A Bonkers MN Wild Game Calls for a Bonkers Podcast Episode

In this episode, Mikki tries to keep processing the absolutely bonkers Wild vs. Canucks. She even has a section on the crazy stats but also talks about the vibes. One bit of big news is that everyone's favorite Tiny Farmer, Mason Shaw, is back and will be on the ice soon.

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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,

aka HockeySheWrote.

And I am coming to you less

than 24 hours after I

watched the most bonkers

game of hockey I've ever seen in person.

I say bonkers because I'd

love to say wild game,

but then it gets all confusing.

But so suffice to say, this weekend,

I was at both the Saturday

and the Monday game.

If you follow me on Twitter,

you would see that I posted

a picture of us from each game,

and it looks like we lived in our seats.

We simply changed our jerseys,

and I braided my hair.

Anyway, what a weekend.

So I meant to record a podcast before now,

but life gets in the way.

So I'm not even going to

talk about last week.

I'm simply going to talk

about this weekend because, again,

like I –

Might not even be able to

formulate all the words

that I need you to talk

about these games.

One thing that I did want to

touch on from last week, however,

is that Mason Shaw is back

and I know we are all very excited.

He has not played yet.

I was really hoping I'd be

able to see him play either

Saturday or Monday.

I also understand why he

didn't because fourth line

has been clicking and

they're really wanting that to keep going,

although they did switch up the centers.

Um,

because the third line has just been

not great.

And I will say one thing

that I think fans should

appreciate about John Hines

is the fact that he is

willing to switch up lines

and pairings on the fly.

You know,

that was kind of one of the

biggest complaints that I

would hear about Dean

Evason is that he would

just stick with the same

lines and they were

obviously not working.

And it was like,

You would have to just beat

it to death before he would change it.

So the fact that John Hines

does switch things up mid-game,

I think people should appreciate that.

So like I said,

there was the Saturday game,

which was a 4 o'clock game.

And let me say,

a 4 o'clock game is really

this odd time of day.

I like an evening game, a 7 o'clock start.

I understand why you have

like a 1 o'clock start, you know,

kind of middle of the day,

maybe more of a family

atmosphere like it was on

Monday with the kids,

the next generation kids game.

But 4 o'clock was just a

really strange start time.

It was also a 78s game.

So maybe they were just like, okay, well,

since we are wearing 78s,

we can just do weird stuff

like a 4 o'clock game.

Who knows?

So 78th for on Saturday,

regular jerseys on Monday.

And like I mentioned,

the Monday game was the

next the next gen game.

And my brother was a little

bit concerned going into it

because they talked about, you know,

they had like a next gen P.A.

announcer and next gen in

arena hosts and next gen.

And he was like.

I do not want to sit through a game if.

there's a child that's going

to be doing all the announcing.

And thankfully,

that was not how they did it.

The next-gen PA announcer,

just kind of at the

beginning of the game,

read a few things.

The in arena hosts kind of

went back and forth between

the normal adult hosts and the kid hosts.

I thought they did a good

job of balancing that.

They had a kid that played

guitar between like,

like electric guitar

between the second and third periods,

I believe one, one of the two.

And that was really fun to see.

He was really good.

So overall,

I think they did a really nice

job of balancing kind of

the kid aspect of it with the

having a regular game I will

say I was a little bit sad

because they only handed

out those cute little

naughty stuffies to

children and I understand

but I was kind of like well

I have two kids you know

like does that count um I

didn't actually try that I

would I would not do that now

before I really well, let's see.

OK, you know what?

No, I'm changing things on the fly.

This is just how like my

brain is so scrambled.

I feel like I'm still

processing that wild Canucks game.

So bear with me first.

I just wanted to touch on the Sabres game.

First of all,

the first two periods of that

game were so strange because as I recall,

it was zero zero going into

the third still.

