16:06 Oposso was definitely not invested. 16:09 Schrader wasn't invested. 16:10 I mean, we had a bunch of players like that. 16:11 Well, even a few years ago, when we had a lot of guys come back, I mean, we didn't have necessarily quite the year we expected. 16:18 I mean, it wasn't a terrible year, but nonetheless, it was like, there were times where you're like, what's going on with this team with all this returning talent? 16:25 And you just don't know if it's psychologically, if some of these guys are already kind of, like they already said, well, this is my last year and they're just not quite as invested. 16:35 I don't know. 16:36 But there's definitely, in my opinion, and just from what I've heard behind the scenes, there's just some stuff going on there that needs to be, I don't know if it's like, everybody needs to have a little sit down and just be clear the air. 16:48 And I don't know what it is. 16:51 And even if it was a thing between, like say the coaches, for instance, and disagreements or whatever, the players got to like look at each other in that locker room and say, I want to win for the rest of these guys. 17:03 We're together, we're friends, we all know each other well. 17:06 Let's win for one another. 17:07 Who gives a crap if the coaches are having some conflict or whatever? 17:12 Let's just get back on the same page as players. 17:15 So we'll see. 17:16 I don't know. 17:17 Well, we'll definitely see. 17:19 Well, you have the guys from previous years that I think that are not performing up to par, like an Ambrose, maybe a Camerata, those type of guys. 17:29 But one guy that is their key guy right now is Connor Riley. 17:33 I mean, he had the year off for injury. 17:37 A lot of times even Lucia said it takes a year even just to get back and play a year before you're back to normal. 17:43 This kid is leading the team in goals right now with eight goals. 17:46 Yeah. 17:47 I mean, he's been a pleasant surprise. 17:48 I mean, he was a goal scorer. 17:51 So I'm not shocked from that standpoint, but it is nice to see him bring on something to the table. 17:57 He likes to shoot the puck. 17:58 He's got a good shot. 17:59 So it's good to see him kind of getting back to where he was a few years ago before he kind of got hit with the injury bug. 18:09 Well, that's about the only positive thing going. 18:11 I mean, we've got some questions via Twitter here. 18:15 One of the things that I would agree, Tim Hapke is asking you, Wilcox does not seem to be as sharp as last year. 18:20 Safe percentage down, goals against up. 18:23 Hasn't stolen a game for the Gophers yet. 18:26 What are your thoughts? 18:27 I would agree with Tim. 18:29 Yeah, I would say that he hasn't been as sharp. 18:33 You know, I think, I don't know that I would, I mean, let's be honest, the guy's a 2.18 goals against and a 92 safe percentage is not exactly lousy either. 18:43 True. 18:44 I would say that he just maybe hasn't had as many of the kind of fantastic saves that, you know, saved somebody's bacon. 18:51 You know, he hasn't maybe kind of done that quite enough, stole a few, you know, really unexpectedly. 18:56 That might be the one thing that, you know, you've seen a little bit less of this year that's compared to last year. 19:02 But, you know, it's still hard to complain about a guy that has given up basically a little over two goals a game. 19:07 I mean, for a normal Gopher team, if you have a goalie that does that, I mean, you should be winning quite a bit a game. 19:14 So I don't know that that would be my number one problem. 19:16 Well, I think it's one of the problems that are compiling all together here. 19:24 One thing with Wilcox, though, is I was in the photo box last weekend on that RIT game with Campus Pizza Jim, and I was telling him, you know, he hasn't just made that big third period save like he was doing all last year. 19:36 And right after that, he gave up the tying goal, and Jim's like, there's your big save, and it wasn't there. 19:44 So I would agree, some people are noticing, and he might not be on top of his game, but that's where last year we would get that big save, and it would almost propel the team as well, and maybe it all kind of goes together. 