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, Mickey.
As you can see,
if you're watching on video,
I am still in my makeshift studio,
aka my bedroom,
except I blurred the
background because you guys
don't want to see all of that.
You don't care.
I'm going to be ordering my
own green screen so I can
set up kind of what I had before here.
But either way,
welcome to the two days of
the NHL offseason.
Except not really,
because there are already a
bunch of trades happening.
So there is no offseason this year.
Which is actually,
that was the title of the
episode I put out on Monday, Sunday.
I don't know.
All the days blur together for me.
But yeah,
so even though we are in the offseason,
there is still so much happening.
Because...
we just finished the stanley
cup finals last night and
let me tell you guys game
seven did not disappoint
the whole final series was
so much fun to watch I just
I mean I'm sure you all
watched it so I'm not gonna
sit here and rehash
everything but I am gonna
say amazing win by florida
30 years in the making they
good for them you know as a
wild fan who you know we're
getting to you know what 20
plus years in the league
and not getting there uh I
understand how florida fans
felt so you know I'm hoping
maybe that's the start of
like let's get other teams
like the wild to the stanley cup finals
But just watching the celebration,
I think is the best part
because even though I
wasn't technically rooting
for either team, you know,
I was just kind of here for the hockey.
The celebration is still
just so emotional.
Watching the Kachuk family.
And first,
just seeing them up in the stands,
Keith crying, Brady was so excited.
And thinking back to last year,
when they're coming to the
end of the Stanley Cup Finals,
Matthew is so banged up
that Brady has to literally
help him out of bed and
make sure that he's
breathing while he's taking a nap.
Brady was there and he he
was there for all of that
and he saw all that heartbreak.
And so having him be there
again this year and seeing
how emotional he got,
what just what a great family,
like how awesome, amazing was that?
And the first person that I
really got emotional about
was Kyle Ocposo.
A Minnesota boy, I, you know,
I always love a Minnesota boy playing,
especially when they win the cup.
He was the 13th U of M
Minnesota Golden Gopher
hockey player to lift the cup.
And knowing that he has worked so hard,
I think like 17 years?
I'm sitting here trying to do math now.
Either way, he has been working so hard.
And I know people,
there's plenty of people
that are always going to harsh the vibe,
right?
And they're going to be mad
about Akposo leaving or
about Akposo playing better in Florida.
But you know what?
While he hasn't said it,
most likely this feels like
it's going to be a retirement for him.
For the Buffalo Sabres to
respect him so much that
they help him go to Florida,
the team that he really wanted to go to,
that they traded him there
so that he could win a cup
before he's done, like,
that's one of those things
where hockey is beautiful.
It's the wonderful game, you know?
just having that much
respect for a player is so
touching to me.
And I think it says volumes
about the Buffalo organization.
And I was reading back over
Akposo's past and the
things that he has dealt with.
And I did not realize the
concussion and the
neurological problems that
he had kind of stemming from that.
And
to the point where he was manic,
he was in the hospital,
he could barely talk.
And to see him now having
come back and now all the
way to the Stanley Cup out
there with his wife and his four kids,
good for him.
Watching Sergei Bobrovsky lift that cup.
He's another one, you know,
he is somewhere around my age, you know?
And so I know that,
what it feels like to be this age.
Obviously, I'm not a pro athlete, but,
you know,
I know what it feels like to
have aged some.
I know what it feels like to, you know,
be like from high school
until now and how long of a time that is.
And to wait that long and Bobrovsky really,
you know, during overall in the playoffs,
he played pretty well.
At the beginning of the final series,
he played really well.
He fell apart a little.
It wasn't totally his fault.
But he was the one that
really captured that final game, I feel.
He just kind of locked everything down.
He let in one shot.
That was it.
And then Paul Maurice.
Now, I'm trying to remember.
Of course,
I always remember things as I'm
recording and not before to
go look it up.
But he had been talking about his son.
I believe his son won.
a championship in one of the
leagues that bear with me folks here.
You know what?
I'm going to pause and I'm
going to go look at, okay.
I did my research like a good podcaster.
