In Which Gaudreau Is a Helicopter

In this episode, Mikki covers the game against the Calgary Flames at home along with touching on the turmoil in the Wild's front office. She also chats about the injuries on the blue line and how they looked during the Flames game.

Links:
Hot Girls Like Hockey Hat
Hockey Pride Sweatshirt

Applicable Articles:
Wild Part Ways with Assistant General Manager
Wild Make Recalls from Iowa; Put Defenseman on LTIR
Another Defensive Injury + Preview of Flames Game
GM Bill Guerin Investigated for Verbal Abuse
Wild Win Over Flames Despite Injuries

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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, Mikki, also known as HockeySheWrote on social media.

Mostly find me on Twitter, also Facebook and Instagram, which I'm trying to work on in 2024.

So, here we are, and the Wilds are doing well.

Do I even dare say that?

But like, holy moly, there's been so much going on in the in the wild world over the last even just like three days that it's almost amazing.

The game last night against Calgary Flames with all they've been dealing with.

Amazing.

But I'm going to put a little kibosh on that for a minute because first I'm just going to say a few things.

Of course I am because this is a podcast.

A podcast is where you say things.

Anyway, one thing is I like to tell you something about myself.

And I try to relate it to hockey or tangentially.

But today I thought I would tell you all that...

So I'm on Twitter.

I refuse to call it X. I'm on Twitter basically all the time during the day.

I work for myself, so I'm able to do that.

But the one time that you will not find me on Twitter, at first it might not make sense.

is during games.

And I don't even mean games where I'm in attendance, where obviously I'm a little busy.

But I'm talking about even just games at home.

Because let me tell you, I should have started counting how many goals, both for and against, I have spoiled for myself because of the TV lag.

And even last night, I spoiled Boldy's goal because I don't even know what I was looking up.

I was like, oh, I'm going to look really quick at this one thing.

And as I flipped my phone over, because I even put my phone down, turn the sound off, take off my Apple Watch, all of that.

I tried so hard.

I flip it over and instantly a tweet pops up that Matt Boldy scored.

And I mean, obviously, you only get so much

context in a tweet, but you still know they're going to score.

So anyway, that's my little thing, that you will not find me on social media at that point in time.

I also...

I am usually wearing wild gear of some point, of some point, of some kind on the podcast.

So if you watch me in the video feed, hello video feed, which is posted to YouTube shortly after it goes up as audio, you might see that I like to wear also just like hockey stuff.

And so one thing I have, I have on this wonderful,

hockey sweatshirt.

It has a picture of a hockey stick.

It's got rainbow pride tape on the end.

And then there's these beautiful flowers kind of wrapping around the shaft of the stick.

And they're all in kind of rainbow color.

Anyway, I actually got that.

So after once the whole pride tape debacle was going down, I actually got that from a person I follow on Twitter.

Their name is Corman and their Twitter handle is arson and hockey.

And Corman has this wonderful online shop with all sorts of their beautiful art stickers, hats, I think shirts for sure.

That's where I got this.

Anyway, I just wanted to, this is not an ad at all.

I just wanted to shout that out.

And the other one, I also frequently wear this hot girls like hockey hat.

This specific hat is from an Etsy shop called Five for Sparkling.

And again, these are not ads.

I'm not being paid in any way for this.

I just I like to kind of share the love and put it out there.

And because I just wanted to point out like hot girls like hockey.

That does not you don't have to identify as a girl to be a hot girl who likes hockey.

You know, kind of like like people were going on their hot girl walks, you know, this summer.

I think that it's kind of like when you use the word guys, but you don't mean like a specific gender.

You know, you're just like all encompassing.

I feel like the term hot girls, anyone, anybody can join the hot girls.

So come along.

All right, now we're going to jump in.

I felt like I had to do something a little bit lighter to start with because originally I was going to put that at the end.

But that's because the first thing that we're going to delve into now, it's a little heavy.

It's a little heavy, guys.

We're not going to go deep into it, but let's just talk about the Wild's front office and the kinds of turmoil that is going on.

First of all, there was this very surprise announcement on Friday.