19:59 Well, I'm sure there's always that, you know, when your goalie is playing really well, and he's stealing goals from the other team, I mean, it does add a certain level of confidence to your team. 20:09 You get, you know what I mean? 20:11 You just have that, maybe you take a little bit more of a risk, so some of these, I mean, we haven't been scoring as much five on five, and maybe part of it, and we haven't been scoring, quite frankly, one of the things that I noticed is we're scoring a lot less goals so far this year from a defensive standpoint, and granted, some of that's, we have, you know, some rookies out there, but nonetheless, maybe from a standpoint of, you know, some of the defensemen maybe aren't necessarily as confident because they don't think Wilcox is playing quite as well as he did last year. 20:39 I don't know, you know what I mean? 20:40 You could throw a lot of what ifs out there, but that's certainly a possibility. 20:45 Well, I don't really know where to go with it anymore. 20:48 And we, the guys that were key players last year have dropped off and they just need to step up. 20:54 I don't know if Lucia is eventually going to call them out or whatever, but is Ambrose going to wake up when he plays, you know, Wisconsin again? 21:02 He loves to play the Badgers, but you know, we need you to step up now, Seth, not just against the Badgers. 21:08 Well, and I think part of it is some of the guys that you really expect. 21:11 I mean, you know, it's not like Mike Riley from a statistical standpoint has had a bad year, but I don't think he's been as dominant of a player as I expected him to be. 21:20 I mean, he's had, you know, a pretty good year, but I wouldn't say that he's, for a guy that was, you know, returning and with all the hoopla and whatever, I don't think that he's played as well as I would expect. 21:32 You know, I think he needs to do better as an overall defenseman, not just offensively, but just overall be more of a dominant presence out there. 21:40 Yeah. 21:41 Well, this week, they get to go to Ann Arbor. 21:44 Oh boy. 21:45 Can't wait for that. 21:46 Let me see here. 21:47 I've got some stats here about the Gophers and Michigan. 21:52 All time, Minnesota leads the series, 131, 118, and 14. 21:57 One of these old rivals, Hammy, and now is the time. 22:03 Michigan is playing better. 22:04 This should be a pretty good challenge for them. 22:07 Yeah. 22:08 I mean, I was looking at some of... 22:10 I know Michigan took out Michigan Tech recently, and it seems like they... 22:15 And I know that they were missing some players in their own right from World Juniors. 22:19 So they're a good team. 22:21 They have some good offensive players. 22:23 Granted, a lot of their statistics, I think, are a little bit blown up based on a few games where they had like eight goals or whatever. 22:30 So, I mean, you have to look for some of those outliers. 22:33 But nonetheless, they have a good offensive team. 22:36 I think the question mark has just sort of been, what are they going to bring defensively and in goal to the table? 22:41 And they haven't been great in those respects. 22:44 So you'd kind of hope it's, you know, from a Gopher standpoint, that you're going to be able to put some goals on the board this weekend. 22:52 Well, one positive, as it sounds like today, is that Brady Shea is going to be making the trip to Ann Arbor, so he's probably going to be in. 23:02 Yeah, and he certainly helps. 23:03 I mean, obviously, having a veteran presence and he's, you know, one of the better defensive defensemen on the team. 23:09 So hopefully that's going to help cut down on some of the opportunities that Michigan will bring to the table. 23:15 Some of the bad news, though, it sounds like Ryan Collins has got the flu, and if that's happening, that means other players are going to get it, and that's not looking good. 23:23 Not a good time to start, the flu to start going around. 23:26 Yeah, yeah, I guess you never know. 23:28 You just kind of have to quarantine guys and hope, you know. 23:31 We've seen how well that's worked in the NHL. 23:34 Yeah, well, I don't know what the problem is there, but, you know, I guess you just kind of have to hope that these guys, you know, I hope they get, well, I guess the immunizations weren't as good this year, but nonetheless, you know, I think it's just one of those things you just kind of have to watch carefully and make sure that guys are, you know, taking care of their health when they're away from the ice, not boozing out at the late hours. 23:56 Well, that's where I hope Patoni jumps in and says, hey, I was just there not too long ago. 24:01 If you guys are out partying, time to stop. 24:05 Yeah, he's probably on the road recruiting all the time, so I don't know if he's necessarily gonna be, I'm sure he's sending messages when he has the opportunity, but nonetheless, I'm sure he's got quite a bit on his plate as it is to be babysitting. 24:17 Tim Hapke's got another question for you, Hammy's wondering, do you still think Brock Bozer commits to Minnesota? 