Um, so when Paul Maurice moved to Florida,
his son moved with them and
he was working as a
broadcaster for the ECHL team,
the Florida Everglades, Everblades, sorry,
reading, um,
And they won the
championship two years in a row now.
And so Paul Maurice had kind of said like,
well,
now I need a Stanley Cup so I can
win something too.
And seeing, I mean,
he is such a funny coach.
And I like,
he's one of those coaches that
has personality.
And I like that when he's
being interviewed afterwards on the ice,
he really let his
emotions come out.
And he was very heartfelt in what he said.
In a league where so many people, you know,
they end up going to those defaults of,
you know, we really,
we put pucks deep and we, you know,
all of the mumbo jumbo that
we're used to hearing.
It was nice to hear
something a little bit different.
Now,
there's been a little bit of controversy,
which there shouldn't be,
about the consmite.
Connor McDavid absolutely
deserved the consmite.
As people are pointing out,
he broke a Wayne Gretzky record.
That is not something that happens often.
You know,
that is not something that like
every year someone's going
to break a record.
No, Wayne Gretzky has had records for,
you know,
that he's held for dozens of years.
And for McDavid to come
along and break a record
and basically drag his team into
through the entire Stanley
Cup final rounds.
He basically drug his team
to the game seven.
And you know what?
They lost.
Yes.
And people are saying, well, you know,
if it's the most valuable player,
then they should have won.
Okay.
You know what?
That's not how it works.
It's not.
They're saying who was the best overall.
It's not who won it all.
And it's the same thing.
I'm going to talk a little
bit later about the Calder,
and we have touched on this before.
The Calder is not for the
player that's going to end
up being a superstar.
The Calder is supposed to be
who was the best this season.
So, cons might,
who was the best this playoffs?
It was McDavid.
And you know what?
If you want to be just...
I just can't.
You know what?
I can't with people.
And then they complained
that he didn't come out to get the award.
You know what?
He's back in the locker room
with his teammates.
They are grieving for this
championship that they were
so close to winning.
And before he left the ice,
he was the first one to go
down the handshake line.
And he was not just good game, good game,
good game.
He was talking to every
single other player.
And you could see that he
was genuinely congratulating them.
You know?
And to be fair,
the Panthers were doing the
same back to him.
Because you know what?
He's a tough guy to play against.
And they were sincerely saying that,
you know, he had done a good job.
And he had played well.
You know?
And he did try really hard.
So for him to not come out,
would you want to?
Would you want to go out
there and grab this award
that in that moment in time
is not going to matter to you?
You know,
I'm sure further on in McDavid's
career or when he's retired,
I'm sure that he'll be very
proud of having won the Conn Smythe.
But in that moment in time,
it probably felt like a
participation ribbon for him.
And it was bad enough that
people in the audience were booing.
That's so tasteless.
So tasteless.
Like your team already won.
You don't have to boo Connor McDavid.
Now,
maybe people were booing Gary Bettman
because obviously that's a thing,
but they didn't boo at the
beginning of his little speech.
They only booed when he got
to the Conor McDavid part.
And so if that was you,
I just want you to know
that you should maybe sit
with yourself a little bit
and think about how to be a
classier fan for next season.
We are going to shift gears here.
I'm going to quick do my
little Ticketmaster read,
except I changed things
here and... All right, here.
So,
one of the ways you can support Her
Wild Side Hockey Podcast is
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I have a QR code up if you
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Again, you know,
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And we appreciate anything
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QR.
I can talk.
Okay.
Back at it.
So 30 minutes before the
Stanley Cup finals are going to start,
all of a sudden...
Lena Salmark traded to the senators.
And this was one of those things where,
like, people knew it was coming.
And I kind of hope that the
GMs waited just to kind of
announce it then to just
needle Bettman a little bit.
You know, just to be like, you know what?
This is going to stick in his craw.
Let's do it.
But it's just the goalie
carousel is still turning and spinning.
And for Minnesota Wild fans,
that means that that's one
more team that doesn't need
a goalie anymore.
They are not in the goalie
contention anymore.
So the Senators are done.
Who else?
The Devils were out now.
I can't think of who else.
But either way,
I'm going to go back and
I'm going to say one more time,
What I think about this goalie issue.