And it was like both teams

just couldn't we're just

like a touch off you know

like both the wild and the

sabers it's like nobody

could quite get a pass

where it needed to go

nobody could quite get the

puck on the net nobody I

mean it was just weird you

know my brother and I were

both just like this game

feels weird and I think

maybe the whole four

o'clock start in the 78s I

think it was just like this

atmosphere of like

something is off.

Um,

I thought they did a really

nice tribute to Jordan

Greenway because that was

actually the first time

that he has been back at the Excel Center,

which seems strange.

But he was not he was traded

at the deadline last year.

And since then,

Buffalo has not been to Minnesota.

Minnesota has been to Buffalo.

But this was the first time back.

I thought they played a

really nice tribute video for him.

It was like a minute long.

It was really fun.

They even had like clips

from his big rig episode or

his big rig commercial.

It was nice.

everyone clapped and it was

very it was very uh sweet

and then at the end of the

game the game winner in

once they went into

overtime it appeared to

have been scored by

greenway and it actually

wasn't someone else tipped

it in um but then everyone

booed greenway so it was

quite an odd situation and

it was one of those games

where we just kind of left

it was very unsatisfying it

was very strange

And we were very like,

I do not want to see that

same team on Monday because

this was just not good.

I'm sure all of you watched

the game on Monday.

If you have not,

I would highly recommend

that you go find a replay

and honestly watch the entire game.

If you don't have time for that,

at least watch the third period.

Um,

I do want to talk a little bit about

stats.

You guys know that this is

not my wheelhouse.

This is, I don't need,

this is not my school.

I do not even go here.

I am on the vibe side,

but I can appreciate crazy stats,

especially when it comes to the wild.

So the top line right now,

they are absolutely buzzing.

We've got Kirill Kaprizov

and Matt Boldy being

centered by Jewel Erickson-Egg.

And the three of them,

I don't know why it's working this time,

but they are dialed in.

Previously,

they've tried Matt Boldy and

Kirill together.

They've tried Jule

Eriksson-X centering Kirill and Zuki.

They had tried kind of these

different combinations.

And for whatever reason,

I don't know if it just

needed to be the three of

them and not just two at a time.

But just in Monday's game,

Those three guys right there

had 16 points.

The top line came away with 16 points,

seven goals,

and nine assists between the

three of them.

And actually, even before the Canucks game,

they had a 62.7% expected

goals when they are on the

ice before those 16 points they put up.

like I can appreciate a stat

like that you know hold on

I feel like my kid is

coming they my kid is here

watching they're homesick

The Wild scored their 10

goals because they came away.

It was 10 to 7 was the final score.

Their 10 goals,

they scored in 27 shots on goal.

That's a 37% shooting percentage.

That's the best percentage

for any 25 plus shots on

goal game since the 2000-2001 season.

I think I was in middle

school at that point.

Actually,

I know I was in middle school at

that point in time.

It's just like...

And even going on.

So as we know,

both Boldy and Kirill came back.

I've lost all track of my thought train.

My children are homesick.

And I'm on deck.

I'm the parent on deck.

Okay.

Rewind.

Jules Eriksson Eck and

Kirill Kaprizov both had a hat trick.

Plus three assists each.

And...

This was the first time that

teammates had come away

with six points each in a game.

So AK and KK both had six points.

The first time that's

happened since October 9th of 1993.

And the last time.

So on that date,

it was Sandstrom and

Gretzky that came away with that.

Ninety three, I was like kindergarten age.

The Wild are doing things

that have not been done in decades.

And it's just mind-blowing.

Again,

bonkers is the word I keep coming

back to.

This whole game was bonkers.

Because the first two periods,

it was hard to watch.

Part of it was that

Gustafsson was just not on his game.

you know,

he let in two goals on two shots.

I think it was even worse than that,

but I kind of was blocking

it out because I really liked Gus bus.

He was just, he was not good.

He was not good.

And they put in flurry in the third,

obviously.

