0:22 Now, let's join Hammy, Vegoe and your host, Jupiter. 0:36 Hello, and welcome to another edition of The GPL Podcast. 0:39 We're back here for another week after, well, I would say a disappointing weekend in some ways, and an okay weekend in others. 0:49 Obviously, the tie Friday night to Wisconsin was just, oh, it sucked, just awful. 0:56 Hammy, what are your initial thoughts on this frickin Wisconsin Badger Series this past weekend? 1:02 Well, I'm not really shocked, because that's exactly the result that I predicted last week on a podcast. 1:08 You predicted them to play so bad Friday night? 1:11 I don't really think they played that bad Friday night. 1:13 Almost every shot went into that damn kid's chest, I swear. 1:17 Well, when you're comin out of the gates and you've basically had 20 shots to their zero, what was it then, the period, 20 to three or somethin like, I don't even remember what it was. 1:28 Yep, that's what it was. 1:29 I mean, you can't really complain about that. 1:31 I don't care if it's in his chest or not. 1:33 Obviously, the puck was bein dominated by the Gophers. 1:37 Second period was pretty evenly played, I thought. 1:40 I mean, it wasn't really one way or the other. 1:41 And if it wasn't for a bad line change and then, frankly, a missed call by the refs on the tying goal, I don't think anybody would have been bitchin all that much, but it is what it is. 1:55 You know, it is what it is, but you know what? 1:57 They also put themselves in that position by not burying a lot of those chances earlier in the game. 2:03 Like I said, I don't really have a problem. 2:04 I mean, the only thing that really kind of bothered me was the five on three that they didn't really take advantage of right before that, because our power play has been so good, but, and of course the missed call by the refs. 2:15 So that, to me, were the two things that kind of bothered me about that night. 2:19 Tell us about Friday Night Vagues. 2:20 What do you think? 2:22 Well, I think a little bit of it is you got a credit rumple. 2:25 You know, he's a good goalie. 2:27 You know, I think he was a Hobie Baker candidate for them last year. 2:31 Obviously, the crew in front of them isn't nearly as talented this year and he's seen a lot more shots. 2:37 And as you saw on the next night, there were more rebounds that guys were getting to. 2:41 But on Friday night, you know, he was really on top of his game. 2:45 I think the Gophers were pressing and they were just trying to get shots off quickly. 2:48 And I think sometimes when you do that, if a goalie is square and getting to the right spots, it's hard to beat him. 2:55 Well, I think one thing that killed them Friday night that they did better on Saturday night was a little bit of patience. 3:02 In overtime when Cluse had that wide open shot and put it right in his belly, God, that pissed me off. 3:08 Because that's what they had been doing all night. 3:10 Just a little bit of patience, let them commit, then shoot the puck. 3:15 It was very frustrating for me. 3:17 No, I think when you're attempting over 90 shots, you know, it's gonna get tough to be patient when only two of them have gone in. 3:24 So I think they were just pressing a little bit. 3:26 And I think this team has been pressing the last couple months. 3:29 And, you know, that's the kind of game that happens when you're pressing that much is you, you know, start just firing the puck and not trying to score. 3:38 And then a couple of mistakes can end up costing you. 3:41 Well, I think Rumpel played pretty well. 3:43 I mean, that's the reason why I picked him to at least tie one game last week was essentially Rumpel. 3:48 I mean, you know, you have a veteran goalie, a guy who's not gonna be shaken up by playing a Mariucci in a rivalry series. 3:55 You know, he's seen all the kinds of battles that you can see on the college level. 4:00 And so for me, you have to give him credit for performing. 4:04 Yeah, you would have liked to score a couple more goals, but nonetheless, sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the goalie. 4:10 I mean, it's the great equalizer in hockey is how well your goalie can play. 4:14 Even if you're outgunned, if your goalie plays really well, he can keep you in a game, and that's what happened. 4:19 And to top it all off, again, the Gophers lost in a shootout. 