Zuccarello's All-Star Game and the McDavid Wedding

It's the middle of August and we're starting to scrape the bottom of the proverbial barrel. Thankfully, Mats Zuccarello is hosting an All-Star Game this weekend and Connor McDavid married Lauren Kyle not long ago, so they've saved my day.

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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.

My name is Nikki.

I'm your hostess, aka HockeySheWrote.

And I'm going to be honest,

this is the second time

that I've tried to record this.

I got like a good five

minute chunk into doing this episode,

but my camera was so laggy

and I couldn't tell if it

was going to be laggy on the recording.

It was so distracting that I

finally was just like, you know what,

I'm just going to start over.

And it seems fine now.

So that's great.

Um, we are almost halfway through August.

It is August 13th.

And you know what?

I am a little sad that

summer's coming to an end.

I've been very much an eighties,

early nineties type mom this summer.

There's a lot of little kids

on my street here and we

just kind of push the kids

out the door and tell them

to go find a friend.

And they spend a lot of time

outside with friends and I love it.

Um,

so I'm a little sad because I know that

they've just been having a

really great time.

On the other hand, I am excited for fall.

First of all, I just selfishly,

I actually get time to work

and I've got lots of things

on my plate because I am overly ambitious,

but I am excited for them

to go back and so I can

actually have some work time.

And I have to say, though,

the weather this week,

I'm going to knock on wood.

My desk is actually from Ikea,

so it's probably more particle board.

But you know what?

It counts.

And say that the weather

we've been having here in

Minnesota the past week is

exactly how I want summer to be.

Between like 70 and 82, beautiful.

You know, sometimes it's a little steamy.

Sometimes it rains.

That's fine.

I don't care.

But it's just,

it's felt so long without hockey.

Because as Minnesota Wild fans,

we've been really spoiled

to be able to just assume

we make the playoffs every year.

Because for a very long time,

we just have.

We can't get past the first round,

but at least the playoffs

have just always kind of been a given.

So this year was very much a

reality check on that.

Um,

and it's felt very strange to not have

that extra, you know, week,

two weeks of hockey.

I mean,

it's the off season has just been

so long.

And that's not to say that I

haven't watched hockey because I have,

I watched all the Stanley cup playoffs.

I watched the men's world championships.

I watched, uh,

I watched the beauty league every week.

My son has hockey practice

three Sundays a month.

Um,

And then in amongst that is

the draft and free agency.

And there's been plenty of

hockey in my life, so don't get me wrong.

But it feels like training

camp is just around the corner.

I feel like it starts

somewhere around September

20 or something.

That might be totally off,

but I'm just going to spitballing.

And that just, it feels so soon.

You know,

a lot of the players are starting

to come back into town.

You know,

Jared Spurgeon hosts like

captain's practices.

I know a lot of, you know,

I know Husnadinov came back

a couple of weeks ago.

I think Rossi's back or will be soon.

Liam Ogren has been here

most of the summer.

I mean, it's just, you know,

it's great to see them

start to come back because

then it feels like it's so much closer.

So I'm going to give you a

little preview of the

things I'm going to talk about,

because like I said, it's just,

there's kind of not a lot

going on in the hockey world.

There is and there isn't.

First of all,

I'm going to talk about Max

Zuccarello and his all-star

game that he hosts every

year for his charity.

And then you have to stick

around to the end because

the last segment that I'm

going to do is a very large

segment on the wedding of

the summer in the hockey world,

which was the wedding of

Connor McDavid and Lauren Kyle.

We are going to chit chat.

about dresses, about events,

about all sorts of things.

And if you are watching on the video,

I will also have pictures.

So, you know,

if you are listening to this

and you want to switch over

to YouTube or you just

listen to it all the way through,

and then, you know,

you can just go find it on YouTube and,

you know,

maybe I can just cut out like that chunk.

I'll have to ask my editor.

I

We'll figure it out.

Anyway,

the very first thing that I'm going

to do before we go on is I

am going to put on my

little Ticketmaster QR code.

As always,

I'm just throwing out there that

if you are purchasing

tickets to any sort of cultural event,

any sports, any art festivals,

any concerts, anything, we just ask.

It would be really cool if

you used our QR code or the

link in the show notes to do that.

And now after I bring my face back.

Oh, I did something bad.

OK, no, it wasn't bad.

I just I have like these

really like professional overlays now,

but like I kind of forget.

See, like I just there we go.

I kind of forgot how to get back to it.

Moving on.

So Matt Zuccarello has been

hosting this all-star game.

Apparently this is the 10th year.

Like, so this is like a big,

a bigger deal than it usually is.