24:26 I do, I mean, everybody... 24:28 Well, first off, tell us about him. 24:31 Who is he? 24:31 What's he all about? 24:33 Well, he's out of Burnsville, he's a power forward, he's probably one of the top prospects in the USHL this year, along with Gopher recruit Tom Novak, and, you know, he's a real kind of a physical two-way forward goal scorer, so, I mean, he's certainly going to be a high-profile recruit. 24:53 He was, of course, committed to Wisconsin and decommitted. 24:57 I think it's pretty obvious that he's not going to recommit to Wisconsin, so really, it's down between the Gophers and North Dakota, and everybody that I talk to that's, you know, pretty tied into the situation, they feel pretty confident that he's inevitably going to pick the Gophers. 25:15 I mean, I don't care if it's closer or not close. 25:18 The reality is, ultimately, all that matters is who does he pick in the end. 25:22 So you could say, oh, is it 50-50 now? 25:24 Who gives a rat's ass when the reality is, in the end, is who does he pick? 25:28 And, you know, you can speculate till the cows come home about whether it's closer or not close or whatever, but everybody that I've talked to, including a couple of people who are really tied in, feel pretty confident that in the end he'll pick the Gophers. 25:42 Certainly he's playing with two future Gophers on his line down in Waterloo. 25:47 And so I think that that's going to be the likely outcome. 25:51 I'll never say 100% until a kid gives his word and signs on the dotted line. 25:54 But I think that everything I hear, they feel pretty confident. 25:58 Well, what year would he come in? 25:59 Next year? 26:00 Yeah, he'd be next year. 26:01 Okay. 26:02 Well, Brock, come to Minnesota. 26:05 Forget North Dakota. 26:07 It's a dump up there. 26:10 Yeah. 26:10 Well, we'll see. 26:12 I mean, Gophers have been doing pretty good head to head against North Dakota and recruiting in the last year or so. 26:18 So I mean, especially at Shaddock, they've been pretty much handing them their lunch. 26:21 So I think they'll be in good shape yet. 26:25 Dave Schwartz would like to know if we ever wear bow ties when we do the podcast. 26:30 I do not wear bow ties, and I will never wear a bow tie. 26:35 I would maybe wear one if I was like a lawyer or something, but I am definitely going to be just wearing regular ties for my career. 26:42 Thank you very much. 26:42 I think Dave's just trying to be a smart ass on Twitter, basically. 26:46 Well, I think that I don't really see all of his outfits, because I'm not watching care all the time. 26:52 But I don't know. 26:53 Sometimes those bow ties look kind of brutal. 26:56 You know, a lot of times I'll, you know, last Saturday, we were at the bar after the Gopher game, and after a Gopher game, he's gonna be on. 27:05 So we usually try to tweet him or something and make fun of his tie, or shirt or something that he's doing wrong. 27:15 Last week, we made fun because he didn't, they didn't send anybody over to show the highlights of the Gophers winning because there was no television last Saturday night, which kind of sucked as well, so. 27:27 Well, he's always kissing up to, what is it, the Hammer Maid shirts. 27:30 He's kissing ass. 27:31 He's probably getting freebies from them or something. 27:34 Apparently Vego is really bitter. 27:35 He can't even listen to the podcast right now. 27:38 Jesus. 27:41 I know. 27:42 Update that Skype, man. 27:45 Get a real internet connection. 27:51 Yes, I'm tweeting during the show. 27:53 Yippee, skippee. 27:54 Since Vego is the beer talk expert, I guess. 27:58 Yeah, we can't go with this. 27:58 Nate Wells is screwed on his podcast. 28:01 Go with it. 28:01 Listen to your pitbull. 28:06 Oh boy. 28:08 Now, he's trying to blame Brian Deutsch for his off. 28:13 I don't think so, Veegs. 28:14 Sorry, Veegs. 28:15 Trying to blame Brian Deutsch for all his problems and that's not very nice. 28:19 Brian Deutsch is the SID at Minnesota. 28:22 We'll see. 28:23 We'll see, Veegs. 28:24 Sorry, if he can't even hear us, that's pretty bad. 28:28 Who knows? 28:29 So, what else do we want to talk about here, Hammeh? 28:32 Well, I do have one question for you. 28:34 How do you think the Freshman D are doing so far this year? 28:37 Glover, Johnson, Collins. 28:41 Personally, I think they've been a little quiet, but what do you think? 