4:23 Yeah, well, I don't know. 4:27 I guess, for me, that whole stuff, I mean, I get it for league play and whatever, but I don't even really care, to be honest, too much about that stuff. 4:35 Well, you may not care about it, but it gave them a point in the standings. 4:40 You know, it could hurt us further down the road, who knows? 4:43 But what that tie definitely did, though, was drop them like a rock in the pairwise. 4:48 They dropped a 20 right away. 4:52 Well, I mean, that's kind of like what we said. 4:54 They're gonna have to do some things, you know, and be consistent over the last few months if they're gonna make it, because they're certainly not in a position right now to feel very comfortable on a week in and week out basis if they're not winning games. 5:07 So we're gonna be on that kind of seesaw, I think, for a good month or two if we're not gonna be consistent. 5:15 Yeah, if I do, though, remember my pairwise history. 5:18 You know, the pairwise that last month is when it really gets dicey. 5:23 But it's also a point where the guys in the, you know, the high teens can move into the top 13. 5:30 Because, you know, you'll get that bracketology and pairwise calculator out there. 5:35 And you can see if they go on a run at the end, they can move up. 5:40 The bottom line is this team was not supposed to be a bubble pairwise team, guys. 5:44 And that's why people are so damn pissed off about it. 5:48 Well, I mean, at this point, I don't really know that it's... 5:53 I understand being disappointed with where things are at, but it's kind of like it didn't just happen overnight. 5:59 I mean, anybody who's quote unquote pissed about it now, it's like, well, where have you been for two frickin months? 6:05 I mean, it's kind of been that way. 6:07 And it's like, you'd think at some point, you just sort of say, well, this is how it's been, and now you just gotta work your way back into it and that's all you can do, but being pissed about it, I don't know what that's gonna, from a fan perspective, I don't really, it's like, where have you been? 6:22 Yeah, well, it's disappointing. 6:25 Well, yeah, disappointing I get, but being pissed about it, it's like, that I don't really get too much. 6:30 Well, you know, after getting to the championship game and then to the fact that right now they wouldn't even be in the tournament with all the guys returning, people are angry, people are pissed, people are disappointed, you know, kind of all the above. 6:42 And I don't blame them. 6:44 Well, I mean, I don't blame them. 6:45 I think we're all disappointed to an extent. 6:48 So it's just a matter of right now, all we can do is focus on what we have ahead of us rather than, you know, kind of complaining about where we're at from games that we can't do anything about anymore. 6:58 It's more, what can this team do to get the ship, you know, on track and moving forward to the way we want to be. 7:05 And I think you saw that on Saturday night. 7:07 I think you saw the team show a little bit more patience, whether or not it was Wisconsin's defense and goaltender getting a little bit more fatigued and giving up rebounds and allowing the GopherFords to get their sticks on the pucks around the net. 7:24 But that is the team that most people expected, I think. 7:27 Saturday night, they were high flying, they were crashing the net, and they were getting to the rebounds. 7:32 Well, see, that to me is the key. 7:34 What you mentioned is crashing the net. 7:36 And I know that in the paper, I don't know which player it was quoted, but they said that Gensl told them he wanted them to be piranhas around the net that night. 7:44 And I think you kind of saw that attitude. 7:46 And that's the thing that we've been kind of lamenting for quite a bit of the year, was the fact that they weren't, they're playing kind of soft, and they didn't really kind of seem to want to pay the price to be around the crease or in the slot where you're going to get smacked around a bit. 8:01 But that's where you're going to score goals. 8:03 You're not going to get those goals from shooting on the perimeter, and you can't always rely on the power play. 8:08 You're going to have to get some ugly goals. 8:11 Well, it sure did get feisty late in the third on Saturday night, Biggs. 8:17 You were there. 