Monday, the beginning of this week, that the assistant general manager, Chris O'Hearn, had mutually parted ways with the Wild organization.

There was nothing else said.

In the Wild statement, I believe they even said, like, they're not going to comment any further.

I do know just from reading different articles and sources that there was some sort of an investigation going on

But they do not say they do not say anything about what that entailed or what the findings were.

And I'm kind of assuming we will never know.

So that was kind of that was crazy enough, right?

Because the Wild just went through a coaching change.

Now they have this weird like, OK, we let go of the assistant general manager.

And then all of a sudden before the game last night, it is I'm watching pregame.

when this tweet slides up on my phone screen, because I do still use it in pregame, that there were these allegations coming out against Bill Guerin.

And like, blow me down.

Blow me down and pick me up.

She was the captain's wife.

That's a song from an old Disney movie.

But

I was floored.

And I got to say, I've always been kind of in the, you know, trusting Billy G camp.

So this was really disappointing.

Now, I will also say that this is for verbal abuse, which is not okay.

And I am hoping that that is it.

And also in whatever the other investigation was, I hope it is not something that has gone beyond the level of verbal abuse.

Again, never okay.

But I just, I'm hoping that no one was physically, physically, I don't know.

You guys know what I'm talking about.

You know what I mean?

And I just, I, I'm all about the vibes here.

You know that I'm all about the vibes and I, this stuff is hard to talk about, but we have to talk about it because it is part of the organization.

And in a way, it does affect the team.

It was like I was explaining it that the players and the coaches are kind of like one hemisphere of the brain.

And then like the front office is the other hemisphere of the brain.

And they're connected, but only by like this one little part, like a bundle of nerves in the middle called the corpus callosum.

So it's not like the entire brain is completely interconnected.

There is a very large, but only one connection.

So that's to say that while this is definitely affecting the players, I hope that it is something that they are able to set aside while they are on the rink.

And you know what?

Yesterday we saw that.

And that might be something that helps kind of galvanize this team and really push them forward to win because the front office in turmoil, and it's already a small front office.

There are not that many employees compared to other NHL teams.

And then the coaching change just, you know, what, two weeks ago now, plus all of these injuries.

I mean, this is hopefully going to just really pull the team together.

So the Blue Line Injuries, we all know Jonas Brodin is on long-term injured reserve.

I always have to stop and think exactly what that stands for.

Long-term injured reserve.

So he will be out for a while.

And we saw him.

He had a cast on at the Wild Foundations Gala.

So it's obviously something broken.

But then all of a sudden, we find out that Jared Spurgeon...

is also going to be out.

Now, we still had some good players on the blue line, but that's two huge blows.

And I went into last night's game just kind of wondering what it would look like.

Now, we knew that Jake Middleton and Brock Faber were going to skate together again because they did that on, I'm trying to think what day,

Oh, we had the big break.

So it was like Sunday, Sunday.

And but they worked well together on that game.

That was good.

Then we have the second pairing, which is a veteran pairing, which that part gave me some hope is Alex Goligoski and Zach Bogosian.

And Bogo is.

was playing like a beast on the last game.

So I, again, okay.

And then the last pairing is Dakota Mermis and John Merrill.

And this is, I mean, it's the third pairing, but this is the one that was a little worrying because Merrill has not been playing well and Mermis is great, but you know, it's, he's one of those bubble guys.

So can he play in the NHL?

Yeah, absolutely.

But

He's not necessarily going to be the best guy out there every night.

Does that make sense?

I really like Mermis.

Anyway, Brock Faber, we also saw him last night as the quarterback of the first power play.

And he had done that previously.

But again, it was something that nobody knew.

So, you know, would they put Goose up there?

Because Goligoski also does QB power plays.

But it was Faber.

So came into this injuries, weird front office, breaking news as the game is starting.

But the Wild managed to, the first period they came in and it was all Minnesota Wild to start with.

Like just everywhere.

They were everywhere.

They were doing exactly what they needed to do.

Partway through the first period, the Flames did kind of get their legs under them and it started to kind of shift so it was a little more even.

But seeing them have that great start at home is so, so fun to see.

