PWHL Minnesota is a Mess. Can It Be Saved?

In this episode, Mikki talks about the disgusting state of the PWHL Minnesota team, some other offseason Minnesota Wild news, and comparing Wild players to characters from Phineas and Ferb.

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Creators & Guests

Host

HockeySheWrote

Wild Hockey Fan | Cozy Mystery Writer | Mom of 2 | MN Raised | She/Her | Hockey Takes that No One Asked For

What is Her Wild Side Hockey Podcast?

Her Wild Side combines hockey knowledge with a side of vibe checks. The weekly show will have game breakdowns, any topical news about the MN Wild, and fun things going on surrounding Wild's social media. This show aims to be informative while also sparking good conversation about the Wild and hockey in general without having to keep everything serious.

Hello,

welcome to Her Wild Side Hockey Podcast.

I am your hostess, Miki, and here we are,

summer hockey.

Tonight is actually the

first night of WD League

here in Minnesota,

if anyone is following that.

I want to go to at least one

night of that sometime this year,

but it won't be the night.

But thankfully,

they are broadcasting on YouTube,

so I can still watch

because I had a lot of fun

watching last year.

Intro.

Intro.

It's summer.

It is July 10th today.

It always feels like summer

should be so relaxing.

And parts of it are.

But the reality is that I

have two kids who are home

and who are still young

enough that they need me to

pay a little bit of

attention to what they're doing.

And it just means that I

have not gotten a ton of stuff done.

But as I keep talking about,

I do have big plans.

Part of my problem is that I

tend to be a dreamer.

I am pie in the sky dreamer,

which can be a good thing.

But there was actually a lot

of things happening just today.

It's Wednesday.

Just today in the Minnesota hockey world.

So we're going to dive in.

First,

we are going to talk about the

complete implosion of the

PWHL Minnesota team.

Now, it's like they won the championship,

the inaugural championship of the PWHL.

And the wheels just fell off

of the entire thing.

They got rid of their GM.

All of a sudden,

Ken Klee is some kind of a

dictator who is not quite a GM,

not quite a head coach,

but some sort of maligation

of both roles.

And is doing this all kind

of under the guidance, shall we say,

of puppet master Kendall Coyne Schofield.

Just today,

there was an article that came

out by Ian Kennedy,

who is always really good

about putting out these kinds of things,

about several other staff

members that have been let go.

And more kind of hints that

some of the players that

have retired from the sport

didn't really do it because

they wanted to retire.

I know at least two of them

have said they're retired from hockey.

They won the championship.

Now they're done.

And I think a lot of them

also were just pushed out in a way.

And they just don't want to deal with it.

And I think this is... It's

getting to the point where

it's just this disgusting cesspool.

The PWHL needs to do something about this.

And I feel like if they want

continued success in this league,

they have to step in.

Because I have seen...

I have seen way more people

being disgusted and saying

they don't want to give

their money to a team

that's run like this than

I've seen people defending the team.

And it is hard because we

want women's hockey and we

loved it here and we love

the team and we supported

them and absolutely filled the rink and.

but we're not gonna support

an organization that runs like this.

People have pointed out that

part of this may be because

it was so hastily thrown together.

And while I feel like that

could be a part of it, I think it just,

again, I don't have any insider,

but just from what I'm reading,

it seems like certain people

were allowed to just have as

much unlimited power to do

whatever they wanted.

Nobody tamped down on it.

And it has grown into this

monster beast that is just

out of control.

I'm trying to find the quote

from the article because it was, I mean,

it's just mind blowing.

An employee told the Rink

Live on the condition of anonymity,

have you ever heard of a

coach telling people to not

come on the ice for

practice because you're

taking time away from the

important girls that are playing?

Why do you think players are retiring?

And that is so gross.

I don't care if it's PWHL.

I don't care if this is

happening in the NHL and at any level.

This is gross.

Can I tell you,

every single person on that

team is a member of the team.

And one thing that I've been

really big about is you

need to understand that a

hockey team needs all kinds of players.

You cannot just have superstars.

You cannot just have goal scorers.

You need to have other players.

You need to have players

that are just going to munch minutes.

Not everybody is a star and that's okay.

And you know what?

These players, professional players,

they understand their role.