8:18 You saw it all. 8:19 Yeah, I think Wisconsin was frustrated. 8:23 They were definitely tired on Saturday. 8:25 You could tell that they were getting beat to pucks. 8:28 And there are a couple of shifts. 8:30 I think even Christian Isaacson took a Badger on the tour of his own zone for about 40 seconds. 8:37 And Wisconsin just didn't have it. 8:40 And Minnesota was getting all kinds of shots again. 8:42 And I think they got frustrated. 8:45 And there was the clear cheap shot by Wichow at the end of the game that started the Donnybrook. 8:50 And surprise, surprise, Mike Riley is the first guy there. 8:54 I think even Connor was surprised by that. 8:57 I kind of think that's hopefully a kickstarter for this team to say, hey, enough is enough. 9:02 And maybe in a little Donnybrook or whatever, can lift these guys, start playing more for each other. 9:11 Well, I think there's definitely that bond that's gonna happen when something like that happens. 9:15 And everybody was saying how they're looking forward to playing Wisconsin again in two weeks. 9:20 And I think this weekend against Minnesota State and hopefully Duluth, another opportunity for them to bond together on it. 9:28 Well, it's funny that you mentioned that because that's exactly the thing that I was thinking about today is that, I mean, you never really know when those turning points in a season occur until you look back in hindsight and say, yeah, that game where they came back or that particular play or whatever, that's when you can kind of look back and say, yeah, that really kind of lit the flame for the team. 9:47 And we don't know if that stuff at the end of the game on Saturday is really gonna have any meaning or not. 9:54 It's potentially there, but we really won't know that until we see what's gonna happen over the course of the next few months. 10:01 We're hoping, at least. 10:03 Yeah, well, there's nothing wrong with a little hope. 10:07 Well, I'm just thankful that it's Vinny Loteri that got the suspension and not Brady Shea for that little altercation at the end of the net. 10:16 Cause we saw when they lost Boyd and when they lost Shea, how big of an impact that had on the team. 10:21 So it's nice that Shea is gonna be in the lineup this weekend. 10:27 Well, and I think that Wicco, I mean, he deserved the two game suspension. 10:31 I mean, normally, if it was like in the middle of the game, I'd say, okay, yeah, he just gets a one gamer. 10:36 But when it's basically 30 seconds left in the game and it's a five, two score, you know, and you're going head hunting, I mean, come on, you know, that's, you kind of have to give a little extra punishment for that. 10:48 It's no different than, you know, when they would find coaches if, you know, an NHL, if one of their players instigated a fight in the last certain amount of minutes of the game. 10:57 And I mean, so to me, it's the same thing. 10:59 You have to punish things a little more severely when it's in that context. 11:03 And unfortunately, he'll miss the Michigan series, but he'll be right back in the lineup to play Minnesota. 11:08 Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing if he's gonna take advantage. 11:12 I'm just glad, you know, some of the stuff that happened right in front of me, that I didn't get killed. 11:18 Because I did take a stick Saturday night, and it didn't feel great. 11:23 Yeah, was it LeBate who got you right in the jaw? 11:25 I believe LeBate did, he didn't get me in the face or anything, but he did get me on the side, kind of the back, you know, by my kidney. 11:33 Wasn't the greatest. 11:34 I've been hit worse, but it was definitely fun. 11:38 I know that, oh, Bessie was, Bessie was very entertaining on the bench, let's just say. 11:45 And in fact, even towards the end, he was talking with Leteary, and they were both saying, maybe we shouldn't go through the handshake line, but you know, they did, and everything, everything, level heads seemed to prevail then, whereas maybe against North Dakota, it wouldn't have. 12:01 But they did seem to get through it. 12:03 Although I didn't see the coaches shake hands. 12:07 They did. 12:07 They did? 12:08 Yes, they did, right in front of me. 12:11 That I saw, very quick, they didn't say anything, they didn't talk, you know. 12:15 I don't think that, you know, Eves is a very well-liked guy by a lot of other people. 