But it was hard to watch.

And then the end of the second period,

so the Canucks kept taking

all these penalties,

five on threes like crazy.

At the end of the second period,

Zuccarello, I believe, scored a goal,

but they ruled it a no goal

right as the period was ending.

And so I even said something

like the Wild need to

harness that rage over the no goal.

And come into the third with it.

And by golly, if they didn't do that.

Because they came out,

they scored six times in

five minutes and 45 seconds,

six in less than six minutes.

That's the fastest it's been

done in 25 years.

And watching it in person.

it just kept going in and every time,

I mean, it just kept going into the net.

And every time the announcer

would try to announce the last goal,

they would score another.

I even said I was cheering

and clapping and whatever

for like 10 minutes straight.

I swear to goodness.

I actually got to the point

where my voice doesn't

sound as bad as I thought it might.

Because between the bonkers

game and Declan Chisholm

scoring his first NHL goal on Saturday,

between those two,

I thought that I would not have a voice.

But this time, I even, like,

I've bruised the palms of

my hands before.

But this time,

I had a child sitting next

to me on Monday.

And he was not very...

aware of where his elbows were.

And so I didn't want to keep

my drink in the cup holder.

So I was holding it.

So instead of clapping,

I was actually like slapping my leg.

You know, I have welts on my leg.

I slapped it so much and so hard.

I have welts on my leg,

the things that I go

through for this game folks.

But I just, again, this entire game,

I cannot even believe.

Right now,

the wild are two points out of a

wild card position.

It seems like they are at

this point where they have

started to pick things up

and really be more consistent,

even if it's in a very bonkers way.

And while everyone else who

has kind of been in the

wild card running is sliding down.

We are in the right place at

the right time doing the right things.

We just need to keep going

because since January 15th.

So that's what just over a month.

They are first in the NHL

with goals per game, 4.08.

They are second in the NHL in goals scored,

53 total.

They are fourth in the NHL

with a plus 14 rating.

And they are tied for third

in the NHL with a 33% power play.

The tale of two teams.

I will keep coming back to that.

It has been the tale of two teams.

So,

but I'd like to tell you a little story

here.

I had this thought last season.

We went to a game,

my brother and I. He bought a hat.

And then I believe Kaprizov

got a hat trick at that.

I might have been boldly.

One of the two got a hat trick.

My brother tossed his old hat.

And we had this joke of, okay, well,

you have to buy a hat

because then they'll have a hat trick.

I am not kidding you.

Yesterday, my brother bought two hats.

I'm not even kidding.

He bought two hats before the game.

So Ek gets his hat trick.

My brother takes off his hat, throws it.

It's his old hat, a work hat,

not a super big deal, you know.

So he puts on one of the new ones.

And then how many minutes

later and Kaprizov scores a hat trick?

My brother did hesitate for a moment,

but he ripped that new hat

off his head and he tossed it on the ice.

And that is commitment, folks.

He did go back and

repurchase the same hat after the game.

And we did actually find his

original hat also.

So he did come away with the

same number of hats when he

entered the game.

But...

Again,

how are there even hats at that point?

But there were their hats

were raining down hats all over.

There's actually a really cute video of,

uh, do him helping to clean up the hats.

He's like getting them all

into a little pile with his stick.

So, I mean,

this game ended and I had

people tagging me in Slack

and on Twitter and texting me being like,

what is happening right now?

And I was like, you know what?

I don't even know.

I'm here and I cannot even

describe to you what is going on.

It is unreal.

And the best part about it

is that the Vancouver

Canucks are ranked number one

in the NHL right now.

So the Wild came along, and they were like,

playing kind of dinky for

the first two periods,

and then in the third, they're like,

you know what?

No.

Nope.

We're going to win today.

So after the game,

Julio Ixanec got the helmet,

and I was so happy for him.

You know he's my favorite.

He is my favorite player,

always and forever.