I understand that people
want Wallstead to come up
and play in the NHL.
Yes.
Me too.
Absolutely.
I want him to get some
mentoring from Fleury.
I want him to get more
experience at the NHL level
and against harder teams.
But by next fall,
by the beginning of next season,
Fleury is turning 40.
And Walsett is 22.
So between those two,
who is going to play 50 games?
If you try and play Fleury for 50 games,
he's going to burn out.
Guys, he's going to be 40.
It's a fact.
Even though he is in
incredible shape and he
still plays really well,
it will burn him out to play 50 games.
Walsett, on the other hand...
if he is, I don't want to say forced,
if he is playing 50 NHL games,
you are just,
you are taking your new star
goalie and absolutely just
chucking him into the fire.
And that feels like a really
great way to ruin it.
That feels like a really
great way to completely
wreck his confidence and
it feels like a good way to
make him doubt himself and
his abilities so I feel
like the best solution that
can happen here is to have
three goalies not all the
time that does not mean
always having all three
goalies there what it means
is gustafson is still
young.
He is young enough.
And he played a whole extra
month with Team Sweden and
looked good in the tournament.
He looked good.
And you know what?
He's going to work on his
conditioning over the summer.
He knows that.
He was very open with the
fact that he knows what he
has to work on.
And I bet that he will.
Because he is a professional athlete.
So if he comes back and he
has gotten over his sophomore slump,
then he can play the 50 games.
And then what you can do is you can give,
you know,
another good chunk to Flurry and
then pull Walsett up from
Iowa and give him some
chunks of games here and there.
Walsett is still signed to an ELC.
Pulling him up
It's not that much to add to
the salary cap situation
because we already know it's tight.
We have one more year,
but it's not like you're
trying to find room for $4 million.
You know,
you're finding room for like some,
it's something around 800 to 900,000.
Like that's a different story.
You can find that in the salary cap.
I think that's the best way
to go about it.
I feel like that will also
help give Gustafson maybe a
little more confidence that
he lost last year.
As long as everyone in front stays healthy,
I think this is really the
only way to have all three
of those goalies.
I feel like that's the only
way to have a successful
year goal-tending-wise.
I think it's also...
one of those situations where a lot, a lot,
a lot of players go through
the sophomore slump.
It's a real thing.
It's one of those things
where you have all this pressure,
you signed a big contract,
you get on the ice,
and maybe you're okay for a little bit,
but then something happens,
you make a stupid play,
or there's a game that just
goes completely sideways.
then the doubt starts to
come in because now it's
not oh am I a good player
it's oh my god am I
actually worth seven
million dollars like can I
play to that ability for
gustafson am I a goaltender
worth four million dollars
you know I bet he didn't I
bet he felt like he wasn't
last year but if he can
come back in and gain that confidence
Now we've got a
Gustafson-Wallstead tandem
once Fleury retires after this season.
I feel like that is the best
situation that we can have.
All right.
I'm going to throw it to one
more ad before we kind of
talk about what's coming up
in the next couple of days.
So bear with me and I'll be
back in a minute.
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Welcome back.
This last little chunk of
the show today is just
about what is coming up.
First of all, with the podcast,
I've talked about how
there's going to be some things changing.
I am going to be just
tweaking a few things.
Maybe looking to get a
little more... I don't want
to say professional, but just, you know,
like all the fun little tags and stuff.
Which, right now,
I'm basically a one-woman show, and...
As a mom who works,
I just don't have time to
figure everything out.
But I do have someone who is
going to help me.
So that will be good.
I'm looking into launching
some new merch this summer.
So just keep an eye on that.
Obviously, I'll be talking about that.
I'm looking to kind of ramp
up my social media presence a little.
Just a lot of things that
I'm trying not to overwhelm myself with.
Right.
But as for the Minnesota Wild,
what's coming up?
Well, let's see.
Wednesday, we have the NHL Awards.
However,
we don't have anybody up for any
of those.
But Thursday,
they will announce the Calder Trophy.
And as I mentioned before, you know what?
We know Connor Barrett is going to win.
We know that.
And is he a good player?
Obviously.
He is going to be a superstar.