12:23 So, it was a very quick handshake and that was it. 12:26 It's not like, you know, Lucia is usually a little more cordial and has a couple of words to say, at least to coaches, but it was a pretty quick thing. 12:38 Well, what do you expect, you know, he is a Badger, so. 12:43 Yeah, that's true. 12:44 Definitely true. 12:46 But, you know, I hope it gets these guys going, because, you know, there was quite a bit of passion there, there was quite a bit of, you know, sticking up for your fellow teammates, and, you know, all we can do is hope that this is a turning point, and it leads to better things. 13:03 Well, it was nice to see Travis Boyd kind of put the team on his back right away, because he said he felt responsible on Friday night, and he was. 13:11 Then he stepped up and played a great game on Saturday. 13:14 I think at the start of the year, we were talking about guys who could make the biggest jump, and Boyd might be the one, you know, but he and Conor Riley have really come along this year. 13:24 Well, and I think that, you know, the other thing for me is I'm just hoping that the attitude they brought to the table from, you know, at least from the forwards, going to the net, being a little more aggressive, those kinds of things, that's what, for me, I really hope that they take from this last series is having that attitude, because if this team scores goals, they'll be in good shape. 13:46 It's just a matter of, they can't rely on the power play or transition all the time. 13:50 They have to start getting around that net and being willing to pay a price, and I saw a little bit more of that on Saturday. 13:59 If you happen to be listening live to The GPL Podcast, remember, you can always tweet questions just using the hashtag GPL Podcast, and we'll try to answer them live here. 14:09 Tim Hapke is wondering, what does the recruiting of goal, or who does the recruiting of goalies? 14:15 Does Justin Jonchen have a say in it? 14:20 Does he have any say? 14:21 Does he go out there and do any recruiting? 14:22 Or is he just strictly a goalie coach? 14:25 I believe that he's the goalie coach. 14:27 He's just gonna be the coaching that. 14:28 I don't know that they're allowed to have the volunteer assistant go out and do any kind of. 14:32 I don't know that factually, but I'm pretty sure the assistants kind of take the ball and run with it on that. 14:39 And I know, at least from a goalie perspective, they get a pretty good amount of input from scouts because, let's face it, that's more of a unique position. 14:49 It's not necessarily, it's not like a defenseman or a forwarder, you can, if you've been in that position, you're pretty familiar with it. 14:55 And these guys aren't, they weren't goalies in their past. 14:58 So from what I've heard, they take a certain amount of input from scouts on various goalie prospects. 15:06 And what happened today, Hammey, looks like we signed or didn't sign or verbally had somebody commit a goalie. 15:13 Yeah, Eric Sherhorn, he's a kid who's, I played at Shattuck for a little while. 15:17 He's played at Russell Stover. 15:19 And then this year he's playing in the USHL for Muskegon. 15:23 He's probably, I would get, I think probably the best goalie that was left in the league, although I'm not exactly scouring the goalie leaders or anything like that. 15:32 But you know, he's, and I think he was ranked third in the state percentage, which to me is for a goalie, the most important stat you can look at. 15:40 And you know, we were talking about this on GPL and I think we have on the podcast, you know, that that was definitely an area that was gonna be important, you know, with Wilcox likely leaving and Halliday wasn't looking too hot and you know, he wasn't gonna be able to step in next year and do something. 15:58 And I know a lot of people talk about Besser and Mismash and some of these forward guys, but the reality is from a short term perspective, getting that goalie situation shored up, that was probably the most important thing that we had on our at least recruiting agenda because you know, we don't really know exactly what we have behind Wilcox right now on the roster and we kind of need to make sure that we have plenty of competition and feeling confident moving forward once he does leave. 