But he was just so happy,

and it was so fun to see

Ek, who tends to when you see him,

he's either kind of a

little more serious or he's

getting shoved around in

the ice and he's just like pissed off.

So it was really fun to see

just how happy he was after the game.

Taking a breath now.

I do think that so that game

was the best game that I

have ever seen in person.

And I do think that I'm

going to go find video of

that third period and just

watch it because I just

feel like reliving it.

It was completely bonkers.

All right.

We're going to move on a little bit here.

First of all, I just wanted to.

Touch on the PWHL Minnesota team.

They had a back-to-back this weekend,

and they won in Ottawa and

then lost in Montreal.

Both were very close games.

I believe they were both 2-1.

It's just Minnesota was 2 in

the first one and 1 in the second one.

I'm also going to touch

on... You know what?

I also wanted to, oh my goodness,

this is going to be one of

those podcasts that's hard

to listen to because I just like this.

I'm still processing the bonkers game.

The wild prospects last year,

their prospect pool was

ranked first in the league.

They are now ranked 10th in the league,

but do not panic.

It's not that it got worse.

It's that prospects are

aging out of being a prospect.

You know,

I don't remember exactly what the

age cutoff is,

but it's like Boldy for a while was,

you know, was a prospect.

And then he's too old for that.

And that kind of thing.

I don't I don't even know.

They don't.

Favors not considered a prospect favors.

Yeah.

Anyway.

Oh, boy.

So future considerations in a bag of pucks,

my miscellaneous section.

They had the stadium series

this past weekend.

And Matt Rempe had his first game.

He got to do a rookie lap.

At an outdoor stadium,

he's the first in the NHL

to ever do that.

Then his first shift was one

second long because then he

got in a fight with Matt Martin,

who told him that he had

longer arms than Chara

because Matt Rempe is six,

eight and a half, I believe.

He actually ended that game

with four minutes and 26

seconds of ice time and

five penalty minutes.

So he spent more time in the

penalty box than he did on the ice.

But you know what?

Matt Rempe, you made a splash.

Like, way to go.

And the same, I believe, Saturday,

at the same time as the stadium series,

the Penguins were retiring

Jaromir Jagr's number,

which was terrible timing.

I do not know who put those

things on at the same time.

Terrible timing.

But everyone in warm-ups wore his jersey,

and most of them were also

wearing mullet wigs,

which was amazing to watch

Sidney Crosby warm up in a mullet wig.

But Yager also got to go out

in warm-ups and just one last time.

And that was so cool that he

was allowed to do that.

I mean,

I don't really... The NHL has kind

of this ban on all things fun.

So the fact that I'm

assuming somebody cleared it,

either that or the Penguins

made a good choice of just being like,

you know what,

we're just going to have

him go out and then...

What's the saying?

Better to ask for

forgiveness than ask permission.

I feel like with the NHL,

that's kind of the route

that people need to go sometimes.

So the outdoor games,

three out of the four teams

did a pretty good walk-in costume.

That's kind of one of the

best parts of the outdoor games.

The stadium series, the winter classic,

is having them have some

kind of a different outfit.

I mean,

not that they're always super like...

creative necessarily,

but it's just fun to see.

The Minnesota Wild,

when they did their winter

classic walk-in, it wasn't super creative,

but they did have these cool baseball,

almost like Letterman's

jackets that were Minnesota Wild themed.

They had hats.

But then you have the Blues

that year did Hawaiian shirts and shorts.

And you have to remember

that it was 20 below zero.

So that was a little more of

a commitment for them.

But then the Islanders...

had the most boring walk-in ever.

They wore suits.

I know that's so different

than what you wear at a normal game.

Honestly,

I kind of feel bad for them

because they had a chance

to do a fun thing.

And their coach and their GM were like, no,

we're going to be boring.