28:47 Yeah, I mean, honestly, I guess, you know, considering I knew that we were going to have some guys getting lots of minutes, I didn't really expect, you know, dramatic impact from any of those guys. 29:01 So, I don't think from that standpoint, I guess you sort of say to yourself, from a defensive standpoint when you're a first-year player, just don't screw up too much, you know, just kind of play solid and, you know, don't take too many risks and certainly don't let the puck end up in your own net in the end. 29:18 I don't think that they've done bad. 29:20 I would agree, they haven't been anything, you know, that would make you, that would blow you away. 29:24 They've done all right. 29:26 Vegoe, can you hear me? 29:28 I can, I switched to my LTE network, but I had to download something, I had a password issue. 29:35 It's complicated. 29:36 I know, I thought I'd give you one more try and you actually sound normal now. 29:40 Yeah, well, you know, these iPhone 6s, they're amazing. 29:44 Oh, there's a nice advertisement. 29:46 Can we get Apple on as an advertiser? 29:47 That'd be sweet. 29:48 It'd be huge. 29:49 It'd be huge. 29:50 Would be big time. 29:52 So you haven't even been able to listen to the podcast while we've been talking here? 29:56 No, I saw a couple of tweets that said no sound on the podcast for Mixlr and I was struggling there too. 30:03 There's no sound through Mixlr? 30:04 Are you serious? 30:05 That's my guess. 30:07 I don't know, Gopher State, Nate could probably help us out on that, but maybe it was just me. 30:11 But there are a couple of other people who tweeted that. 30:14 See, I haven't seen that tweet at all. 30:17 I didn't either. 30:18 Danielle, Tim. 30:21 Where's the lack of, I mean, you needed to prep this one up, Jub. 30:24 What? 30:26 You're mailing it in just like the hockey team. 30:28 Yeah, sure. 30:29 Well, you guys shut up. 30:32 I'll try to restart that program. 30:33 We'll see if that works. 30:35 Who knows? 30:35 Hey, at least you're not tweeting goals that don't happen like Brian Deutsch was. 30:39 That was sweet. 30:41 He said he didn't even notice for like three minutes that it wasn't a goal. 30:45 He's like until his personal Twitter account was getting tweeted at, he did not realize it wasn't 2-1 Gophers. 30:53 They could have used that goal too on Friday. 30:56 Yeah, they could have. 30:57 That was the one that Clues was robbed, and I noticed he even retweeted when he says, Clues comes out of the box and scars. 31:03 I'm like, I don't think so. 31:06 Yeah, it was a weird moment in the building because a lot of, I mean, everybody was cheering and the puck was in the back of the nod. 31:13 Well, I think we're back up on Mixler by the way. 31:16 Okay. 31:17 Yeah, who knows what was the deal there. 31:18 At least the podcast is recording. 31:19 I think we're still recording. 31:21 Yes, it's still recording. 31:22 That's good. 31:23 We're back, seem to be back on Mixler. 31:27 I think you were just trying to milk it so that people would download the podcast more so you didn't have the live. 31:32 Whatever it takes, man, whatever it takes. 31:37 Vegoe, we've been talking a lot. 31:39 Tell us your thoughts. 31:40 We've been ripping on players, ripping on everybody. 31:43 What are your thoughts so far? 31:45 Well, I mean, I thought this past weekend wasn't, you know, a titanic weekend for them. 31:51 I thought there were signs that they were playing a little bit more competitively, at least winning the puck and possessing the puck and trying to make better decisions from that aspect. 32:02 I do think that they struggled to attack the net from the perimeter. 32:06 I thought a lot of guys were shooting pucks right into bodies. 32:10 I think, you know, it was making it pretty easy for the Warriors to block shots. 32:16 And I think they ended up having around 80 shots attempted or 90 shots attempted in that game. 32:22 So they were definitely controlling the puck. 32:25 You know, those coursey fans would have been happy with that. 32:27 But I think, you know, the long break, I think it's tough to get into that physical drive the net, put the puck on net, fight through bodies to pucks and get those opportunities. 32:39 I think in Saturday night's game, the game winner OT, you know, it's just a shot on net and Rao driving and beating this guy to a loose puck. 32:47 And I think, you know, previously in the weekend, you know, they weren't able to do that. 32:51 There's a lot of shots that just weren't creating those chances. 32:55 Not a lot of rebounds either. 32:56 Yeah. 32:56 And when there were, a guy was already tied up in front of the net and that third forward was nowhere to be found. 33:03 So I think that was a big problem. 33:04 That's, you know, in a tight hockey game, you got to score goals like that. 33:09 And by the way, you sound better than you've ever sounded. 