16:26 So obviously, you know, with this new verbal, should Halliday be concerned? 16:32 Personally, it sounds like, you know, his stock has dropped quite a bit. 16:35 Maybe it could be soon that they're just saying, we're looking in another direction. 16:41 Well, it's my, I said this on GPL, it's my opinion that they shouldn't pull the plug on him right now that I would let him play out the rest of the year and get an off season of work and see how he does maybe early, you know, in the fall in the USHL or wherever he's playing if he's, I'm assuming he'd be in the USHL and just see how things go. 17:01 And if you don't like his progress, then yeah, you can mutually decide to part ways. 17:06 Or, you know, maybe the kid will say, hey, I don't want to wait all that extra time and now suddenly there's more competition. 17:13 Maybe he'll decide that he doesn't want to wait around and kind of decide to decommit. 17:18 I don't know, you know, what will happen. 17:20 But I wouldn't pull the plug on him right away. 17:23 It isn't looking good based on what we've seen. 17:26 Well, where does this leave the Edquis kid from Lakeville? 17:29 Well, I mean, he still weighs off. 17:31 Okay, he's further out. 17:32 Right. 17:33 And so they're looking for more or less someone for next year. 17:37 Right. 17:38 And my, you know, I don't know, the whole Edquis thing, my feeling is they shouldn't have, I'm just a big believer you wait on goalies. 17:45 You know, I mean, as far as getting a commitment goes, we've seen so many guys that come into college that didn't commit until they were 18, 19, 20 years old and end up being really good goaltenders. 17:56 It's like, you don't need to commit to goalies. 17:58 It's such a late, kind of a late bloomer role. 18:03 Lots of guys do well, but it's not until they've seen a lot of shots and become more comfortable with their game. 18:08 And you know, when you're talking about a 15-year-old kid, let's be honest, they're not only immature physically and everything, but they haven't seen the quality of shots that they're going to see on higher levels. 18:19 So I just think it wasn't, in my opinion, the right move, but hopefully it'll work out for them. 18:24 So are you guessing that they'll, you know, obviously they're thinking that it's likely that Wilcox will leave, but I'm guessing they'll wait till a final decision on him, obviously, won't they? 18:36 Those, you know, if Wilcox does decide to stay, then they've got another year to kind of push this out, don't they? 18:41 Yeah, I mean, I think Shearhorn, I think he's only, he's about to turn 19. 18:48 So, I mean, he's certainly got extra time in the USHL, or, you know, if it was necessary. 18:53 I'm assuming that they have a pretty good feel that Wilcox is gonna go. 18:58 I mean, I guess you don't know until it actually happens, but I'm pretty sure that they talk with these guys pretty consistently about what their plans are. 19:06 And I think everybody was happy that he just returned for this season. 19:10 So the fact that that's happened, and I would suspect that he's probably gonna for sure be gone. 19:16 Well, doesn't Wilcox have, he can like declare or something like that to try to get out of the Tampa system, or what's the deal with all that? 19:23 Yeah, it's no different than like what Justin Schultz did, or Blake Wheeler did. 19:26 He was drafted a year before he got to college, and so there's that loophole that if you withdraw from school during your junior season, that the team that owns your rights, they have till I think July 1st to sign you to a deal. 19:42 If they don't sign you to a deal, then you're, or I don't know if it's, maybe it's, it might be June 1st. 19:46 I don't know, I think it's June 1st, but I can't remember the exact date, but essentially you become a free agent on July 1st and they can, and any team can sign you then. 19:54 And, you know, maybe he doesn't like the Tampa system. 19:56 I don't know. 19:58 There's a lot of goalies in Tampa. 20:00 Yeah. 20:00 They've got Bishop as the starter, then they've got a couple of prospects ahead of Wilcox, probably. 20:05 More of your typical six foot plus goalies. 