That's how they got to the

level of being a pro

because they knew their

role and they performed.

So to say that some of these, you know,

maybe I'm assuming they're

talking about fourth liners,

the seventh D, you know, backup goalies.

And to say that they should

not be out on the ice

because it's taking time

away from the stars, basically.

Like, I can't even... No.

No coach should say that.

So I'm just...

I don't know what's going to

happen with this.

And I guess I'll just have to keep on.

Oh,

my dog's barking now because my

daughter came in.

Okay.

I think he's done barking.

My daughter was coming in

from playing outside and he just,

he barks anytime the door opens.

Like it doesn't matter if he

knows it's us.

It's part of his job.

He's very good at security.

Okay.

We're going to move on to a

little bit more Minnesota hockey stuff.

This stuff is a little bit more, um,

Happy.

The Wild announced that they

have signed both Declan

Chisholm and Adam Raska to one-way deals.

Chisholm is obviously going

to be in Minnesota,

and I'm going to assume on

the third pairing,

although it'd be

interesting to see how they

experiment with that.

Um, Adam Rasca is more, he's the,

he's got a two-way contract

and I would not be

surprised to see him play

for both teams this year.

Um,

I think obviously he's more of an Iowa

signing,

but I will say I enjoyed watching

Rasca when he came up at,

during the spring last year.

I really enjoyed watching him.

He's a very like heavy player, um,

gritty kind of fits into

that Minnesota wild sort of

hockey feeling.

Yeah.

So those were just some exciting things.

And honestly,

I think the one year for Chisholm,

I think part of that is

because by next season,

Zeve William will probably

be ready to leave Denver

and come to the wild.

I mean, who knows?

I always try to advocate for

if someone is playing in college,

I really want them to keep

playing in college because

not only are they developing there,

I think it's really

important they come away with a degree.

because hockey is a sport

that can end very,

very young and very quickly for some.

And there needs to be

something to fall back on.

And then one more thing is that today,

Alex Goligosky was spotted

at development camp up in

the box with Bill Guerin.

And I am going to do some

speculating based on

absolutely no facts other

than that he was there.

But people have wondered if

he is going to retire after

this season since he is

technically a free agent now.

I kind of assume that maybe

he was there as some sort

of a transition into the

front office for the Wild.

Or even, you know,

he might even just be

shadowing someone in the

front office because he

really is like GM material.

So to maybe get some

experience on that side

would be really important for him.

So, you know,

I hope it is something like that.

Otherwise, you know what,

if he finds a contract somewhere,

good for him.

You know,

I understand wanting to play as

long as you possibly can.

All right,

I am going to throw up my little

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One way you can support our

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Otherwise, in my show notes,

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then a little bit of the

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instead of all to Ticketmaster.

So just, you know,

if you're buying something like that,

just try to remember our little link.

So for this kind of second

section of the podcast,

there was a question asked

a few weeks ago and I

forgot to address it.

And so I was thinking about it today,

which is basically I talked

a few episodes ago.

I'll have to go look which

one specifically about the

different kinds of fans.

In about, someone's knocking on the door.

Okay.

Anyway,

I talked about the different kinds

of fans and that there are

many different ways to

become a fan of a sport, of a team,

of a player,

in that there is no wrong way.

You know,

it is okay if someone wants to

know more about the player

and their personal lives.

Not in like a weird, creepy way,

but just in a, like,

they seem like an enjoyable

person and they seem really fun.

And someone asked,

and this was a great question,

why are fans like that?

Is there some kind of reason

that we can point to?

They said, is it generational?

Is it perhaps a female male thing?

Is it related to how deep of

a fan you are?

And I have to say,

I don't think it's any of that.

I really think it's more of

a personality thing.

Um, and I know,

I don't want to get into male, female,

although I do know that

there is kind of a

continuum of the female brain,

the male brain,

and people can live

anywhere on that continuum.

I,

we had a presentation about it once when

I used to have a job.

Um, I'm still a little like unsure of that,

but

I almost wonder if it can be

more of a left brain, right brain.

which I think that's also been debunked,

but meaning I am someone

who is much more of the creative stuff.

I was an English major slash

English teacher.

I've always been big into

reading and writing and creativity,

that side of things.

And it's always been a lot

harder for me to do things

like science and math.