And what he does is he has,

he invites a bunch of

friends from the NHL to

play on a team against stars of the EHL,

which is, I looked this up,

excuse my Norwegian,

the Elite Hockey Ligen.

I'm just assuming that

that's how it's said,

but the Elite Hockey Ligen,

which is the Norwegian

professional league.

And they play in the Olympic

hockey stadium from when

the Olympics were in Norway.

And apparently it is the

30th anniversary of when

they were in Lillehammer.

I hope I said that right.

I'm pretty sure I did.

It doesn't look that

difficult to pronounce.

But...

I do think it's really, really cool.

They're making a really big

deal of this this year.

Like I said, they have like a fan fest.

They've got the game,

but they also have like a

skills competition they're

doing the night before.

They have got like a boxing

match or something and like

concerts and like just,

it's like a big deal.

And-

Part of the ticket cost for

every ticket goes towards his foundation,

which his foundation is

just working to make sure

that all children are able

to participate in sports,

kind of helping lower the

cost so that they can be

active and try sports,

which I think is such a great cause.

And I see him sharing things

like on Instagram all the

time of the camps that his

foundation puts on or

That kind of stuff.

So it is really cool that he does that.

And I've been looking

everywhere to see if it is

being streamed somewhere.

I cannot find anything about it.

I'm going to assume it's not

being streamed,

but I'm going to keep I'm

going to keep looking.

And obviously,

I will share information if I find it,

because so far.

for NHL and there are like a bunch other,

but we've got Julie Erickson.

Nick is going to be there.

Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, Marcus Johansson,

Jonas Brodine, Philip Gustafson,

Kevin Fiala.

Like he's like all his buddies.

I think it's absolutely incredible.

like even cooler that both

Faber and Boldy are flying

to Norway specifically for this.

I mean,

I'm assuming they'll also do like a

little VK kind of a thing,

but just the idea that like

the rest of the guys are in Sweden.

That's not that far away.

Well, Fiala is not,

but the other handful are.

But to come from America for that,

I think is really cool and

kind of goes towards what I

always say about how we

love the Minnesota wild

boys because the Minnesota

wild boys love each other.

they really do feel like

such a tight group.

So that is really cool.

I'm hoping I can find it

somewhere on a live stream

or even after the fact, because gosh,

Norway is what,

seven hours ahead of central time,

something like that.

I can hear my children

screaming outside and I'm

going to ignore it and I'm

going to hope it's nothing.

Oh, it sounded like a good yell.

So we're good.

So before I get into the

McDavid wedding coverage

that we have been waiting for,

I am going to play a very

quick ESPN plus ad read.

So if you could just stick

around for one minute while I,

there we go.

And listen,

I'll be right back with some

incredible details of the wedding.

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Over 1,000 out-of-market NHL

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Make sure you hit the QR

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Welcome back.

Thank you for sitting

through the ad read as always.

And I have three different

slides of photos that we

are going to work our way through.

Now,

you'll have to stick with me for just

a little bit because I

wrote all of the notes and

then I was like, hey,

I should add pictures.

But like the pictures I put

kind of in a different order.

So just hold with me.

First of all, obviously,

this is the wedding of...

the summer for the hockey

world just because they are

the biggest names when you

think of outside of the

world of hockey because you

know remember back to they

had that whole spread about

their new house um the

house that had like barely

any furniture and was kind

of stark and barren but I'm

assuming that that was just

for the magazine

So this is going to be the

biggest wedding until next

summer when Leon Dreisaitl

and Celeste Harding get

married because they are bestie, bestie,

besties with the McDavid's.

So I am going to put here is slide one.

So the first picture we have

got Lauren in.

I'm going to say I love this

dress of hers.

I love it.

So they had a rehearsal

dinner on the first day.

This this whole wedding took four days.

And actually, it was four separate events.

And they even, before,

it took 10 days to set

everything up before the wedding.

This is an event.

This is a thing.

So this first one,

she's wearing this beautiful dress.

And it's a plunging neckline.

She's got a beautiful diamond necklace.

And it's because their rehearsal dinner,

they had it on a steamboat.

And the attire called for

old money themed attire.

which I think she is pulling off.

And apparently Connor in this picture,

he is wearing a green linen suit.

I zoomed in on this picture

and I'm going to say it

does not look green to me.

It looks kind of tan.

So I don't like,

but there was no other

pictures of him in a suit

that looked greener.

So I don't know what kind of green this is,

but it also has a striped tie.

Like I like it.

I like it.

But this first picture,

it very much looks like

My husband ordered pickles

with his sandwich.