20:09 And like I said, I mean, I've been saying for a while, I think he should try to look at the wild. 20:13 I mean, let's face it, you know, it's not like their goalie situation is kicking ass and, you know, the guy that they just got in a trade, I think he's a free agent, isn't he, after this season's over? 20:23 So you don't know if he's coming back. 20:26 And one thing I'll say about Wilcox is I think this weekend, especially Friday night, I don't think it was his fault in either of those goals. 20:35 I think he did make the bigger saves, quite a few, a couple of times Friday night, that could have been a big difference. 20:43 So maybe he's turned the corner. 20:47 I don't know. 20:48 I just thought that Friday night, it definitely wasn't his fault that they lost the game and he did make big saves at key times. 20:59 Any thoughts? 20:59 Well, yeah, I definitely agree with you. 21:01 I don't think either of those goals were his fault. 21:03 I mean, when you have those situations where it's almost like a quick odd man rush and that's a cross-size pass, it's pretty tough for a goalie to dive across and consistently save those kinds of shots. 21:13 And like I said, on that second goal, the entire team fell asleep because a guy made an illegal line change. 21:21 I mean, when you have a guy 40 feet from the bench and you're already skating the other direction on a line change or whatever, I mean, I wouldn't suspect the players to exactly catch on to that real quick. 21:32 So I thought, but anyways, yeah, neither goal I thought was his fault. 21:37 And we definitely need him to pick up his game if we want to do anything this year. 21:42 So hopefully he does. 21:44 Well, boys, kind of the last non-conference bit is this weekend. 21:50 We've got the North Star Cup, you know, with Minnesota playing Mankato and Duluth playing Bemidji Friday night, and then the winners and the losers play each other Saturday. 21:59 This is, this may be the last chance to make any kind of realistic jump and do good things for their pairwise guys. 22:10 You know, you got that matchup against the number one team in the country Friday night. 22:15 Minnesota State Mankato, Vegs, your initial thoughts. 22:18 This is a big matchup. 22:20 Yeah, it's got huge implications for their season. 22:23 I mean, if they struggle this weekend, they're gonna be looking at that conference tournament as they're ticket in. 22:29 So they need to perform. 22:31 And, you know, I'm definitely encouraged with the way things went on Saturday and hoping they can carry that momentum in here. 22:38 It sounds like Williams has found his game again for Mankato. 22:43 I know he got pulled in a game and had another kind of stinker, but the last three games he's played well. 22:49 Lucia talked a lot about Mankato's depth up front and their size on the back end. 22:56 So it'll be a good challenge for Minnesota. 22:58 I think Minnesota's probably got a little bit more speed. 23:00 And I think that the defense for Minnesota is definitely more mobile. 23:04 If they can carry that, you know, speed, get pucks behind the D and crash the net, you know, it should be a fun hockey game on Friday. 23:12 Hammey, this Mankato team is a much older team, I would say, more upperclassmen led. 23:18 Yeah, I mean, I was kind of looking through everything before the podcast. 23:22 And that's one of the first things that jumped out at me was the fact that they are, you know, pretty veteran. 23:27 And some of these guys seem like they've been around forever, like LaFontaine. 23:30 I mean, it's like, you feel like you've been talking about them for years. 23:33 Yep. 23:34 So yeah, they are a pretty veteran team. 23:37 Certainly they have some pretty solid depth. 23:40 You know, I don't really know. 23:41 I know that they're number one pair wise. 23:43 I know that, you know, they have had, you know, what their schedule, strength of schedule is not bad or anything like that. 23:50 I'm still, you still kind of wonder about some of these teams, you know, how good are they really? 23:56 And, you know, we'll find out on Friday. 23:58 I think if the Gophers bring it and Wilcox plays up to his capabilities, they're certainly capable of beating Mankato. 24:05 And I think that, you know, I don't remember who it was that I saw this week, but they felt like, you know, the top 20 teams, you know, like you could pretty much throw them on a hat and any one of them could, you know, potentially win the championship. 