And I feel like if you are going to be,

like your team is going to

be in an outdoor game, I feel like

A costume or at least like a

unique walk-in outfit needs

to be a requirement or you

lose points in the standings.

That's my thought.

Because, again,

we're trying to grow the game.

The fun walk-in outfits,

that's part of like this

vibe side of the hockey world.

I also had a really good

laugh at the park

simulation that they did at

the devil's Philadelphia game.

So they had, you know,

the rink in the middle,

but then around it, they created like,

it was supposed to be kind of like a park,

like a central park.

But I feel like they didn't

explain that to anybody.

So I did not watch the game, I will say.

But I saw clips of it on Twitter.

And one of the clips was the two mascots,

Gritty and then the,

I don't know the devil guy's name,

chasing each other around.

And all I could think about was I was like,

why are there so many dogs there?

Like, do they have,

are these like therapy dogs?

Are these like bomb sniffing dogs?

Like,

why are there so many dogs on the field?

I did realize later that like, okay,

this is supposed to be a simulation.

Like, oh,

they're playing a pickup game of

hockey in the park.

But like the actors, I just,

they're walking dogs.

And there's a lady with a

stroller that had like a

fake baby in it and selling

fake food and people biking.

And it was just like,

I understood the vision.

But I don't think they got

the execution right.

And I compare it to, again,

when Minnesota hosted the Winter Classic.

It was a similar idea.

You know,

there was the big rink in the middle.

And then around it,

they had smaller rinks.

And during the game,

they had other smaller teams playing,

you know,

like a three-on-three on the small rinks.

It's like pond hockey.

It's like you're at a pond

hockey tournament.

But what I thought was super cool...

It helped that they would

like announce these things

or they talked about what was going on.

You weren't left to find out by yourself.

It was teams like the

Minnesota Wild has a whole

bunch of teams that they support.

Blind hockey, sled hockey, special hockey.

There are teams of veterans

who play hockey.

They had some of the players

from the University of

Minnesota come play.

They had all sorts of things

playing different three on

three games around the main game.

And it was something we're

like it was something to

watch if there was a break

and play in the wild blues game.

But it wasn't so distracting

that you're watching the

lady with the fake baby

instead of the game.

Now, am I biased?

Yes.

But I do think I have a point.

And I'm going to wrap up

this very scattered and

strange podcast after a bonkers game,

a bonkers podcast for a bonkers game,

which is saying that

tonight the Minnesota wild

are playing in Winnipeg.

One good thing is that both

teams are on the back of a back to back.

Otherwise that would be really crappy.

And second of all,

I don't know.

How is this going to go, folks?

The Winnipeg Jets and the Minnesota Wild,

they have got some bad blood.

And I don't know if it's

something that... I don't know.

Is this something that is

going to rear its ugly head tonight?

Marcus Foligno is still out.

He did not travel with them.

So is that something that's

going to help or hurt?

You know,

he's not the only one that fights.

He's not the only one that

will drop the gloves.

There are actually several...

Quite a few players that

will drop the gloves for

anybody on the team.

You know,

we've seen Michael Rossi drop the gloves.

Last year, Matt Boldy dropped the gloves.

We've got Middleton.

We've got Maroon.

Oh, no, Maroon's out.

Sorry.

Bogosian doesn't really fight,

but he's a scary guy.

So will this be a super physical game?

I think it kind of always is

with the Wild.

Is this going to spill over

into a bloodbath?

That remains to be seen.

Um,

I don't know if Mason's job will be in

tonight.

That will be interesting to

see because the third line, um,

Goudreau Hartman, um,

and Duhame.

That line has just not been

playing very well.

Goudreau's really,

really struggled this whole season.

Hartman has been kind of on

a bit of a slump,

and it'll be interesting to

see if they switch anyone out for Shaw,

because they already

switched Dewar up to play

with Duhame and Hartman.

So anyway, until next time,

we are here for the vibes.

We love the guys because

they love each other,

and I'll see you next time.