33:12 That's great. 33:12 That's my iPhone 6 headset, too, maybe. 33:16 Could be. 33:16 I don't know. 33:16 Let's get that sponsorship lined up. 33:20 Especially if we're going to get freebies out of it. 33:22 Oh, yeah. 33:23 Can we all get iPhone 6s? 33:24 That'd be great. 33:27 All right, Veegs, one thing we did talk about, Ambrose, where is he? 33:35 I think he, of all players... 33:36 Camerata, where is he? 33:38 I think he missed playing with Boyd. 33:41 Ambrose is never going to be a 200 feet control the puck kind of player. 33:46 He needs guys who can support the puck. 33:50 And he needs zone time to be successful. 33:53 And that's something the entire team has lacked to date. 33:56 I think this last weekend, we saw a little bit more of it. 33:59 But a team like Minnesota right now, they need to just have some consistent pressure. 34:04 And I think without Boyd, Ambrose was having a hard time doing that. 34:08 I think you're seeing a lot of lines having quick shifts where they get in the zone and it's a missed shot and then it's out the other way and then they play 40, 50 seconds trying to get the puck back into the offensive zone. 34:22 And you just don't get a lot of sustained pressure that way. 34:25 I think one team that's done that to the Gophers was UMD. 34:29 They had tons of sustained pressure against the Gophers in their last series. 34:34 So with the North Star Cup coming up, that will be a big test for them. 34:37 And obviously Michigan will be a big test for them in terms of can they continue to be controlling the puck? 34:44 Well, Michigan started off pretty soft this year, but they have been playing better lately. 34:49 He didn't touch on Cami. 34:50 I want to hear what he has to say. 34:51 Oh, do you want to say anything on the Camerata? 34:53 One goal, dude. 34:55 I think he's a perimeter player too. 34:56 I think he's got to find ways to either get the puck on net and create opportunities for his line mates. 35:04 Because I don't think he's going to be a Kyle Rau. 35:07 I don't think he's going to be that kind of player. 35:10 And he hasn't been very successful in the power play either, which is a spot where you think he could contribute. 35:16 But he is a player who's got to figure out how he's going to play in this league. 35:19 I think he got a lot of points last year when he and Cluus were getting in transition. 35:24 And I know Cluus at the start of the year knew he needed to improve his end zone play in his five on five play. 35:30 And those guys are still trying to figure that out because they're not getting a lot of good chances that way. 35:36 Well, a guy that scores 65 goals in two years in the USHL I don't care what kind of player he is. 35:44 He should have a hell of a lot more than one goal in 16 games this year. 35:49 I mean, he's got to do something. 35:51 I don't care if you're a small player. 35:52 Get your ass around the net. 35:53 That doesn't mean you can't, you know, stick your nose in there. 35:56 I know he's not a physical kid, but still you got to get in there. 36:00 Yeah, I mean, I don't get in there. 36:01 I don't know how he got his 65 goals in junior, but the way he's playing the game in the Big Ten, he's not going to score 65 goals in his career. 36:11 Which is brutal. 36:12 I mean, you got to step it up. 36:14 He's a guy that, you know, he's always scored wherever he went. 36:17 And granted, it's not like he's having a lousy point production year, but especially as a sophomore, second year player, it's sort of like you're out of that excuse-making range of not having the experience or whatever. 36:29 You got to step it up. 36:31 I think one thing that will be interesting to watch is that Lucia put fashion with Cluess and Camerata on Saturday, and that could be something to help Camerata out and get him going, is somebody who can get those loose pucks on the missed shots and somebody who can grind in the corner and create some space for him. 36:50 So I know Lucia has been talking about how he hasn't been able to put his team together all season because of all the injuries and sickness and world juniors. 37:00 So if that's a change he's looking to make there, that could be why. 37:04 What happened to our depth? 37:07 We don't have depth players. 37:10 You don't have fourth year guys who know how to play roles. 37:14 You have a lot of guys who have been top six players all the way through and now they're trying to deal with how they fit in this line up. 37:21 And if you missed the net and you got to play defense for 40 seconds, it's a hard game. 37:27 Well, let's be honest. 