24:18 So, you know, when you have opinions like that being thrown out there, it just kind of shows you what the parity is like this year. 24:25 Well, on the other side of the bracket, you've got Duluth and Bemidji. 24:29 Bemidji obviously struggling this year. 24:31 Duluth, they struggled last weekend, but they are a pretty good team this year, Veegs. 24:38 Yeah, I thought the best team I've seen this year was the team that beat Minnesota 3-0. 24:43 I think when Duluth played Minnesota, they played pretty much a flawless game. 24:48 I was really impressed with their forwards and the speed. 24:51 Gideon Pucks, I think this is the most mobile defensive core Duluth had in my memory. 24:57 They're able to pinch and get involved in the offensive zone. 25:00 They're able to join the rush. 25:02 Duluth's a dangerous team. 25:04 I think their goal tending can be up and down a little bit, but they've got a lot of team speed and they're a tough team to play against. 25:12 And they like to play Minnesota. 25:13 You can just see it. 25:15 They do. 25:15 You can see it in their extra bounce on their skates. 25:18 They want to play Minnesota, so it should be a great game. 25:21 That's the thing that I think is key for the Gophers is that they have to keep their heads about them and not get caught up in that kind of crap that Farley and some of those guys tend to chirp a lot. 25:32 You know what I mean? 25:33 And I think that we know that some of those guys like to dive. 25:37 I mean, we've talked about it before. 25:39 I just think that you kind of have to... 25:41 Oh, but we've got Rauno and he dives too. 25:44 Well, I mean, I'm not saying that we don't ever have guys that chirp or do anything like that, but it's been pretty notorious with a few of these Duluth guys. 25:53 And if we do end up playing them, which we don't know for sure, but if we do end up playing them, that to me is gonna be key, that you have to be patient, you can't get caught up in the antics and all that kind of garbage that I think we sometimes see with Duluth, at least in recent last few years, and just play the game and play hard. 26:13 And I think if they do that and keep their heads about them, they'll be in all right shape. 26:17 I think that's definitely a big concern. 26:18 I think in the St. 26:19 Cloud State game and in the Duluth game and in the Wisconsin game, you've seen Minnesota kind of lose their cool a little bit and take some penalties that they probably shouldn't. 26:30 So I think that could be a factor. 26:33 Well, I think either way, definitely Duluth's got the easier side of the bracket. 26:40 And obviously Minnesota, Mankato are the marquee matchup, but either way, if Minnesota plays Duluth or Mankato plays Duluth Saturday night, because I just assumed Duluth's gonna get through Bemidji, that's gonna be a wonderful matchup as well. 26:55 Are you heading down this weekend, Veegs? 26:57 I'll be there Saturday. 26:59 I hope to be there for the seven o'clock game for sure. 27:02 So what do you think? 27:03 I mean, Bemidji, are they gonna be able to put up anything against Duluth there, Hammeh? 27:10 Well, I think it's probably a pretty long odds. 27:12 I mean, you never know. 27:13 I mean, maybe Duluth, you know, maybe they look ahead to that Saturday game and think that, you know, it's either gonna be the Gophers or the number one team in the pairwise. 27:22 I mean, you never know if a team's gonna kind of take a lackadaisical approach to playing an opponent that they should win because they're looking ahead to the next opponent that's, you know, gonna be a tougher game. 27:33 But I would say the odds are pretty long that Bemidji's gonna win that game. 27:38 Well, Duluth's gonna get a good matchup no matter what. 27:41 So, lucky them. 27:45 Anything else you guys wanna talk about this week? 27:48 Any other frustrations with the team? 27:49 Or are we just kind of in hope mode and just hope that they perform well this weekend and don't get their butts kicked? 27:57 Well, I mean, I actually didn't have a huge problem with how they played this last weekend. 28:02 Other than, you know, it'd have been nice to put a few more on the board on Friday. 28:07 So, I guess, all in all, I didn't have a problem with that. 28:09 So, I'm not gonna be all frustrated like maybe prior weeks. 28:12 Hopefully, like I said, they take some lessons out of that series and especially as far as being a little more gritty around the net and playing with a little bit more of an attitude. 