And that's not to say that I

was bad at them or that I didn't do them.

I just, I didn't enjoy doing them.

Whereas I enjoyed writing a story.

So I wonder,

perhaps other people are like

that and that might lead to

them being that kind of a fan.

Otherwise,

I think there are just so many

other ways to reach fans nowadays.

I mean,

I'm thinking specifically about

social media.

I'm thinking about TikTok.

I'm thinking about Instagram, Twitter,

you know, even just like YouTube.

And I think people are able to share more,

both in official channels, you know,

like the Wilds and their...

Brock Faber,

Jake Middleton video at Valley Fair.

They're able to kind of

share some more of that and

be a little bit more silly with it.

Whereas I think before the

only way that you could

kind of be a sports fan was

to watch the sports.

Does that make sense?

There wasn't much diving into, you know,

maybe they would do an

interview or something,

but you didn't get these

you know,

the video of them on their dad trip,

you know,

where they got on the boat and

Duhame was seasick and

Dewar petted a shark.

And, you know,

you wouldn't get those

little looks into their personal life.

And again, this is not,

it's not wrong to want to know that.

And I think it is very

important to make a distinction between

having a parasocial

relationship with a player

and simply enjoying a

player in the way that you

would have a favorite actor

or a favorite singer,

kind of in that same genre.

Just because I knew

everything about the Spice

Girls when I was younger,

it wasn't because I wanted to go

be part of it?

I hope my point is coming

across because I really

think this is a fun,

interesting question.

And perhaps this kind of a

fan seems a little bit more

female based because this

is a way that women are

finding to get into sports.

I find that I have had many female fans

ask me questions about the game.

And when I explain it, they're like, oh,

OK, well, that's super simple.

My boyfriend didn't want to

explain it to me.

Or my brother tried to explain it,

but he didn't do a good job.

But being willing to talk

about the other parts of

the game is a really great

way to draw in people that

are not from sports

families or are just not sports people.

And I've talked before about

hockey and how I think it

is so beautiful.

It's just an incredibly beautiful sport.

And it makes sense that it

might draw in a lot of

people who are not into

sports because there are so

many elements to it.

You know, there's the skating element.

There's the amazing puck

work by some of these guys, the edge work,

all of it.

And so again,

I'm just going to reiterate

that it's okay if people find the sport.

And while, you know,

I don't want to force

anybody to be a fan that they're not,

I just don't want people to

put down other people

because they might

experience a sport in a different way.

Now,

that does not mean that you cannot

call them out if they're

being extra creepy because

every once in a while

someone will cross a line.

And you know what?

I don't think I have.

If I have, you know, I didn't mean to.

But at the same time, perhaps I have.

I've had friends from online

who've definitely crossed the line.

I've seen other people just

from across the hockey

world cross the line.

And I think there is a

distinction between being

creepy and obsessive

and overtly sexual about

things and a way to simply

express maybe in a more funny way.

I feel like I'm rambling,

but I think I've got my point across.

Now I do have one more

section in this podcast,

which I will do after this ESPN ad read.

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Okay, so we're back.

Last week,

I assigned each of the

defensemen of the Minnesota

Wild a character from Arthur.

I didn't want to leave out

the rest of the players.

So for the forwards,

and then I also added the

goalies just because I

needed a few more people.

I assigned them a character

from Phineas and Ferb.

So first of all, if you are not...

a fan of Phineas and Ferb, you should be.

You should go watch all of it.

It's on Disney+.

It's hilarious,

and I've loved it for a long time.

So anyway,

I went through and I tried to

figure out who would be who.

We've got Phineas,

who is kind of the ring...

the ringleader, you know?

I just said that's Zuccarello.

I know Zucchi's not quite as

vocal as Phineas is, but I just,

you know what?

Zuccarello's just kind of

the ringleader when it comes to things.

He's older, he's wiser,

he is down for mischief.

He's Phineas.

Now, Ferb is very quiet, right?

He goes along with the mischief,

but he's just very quiet.

And I thought that was Boldy.

Boldy

While he might yap sometimes,

generally I feel like he's

more of the silent one.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz is the goofy villain.

He's a villain, but he's not.

He's goofy.

And he's Jule Erickson Eck.