Or he said medium well,

and this is medium.

Very much giving off that vibe.

And you know what, Lauren?

Go for it.

Because I feel like

sometimes while Connor has

been coming out of his

shell a little more,

I do feel like he would not, you know,

insist that they redo part

of his meal or anything if

he had asked for something specific.

But I feel like Lauren would

want to be like, excuse me.

And I hope that she could do it without,

you know,

just like in a super respectful way.

now the second picture this

is actually after their

vows it's like I said we're

going a little out of order

they went on a little boat

ride by themselves which is

such an awesome idea this

whole event took place at

their lake house and like

it was all centered around

islands and I don't know

beautiful but she you can

see that she is wearing

this one is her wedding

dress that she wore to the

actual ceremony and

And it's very plain, but at the same time,

it isn't.

It's just structured in a

way where the neckline is really,

really unique.

It is not a sweetheart neckline.

It is not just a flat strapless.

It goes up at the armpits.

I don't know.

It's really good.

I liked it.

And she has this very long

but very see-through veil

that kind of just makes it.

So the middle picture,

they're in the boat.

Again,

incredible idea to get a moment

alone with your spouse.

And then in the last picture on this slide,

this is the picture where like, you know,

Connor,

a lot of times have been accused

of being a hockey playing robot.

And like, maybe I've said that.

I definitely have said that.

But this is like,

this is why we think that.

Because he just got this blank expression.

And Lauren looks so beautiful,

but she also looks like

she's just kind of like,

I mean,

it's probably been a long day at

this point, you know,

depending on when they took this picture.

Even even if it's before the ceremony,

it's already been a long morning.

She just looks like she is zoning out.

So they look like they are

just like they have checked out.

They're just mentally

preparing themselves for

the 10 gajillion other

events that they have for this wedding.

So we're going to go to this next slide.

Now, first of all,

there is this overhead

picture and it shows

they've got this gigantic house,

of course, on an island.

And they actually built a

giant floating dock to hold

not only kind of this little,

it looks like a little

space where you would have

your cocktail hour.

You know,

there's a couple like umbrella stands.

It's kind of almost like a

little waiting area.

And then it extends out into

the water for where they're

sitting for the ceremony.

And there's got to be, you know,

I would say a good 250 to

300 people in this audience,

I would guess.

I mean, this is not just like, oh,

we nailed a couple of

pieces of wood together.

Like, let's sail down the river.

This is legitimately a

gigantic floating dock.

And they made all of this.

It just blows my mind that people...

can do this.

Not only people can do this,

but like that they can just be like, oh,

hi, it doesn't matter what the cost,

like we can pay you whatever you want.

We just, this is my vision.

It must be wild to be rich.

So I have another picture in

the middle that just kind

of shows her wedding dress again.

It's actually a really cute picture.

Connor is facing away or

like from she's coming up

behind him for a first look photo.

That's what I'm trying to say.

And this kind of shows what

he wears for the wedding.

So as a man, of course,

he only gets like two outfits,

whereas she gets like five.

But it is a nice just custom tuxedo,

bow tie, all the good stuff.

And then you can see kind of

a full length.

picture of Lauren's dress.

But so after I'm getting my notes here,

I made notes, you guys.

So after the ceremony on the floating dock,

then they have a cocktail hour and dinner,

and she wears this gorgeous form fitting.

Um, I don't even know

It's almost like a beige tan color,

but it's got all of these

sequins and they look like ivy.

And she was like,

I wanted it to reflect all

the wildlife around the space.

And she actually said

something about how she

wanted each event that

she's hosting to have its

own story and its own feel.

And

wow.

Like I wish I had so much

money that I could also do

that because that sounds incredible,

especially when you don't

have to do the work yourself.

It's one thing if you're like, you know,

yeah,

I want my wedding to feel like this.

And then like,

you have to do all the

crafts and it's not fun anymore,

but to just be able to tell people like,

here's what I'm thinking and they do it.

And then you're like, wow, this is great.

I would love that.

Um,

And I'm going to hold up

here just for a minute

because we're still I've

still got this picture of

their lake house up apparently.

So this is where Connor

actually proposed to Lauren.

But so in the article I'm reading.

I'm really confused.

She said Connor Connor was

playing their favorite song,

Only Love by Ben Howard on guitar,

and he proposed.

OK, so.

Does that mean that Connor

was playing it on his guitar?

Because then I Googled and I was like,

does Connor McDavid play an instrument?

And he actually like not

that long ago answered a

question that was like,

I don't play any instruments.