37:29 The bottom two lines for the most part have been a disappointment. 37:32 Other than Boyd, I don't know of any of the guys that I would say are having even an average year from the bottom six perspective. 37:41 And they're not bringing anything to the table. 37:43 That's all that special off of the score sheet. 37:46 I mean, I don't see a lot of great defensive play, great physical play, whatever. 37:52 Like I said earlier in the podcast, where are the Sarah Tories? 37:55 Where are the Nate Condons before he moved up last year to a more of a scoring kind of a role? 38:01 You don't see those guys down there. 38:03 They're not bringing it. 38:04 And the other thing is they're not contributing to penalty kill either. 38:07 I mean, you see Raoul Fasching, Clues out there a lot on the kill. 38:14 And he needs those bottom six guys to contribute more there. 38:18 I think he's been trying Michelson a little bit. 38:20 Getting Boyd back will help. 38:22 But other than that, there's not a lot of help there for the special teams. 38:26 When you got Michelson playing a third line role, that's not good. 38:31 That's all I'm gonna say. 38:34 It's not good. 38:36 It's funny because Lucio specifically called out his game on Friday night as something he liked. 38:41 So maybe that's him just trying to give him some confidence because he needs him. 38:47 But they stuck together both nights. 38:50 When you're getting them on a scholarship he's getting and you're not getting much production, you're probably trying to do anything from a coach perspective to get something out of a guy. 39:00 When you get one assist out of 13 games, it's like dude, and you're getting that much scholarship? 39:05 That's freaking brutal. 39:08 That is a brutal, I mean that was a total, I mean let's be honest, that was a flub recruit. 39:13 That was a flub recruit. 39:16 I mean you gotta call it as it is. 39:18 It was a flub. 39:22 Oh, Ham, you're in great form tonight. 39:24 He looked pretty solid when he was at Apple Valley and then when Fast Street left, it all kind of went downhill for him. 39:31 The problem is he had always had the skating ability, but he did had, well, horse, you know what, hands. 39:37 His hands were crap and that's proven to be true in college. 39:43 Yeah, 1.13 games after he was kind of a big deal at the time is quite disappointing. 39:50 Well, and Isaacson has been just as bad. 39:52 Oh, two assists for him. 39:55 This is a kid that I mean a lot of people thought would be an offensive player in college, and that just did not happen. 40:03 I mean, I don't know what. 40:03 What about Brischtad? 40:06 You know, we were expecting a little more from him, and he's done nothing, and really the rest of the freshmen who are mostly defense, obviously, haven't done anything. 40:13 But you know, last year, the freshmen were huge in scoring for us. 40:19 Well, I think Brischtad, I think I still have a lot of, I mean, I think for him, it's a sort of a transition year coming from European hockey to North American style hockey, and you know, that's going to be a transition, a new country. 40:32 I mean, I just think it was a little easier for say, somebody like Howell because he was already over here, you know, I mean, he played Shattuck and then USHL. 40:40 So, I mean, he, it's just a different little scenario in that case. 40:43 And so I think, I think Leon will be fine, you know, he just needs a little bit of a, you know, kind of an adapting time for, you know, North American hockey. 40:53 And I'm still holding out hope on Vinny as well. 40:57 I think that he can provide something, but I'm a little bit disappointed in how he's been this year, too. 41:02 Well, at least he's got three goals, and that's it. 41:05 Yeah, he's done a little something, but I still expect a little more out of him, but he just hasn't done it yet. 41:11 All right, Veegs, anything else on your mind? 41:15 Not that we can hear you. 41:16 I'm just wondering what Lucia is going to be able to do differently here. 41:22 I mean, has he lost his team? 41:31 I mean, that's the hard thing. 41:33 I mean, unless you're down in the locker room, and you're seeing things day in and day out, I mean, we'd just be speculating up the wazoo. 41:40 Like I said, I hear stuff that some of the players aren't happy with certain things. 41:47 You could probably say that a lot of years. 41:49 And like I said earlier, it's not like the coach has to be your best friend. 41:52 You have to look around that locker room and say, okay, even if I don't like the coach, I still want to win for my teammates, for my friends. 