I'm so sorry.

I just, you know what?

Eck is a villain and he's not a villain.

Anybody who is a wild fan is

going to understand that.

And then we got Perry the Platypus.

Hold on a minute.

So Perry the Platypus is

Kirill Kaprizov because

he's just like a normal Russian guy,

just being Perry.

But when he puts on that fedora,

he is secret agent.

Perry, you know,

secret agent P and Capri

stop is the same way.

So if he doesn't have a fedora,

what happens?

He's got that hip pad.

And it's like, when that hip pad comes out,

he is.

Nope.

He is putting the team on

his back and going.

So I just thought that that

fit him pretty well.

Now we've got Candace and I am so sorry.

RIP.

I picked Brandon Duhame.

Because poor Duhame is

always getting picked on.

And.

You know what?

Everybody loves him.

It's the same as Candace.

Candace is always trying to

tell on her brothers.

She's always trying to do

kind of the right thing.

But everyone just gets so mad.

But they still love her.

So then Jeremy is Candace's boyfriend.

And he's just kind of laid back.

And he's just kind of there.

And that's Freddie Goudreau.

And then Stacey is Candace's friend.

And also, you know, kind of just...

know tries to kind of call

do him on his stuff and now

that I'm seeing this I

realized that it could this

could be doer but I just

kind of stuck ogre in there

um I needed a spot for him

and I just thought stacy I

mean it'll fit now isabella

is mark on rue flurry

because flurry is super

nice super polite and he is also

gonna pull some shenanigans

and that is isabella to a t

and there's belgite quiet

smart um can take a ribbing

but everybody does love him

is marco rossi whereas

buford who's kind of the

big bully guy uh but with a

with a heart of gold is

marcus felino I think that

one's pretty obvious

Then we've got Linda,

who is Phineas and Ferb's mom.

She's always just kind of vibing.

She was at one point in time

an 80s pop star.

And she just, she vibes.

She's got like a girl group

that she plays at the mall in,

like with a band.

And you know what?

Candace is always trying to

tell her about the things

that Phineas and Ferb are doing.

And she believes Candace, but she's like,

you know what?

I just, I got other stuff to do,

sweet pea.

And that is Philip S. Simpson.

He is always just vibing and

he's willing to go along with things,

but he's also real busy.

Whereas Lawrence, the dad,

he's pretty quiet.

He's quirky, but he's pretty quiet.

And he doesn't really get in

on the Phineas and Ferb shenanigans.

He kind of always has his

own thing going on.

And I feel like that was Jesper Wallstead.

Wallstead is quiet, but he's quirky.

We've got Major Monogram,

who is the boss of Agent P.

And I just kind of stuck

Jacob Blauco there.

I'm not exactly sure why,

but I did think it was

funny because then I made Carl the intern,

Murat Kuznetdinov,

and I felt like that fit,

kind of like a mentorship,

I thought was funny.

Because Carl, the intern,

he like sometimes calls out

Major Monogram or he like

gets really confused about stuff.

And I just,

I always remember Kuznetdinov's

face when he came out and he saw Fleury's,

was it Fleury's car?

What was it?

Whatever Dooham did to Fleury.

And he was just like, uh.

And then there's Vanessa,

who is Doofenshmirtz's daughter.

And she's just kind of like

a badass goth girl.

I stuck Ryan Hartman there.

I think he could do a really

good goth kind of a kind of a thing.

And he also I enjoy that he

really commits to the bit

because let's think back to

Halloween when he was Dr.

Phil and literally hired a

movie like makeup artist to

come put a bald cap on him.

And it took like eight hours

like he is committed to the bit.

He is here for it.

And I have to respect that.

And people complain he's getting overpaid.

And they want him to leave.

And I don't.

Because you know what?

He commits to it.

So that is my somewhat

disjointed podcast of the day.

My children kept

interrupting for things

like they wanted to go outside.

And they needed to find some headphones.

And also that they did find

the headphones.

They just wanted me to know.

But we've got...

some good things happening

here in Minnesota.

We've got some absolutely

terrible things happening

here in Minnesota and I

will keep you up to date on all of it.

So until next time, thank you, thank you,

thank you as always for listening.

And I will be back in your

feed in just a couple of days.

Have a good day.