So I'm assuming they mean

that they had a recording

of this artist playing it on guitar.

while they propose like it

just it's written in such a

weird way because at first

I was like oh that's so

cool I didn't know that

mcdavid played guitar but

like I don't think he does

I think they just phrased

it in like a super super

weird way all right so I've

got one more little thing

I'm looking to make sure

that I didn't I didn't uh

forget anything so here we

have a couple of

interesting interesting

photos now this one in the middle

is what she wore,

what Lauren wore to the welcome dinner.

Now here's the thing.

Day one, everyone gets there.

That's like part of the

wedding rehearsal dinner.

Day two,

all the rest of the guests come

for the welcome dinner.

And then day three is when

they have a wedding ceremony,

cocktail hour, dinner,

and an after party.

And then like, I know the fourth day,

they were still there,

like doing a bunch of things.

That's when they were like

jumping into the

the water in their bathing suits.

Whoever follows them on

social media will know what

I'm talking about.

But so this middle picture

is what she wore to the welcome dinner.

And from what I could tell,

it's almost like a

strapless white leotard

with a sheer dress over it.

Like,

I don't know how I feel,

but I don't hate it.

It's a really interesting choice.

I mean,

I have to give it to Lauren Kyle

for being willing to like

take risks because she did, but like,

I think they paid off.

So you know what, if,

if I had to sit and pick

five different dresses for

my wedding week, I would,

I would try and be a little unique too,

you know?

Um,

First,

we're going to talk about the last

dress in her wardrobe,

which she wore to the after

party because apparently

you're supposed to have an

after party after your like dance,

which I did not.

My after party was we rode

the little minibus back to

the hotel and then I took

60 million bobby pins out

of my hair and then I fell asleep.

But she's wearing this

little mini dress and it's actually,

it's hard to tell in this picture,

but it's actually like an ice blue.

So she was using that as

like her something blue, you know,

something old, something new,

something viral, something blue.

But there is this really

interesting story in the

magazine where they

originally were looking for

some like vintage dress

that had been on the runway.

Like Kate Moss had worn it

and they called all over

the place and they were

looking and they were

looking and they couldn't find it.

So then they had this other

dressmaker make kind of I

don't think it's an exact replica,

but like like a similar dress.

And then like two weeks before the wedding,

she gets a call that like, hey,

we found it.

So I really respect what she did.

She wore the original one

just for kind of like

coming into the after party pictures.

And then she changed out of

it just to make sure that it stays safe.

And then she put on kind of

her similar replica dress.

But there's one other thing

that I wanna talk about.

And that is the idea of,

I feel like if some people

that listen are gonna,

this is gonna come so out

of left field for you that

you're not even gonna know

what you're listening to.

There have been this idea on

social media that the

McDavids and then Leon

Dreisaitl and his

girlfriend are in a polycule.

Now this may be,

they're definitely in a platonic one.

Like I'm gonna say that

because you tell me why

there's a picture of Lauren and Celeste,

so they're besties, right?

And they have,

it's like Celeste has her

hand on Lauren's thigh

showing off her engagement ring.

And then Lauren has her hand

on top of it showing off her ring.

But it kind of looks like

we're at a wedding where

they married each other and

they're showing their rings

from each other.

Like it's this very strange vibe.

Like I love my best friend.

Her name is Amanda.

I love her so much.

We did not take a picture

like this at my wedding.

I don't think we even took

anything close to like close to this.

It's just it's a very unique thing.

And I get like, OK,

because this from what I can tell,

this was in Vogue Australia,

like such a random thing.

But it was.

And I'm sure that maybe they were like,

let's show off your ring, Lauren.

But like,

I find it a little weird that she

was like, sure.

But I also want to show off

my besties ring like we're

in this together.

So some people have joked

that Lauren and Celeste got

married this summer and

then Connor and Leon are

getting married at the dry

side of wedding next summer.

I do think it's hilarious.

Obviously, this is a joke, right?

This is a joke.

They are just sometimes they

are just like weirdly

obsessed with each other

and like dependent on each other.

It just feels like they are

always together.

Like they're always they

come as a foursome.

They do not come as two separate couples.

which also goes into the

last picture on my little slide here,

where Connor and Leon are

picking up Lauren in her mini dress,

which is like really kind of a,

that's like, that's bold.

You gotta watch out if

you're wearing a mini dress.

So hopefully this has been

informative for those of

you who are not on the

vibes side of Twitter that I am.

And I am going to leave it there.

So until next time,

when hopefully I will have

more hockey to talk about, we will see.

We're scraping the bottom of

the barrel here, folks.

So anyway, everyone out there,

you have a great day,

and I will see you all soon.