28:21 So, if they do that, I like what they can do in the long run. 28:26 Veegs, if they lose two this weekend, oh boy. 28:33 I don't think that's gonna happen. 28:35 I think it would be a pretty strange scenario for them to drop two. 28:39 I think this team has played decently all year. 28:43 I think there's only been two real poor performances, that game against Duluth in November and that game at St. 28:49 Cloud. 28:50 I think those have been the only two where you just go, they did not come to play. 28:54 The Michigan series, that's a team that's really talented. 28:58 There's a lot of draft picks on that team up front. 29:01 They've got some high prospects on their back end too. 29:06 And they did score goals. 29:07 It was just defensive lapses that cost them in that game. 29:10 So I think this Minnesota team has had such massive expectations placed on them, that those losses are really hurting the fan base. 29:18 But I think the actual play on the ice has been okay lately. 29:22 They have another level that they can get to. 29:25 And I think this weekend's crucial for them to avoid putting themselves in that position where they have to win the conference tournament. 29:32 Well, I tell you, you know Mangato's gonna be pumped. 29:35 Well, I mean, people are saying, oh, I don't know if they deserve their number one ranking, or I don't know if they should be number one pair wise. 29:42 So I think they're gonna come up pretty jacked and Minnesota needs to maybe get through that first period. 29:49 Well, that first 10 minutes is gonna be crucial for this game, you know, it could be a good crowd, who knows, the North Star College Cup has had some interesting crowds last year. 29:59 I've heard rumors that they're trying to get more students and people in the upper deck, so it's not so empty up there, but we'll see, there's a lot going on in St. 30:09 Paul, but it should be great hockey. 30:13 Yeah, there is crashed ice this weekend, people, so plan accordingly on Saturday. 30:17 And there are concerts and a cat show. 30:20 Lovely. 30:21 Well, the other thing is that, you know, from an in-state perspective, I think that, you know, the series that we had against St. 30:28 Cloud and the series that we had against Duluth, to me, those were sort of what we've seen from this team where it seemed like the series and those games meant more from an intensity standpoint to the opponent than it did to us, and it shouldn't be that way. 30:46 Agreed. 30:47 Even though, you know, maybe, yeah, Duluth and Mankato and these teams aren't, they're not North Dakota or they're not Wisconsin from a rivalry perspective, but nonetheless, that's how they look at us. 30:59 And if we're gonna, you know, win games against these teams, we've gotta be able to bring that same kind of intensity. 31:04 And we didn't see that, I don't think, in either the Duluth series or the St. 31:08 Cloud series. 31:09 And so, they're gonna have to bring that attitude to the table this weekend, if they're gonna have some positive results. 31:15 And if they do turn it around, these are the teams they're gonna see in the tournament. 31:18 Mankato's gonna be in the tournament, North Dakota, Duluth. 31:22 That could be quite the West Regional, because we know they love to put all those teams together. 31:28 Could be. 31:29 Could be. 31:31 I think we're good to go this week, guys. 31:32 We'll keep it short. 31:33 You know, we'll be back next week. 31:36 Hopefully it's a good weekend for the Gophers, and we'll recap, you know, the North Star Cup, you know. 31:42 Bitch if they sucked, and get on the bandwagon if they don't. 31:45 Because then we go to the Cole Center the following weekend. 31:51 Remember, you can always follow Hammy Hockey on Twitter, and at EVegoe on Twitter as well, and then if you're listening live, just tweet us using the hashtag GPL Podcast. 32:03 We'll try to answer your questions. 32:04 I didn't want to answer Bidko's question, because I don't think Duluth is the best team in college hockey. 32:08 I think they're one of the best, not the best Bidko. 32:11 So it's not like I'm completely ignoring you. 32:14 But we'll be back next week and recap this North Star Cup and preview the BADgers again. 32:20 Until then, thanks for listening. 32:22 Thanks, then.