He's great at scoring.
But it is a bummer that Brock Faber,
who was objectively better
in his role as a defenseman,
isn't going to win when he
was more valuable to his team.
Just going to let it sit there.
They're also going to
announce the All-Rookie
Team at some point.
It would not be a surprise
if both Faber and Rossi
made the All-Rookie Team.
And from what I remember, Rossi, I believe,
gets a bonus.
If he makes the team.
And I, I mean, I guess, I don't know.
I don't vote on these things,
but I would have put them
both on there because at
one point favor and,
and Rossi were the only
ones dragging the Minnesota
wild for their season.
Then obviously starting on Friday night,
we have the NHL draft.
Minnesota currently has a
first round pick at number 13.
From everything that I've
been reading and I've been listening to,
it would not be a surprise
to see the Minnesota Wild trade down.
Because 13 is kind of that mushy middle.
By that point,
all the best of the best have been taken.
And by 13...
You know,
it's just obviously you're still
going to get a good player, right?
That's not the issue.
But seeing kind of a lot of
the prospects that we already have,
we already have lots of
good prospects in the system.
Maybe what we need is to see
what we can get for the first round pick.
So that would not be a surprise.
We'll see.
And then on Monday, free agency starts.
And that day is always crazy,
just like trade deadline.
But it's crazy in, like,
the most exciting way.
Things that I'm looking out
for for Minnesota,
not necessarily in just from now through,
you know, the next week or so,
would be I know that the
Jake Middleton extension is
something that's been teased a lot.
People have been saying
they're looking at 4x4 for him,
which absolutely, like...
I think Middleton needs to stick around.
He's got a great personality.
He can play up and down the
defensive lineup.
And he's shown that he can
play with Spurgeon.
He can play with Faber.
He can play... So that, I love that.
And also I've been hearing
that Declan Chisholm is
going to be re-signed, which is great.
The only thing I don't like
about that is simply that that fills...
the seven slots.
And that means that some of
the other UFAs like Dakota
Mermis will probably have
to be signed somewhere else.
Although at the same time,
good for Mermis because he
was pulled up and played 40
plus games in the NHL this
year and really came to show that,
you know what?
I am an NHL defenseman.
So I am really happy for him
in that aspect.
And I hope that he gets a
good contract somewhere.
And then Brock Faber is
eligible to sign an extension too.
And I was just reading this
morning that apparently
they have not even talked about that.
But I also don't think that
that's going to be a big
struggle because Faber
loves Minnesota Wild.
The Minnesota Wild love Faber.
We all kind of know what
he's going to get anyway.
So I think it just comes to
the point where at some
point they just have to sit
down and be like, okay,
let's just spell it out.
Um,
I know that the Minnesota Wild are
trying to look for some kind of,
some kind of a winger to put in, um,
to basically push Marcus
Johansson a little bit
further down on the lineup
and maybe pair with Zuccarello.
You know, Zucchi is a great playmaker,
but he needs someone with
him that can score.
And Johansson just wasn't that.
Um,
there's names being shuffled around and,
you know,
I don't have any inside, you know,
knowledge about that.
But it'll be interesting to see.
I'm sure that they'll pick
up somebody for just a one-year contract.
Because like I said,
this is our last year in salary cap hell.
Starting next year,
we can kind of throw around bigger bucks.
Not a ton though,
because we got to sign
Kirill at that point.
We got to sign, you know,
And we got lots of prospects.
So that's a lot coming up.
And I'm going to enjoy the next two days.
Unless Bill Guerin really
puts on his thinking cap
and makes some trades.
Who knows?
But yeah, so until then,
I guess I will wrap up.
this episode of the pod.
So thanks for sticking with me.
I'm excited to kind of get
into some more fun things
over the summer now that
the finals are done.
And once, once free agency kind of, uh,
opens and then settles down a little bit.
So be on the lookout and you
can always find me.
I mostly hang out on Twitter
slash X under hockey.
She wrote, I do have a Facebook page.
I do have an Instagram, not there a lot,
but we'll see.
Anyway.
All right.
I love you all.
You all have a place in hockey.
Hockey is for everyone.
And I hope you all know that.
Have a great day.