41:59 I still want to bust my butt in practice for these guys and win for each other. 42:04 I don't know if that's going on or not. 42:05 I mean, I can't answer that one. 42:09 Yeah, I mean, from my perspective, I mean, the only message he can really send to some of these guys is by benching them or putting them in different roles. 42:18 Because you haven't seen any kind of drastic line up changes. 42:21 You've seen a little bit of shuffling here with Connor Rile getting a chance on the power play in first line. 42:27 You know, some shuffling here and there with who's playing the points on the power plays, who's getting PK time. 42:34 But some of the new guys that he's been fitting in those spots haven't worked out. 42:37 So there's only so many cards you can draw from the deck with this team. 42:42 Yeah, it ain't like the old days where he added JV, that's for sure. 42:49 All right, boys, I think we've spilled enough blood for tonight. 42:53 We've all vented enough. 42:55 Well, you know what? 42:57 We're fans. 42:59 We're a little disappointed this team should be better than this. 43:03 And quite honestly, they haven't been. 43:08 And I think the two biggest things so far has been Wilcox hasn't bailed them out like he did last year. 43:13 It seemed like last year, every time they gave up a breakaway, he made the save. 43:18 And that's kind of what happens when you have an All-American goalie. 43:21 And I don't think Wilcox is playing as an All-American. 43:24 He's playing solid, but he's not bailing them out. 43:27 And then the other thing is the defensemen just aren't getting the goal scoring and points that they did last year. 43:32 They're having a hard time quickly getting the puck to the net. 43:38 You see so many shots blocked or missing the net or going out the other side of the zone from the D. 43:43 They really need to focus on just getting the puck on that, creating those rebound opportunities. 43:49 Well, that's kind of what I was talking about earlier is the fact that when you don't have your goalie stealing those goals like he did last year, maybe you're not taking as many risks from an offensive standpoint when you're a defenseman because you're saying, well, is he going to bail me out this time? 44:06 He hasn't been bailing us out quite as much as last year. 44:10 Do you have the same confidence level? 44:13 I looked over the break as far as I said earlier from an offensive standpoint, goal scoring and the forwards are pretty much on par with what they did last year through the first 14 games, but where the real decrease was is the defensive goal scoring. 44:28 I mean, we had, I think it was, let's see, three, four, seven, nine less goals scored from a defensive standpoint compared to last year at the same time. 44:38 So it just kind of goes to show you it's been quite a bit different. 44:43 Vegoe, your prediction on the weekend at Michigan. 44:47 I think we're gonna see a split this weekend. 44:49 I know Michigan's been improved with their goaltending. 44:53 Their offense certainly hasn't dropped off very much, so I think we'll see a split. 44:58 Hammey? 45:00 Yeah, that's pretty much what I would say too. 45:02 I think that Michigan I think has played pretty well. 45:07 You certainly can expect them one night to have a pretty good game. 45:10 So I think that the goal for the weekend would probably come out of it with a road split. 45:16 All right, boys. 45:18 We're done. 45:19 And now we're gonna have Vegoe on your phone every week, damn it. 45:23 I can make that happen. 45:24 You sound great. 45:25 You do. 45:25 You sound a lot better than you usually do. 45:27 Time to get a new laptop, maybe. 45:29 Could be. 45:29 It is a MacBook from 2008 or something. 45:34 Yeah, that's just so old. 45:36 Yeah. 45:37 All right. 45:37 Well, that's gonna do it for this week in The GPL Podcast. 45:40 Remember, you can always follow Hammy at Hammy Hockey on Twitter and Vegoe at eVegoe. 45:47 And then if you're listening, when we're not screwing up the live broadcast, you can always use the hashtag GPL Podcast in your tweets and we'll try to answer your questions when we can. 45:58 We'll be back next week to recap Michigan and then we'll preview the old tournament. 46:04 What the hell is that? 46:05 Ice bucket? 46:05 Whatever the hell that thing is. 46:08 I don't even remember what it's called. 46:10 Who cares? 46:10 Whatever. 46:11 It's the name. 46:12 They play Manghetto State. 46:14 The North Star Cups. 46:15 North Star Cups. 46:16 Yeah, jeez. 46:17 Too many terminates. 46:18 I know. 46:19 I need a vacation. 46:21 We'll be back next week. 46:22 Goodbye.