Now, we had a Matt Boldy goal in the first period.

And he now has seven goals in eight games.

And, you know, that's seven points in eight games.

That's not even counting assists.

He is back.

He needed a kick in the butt.

But he must have gotten that from something.

And he's back.

One of the things that he's been doing, and John Hynes kind of pointed this out in his post-game interview, I believe, is that what Boldy's been doing is he's been adding defense to his game.

He's been looking more defensively.

like Joel Eriksson Ek he's trying to play that 200 foot game he's you know he's going back he's getting into the the dirty areas he's not just looking for a pretty goal anymore and i read uh in an article i think it was Russo's article where someone had said there's no pictures on the score sheet you you know at the end of the day you have the score sheet you see who scored goals you have no idea

what it looked like.

It doesn't have to be pretty.

You just have to put it in the net.

And Boldy is doing that.

And to be compared to Ek is amazing.

And I love that comparison.

And I never would have kind of put that together.

I mean, I mean, in the past, perhaps now I may have, but in the past, I never would have been like, I bet Boldy is going to try and look like Eriksson Ek.

But I love that.

You can never have too many X on your team.

Never.

The second line was really fast.

And as they were saying on the broadcast, part of getting Rossi and Jojo along with Zuccy is to try and get Zuccy to maybe speed up a little bit.

Now, he's not slow, but I think he kind of is more methodical, takes his time.

He doesn't necessarily like put those jets on and run.

And so they're trying to kind of speed him up.

And at the same time, that line is trying to kind of poke Jojo a little bit to get him to wake up and produce.

Either way, they were fast and they were doing their job.

Second period.

Again, while they're all over.

that Calgary just could not get things set up.

They could not get pucks in deep.

They could not.

They were just forcing plays.

You know, it's one of those times where they're gripping the stick tight.

They are forcing plays and it is just not going to work.

But we did at one point on our PK, we had another one of those great Dewey one, Dewey two breakaways.

Now, this one did not come with a goal.

But you know what?

Sometimes that doesn't matter.

Either way, it was great breakaway.

And it wastes time.

Even if you don't get a point on the board, it wastes the other team's power play time.

This was the same penalty kill that just a little bit later

There was that sprawling, sneaky, sneaky, sneaky Gus save where he is laying in the net and everybody else is just like on top of him, like shoving and like sticks are everywhere and players are everywhere and nobody's whistling.

And I know that, you know, as an official, you have to make sure that the puck is actually like covered by the goalie.

But like,

poor Gus.

But then he did this little move where he kind of wormed his way out into the blue paint before he stood up to make sure that they could not see any bit of puck underneath him that might have been in the goal.

And you know what?

It worked.

It worked.

There was no goal.

And so I hope

That Gustavsson got some ice cream last night because I think his ice cream is going to be tasting better and better every single game.

And also when I hear the word sneaky now, I don't know if anyone's watched the new Santa Claus show like series on Disney Plus.

But at one point, the witch goes sneaky, sneaky, sneaky coat.

And I just think of that with Gustavsson.

So moving on to the second period.

Now, at one point, Pat Maroon takes off one of the Flames players' helmets and just incites this entire scrum.

It's a big scrum.

And at that moment in time, the DJ presses play on a little song called Ballroom Blitz.

And when I tell you that that is perfection, when you are trying to marry a song to what's happening on the ice, perfect union.

Ballroom Blitz is this weird song.

I actually sang it in junior high show choir.

But it's like the man in the back said everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz.

And it turns out like all these people are fighting in this ballroom.

I don't know.

It was perfect.

I loved it.

I'm going to also make a quick note here.

This comes up so many games that Minnesota is one of the most penalized teams in the league.

And I hate hearing that, even if it's true.

I hate it because...

It often feels like some of the penalties are simply because Minnesota plays a hard, physical, heavy game of hockey.

Like against Calgary, Calgary could not compete physically with the Minnesota Wild.

They do not have that kind of play.

But to have so many penalties called, you just know that that's the reason for some of them.

You know, there's not much else to say about that.

It's just one of my pet peeves.

And then the third period starts.

And Ryan Carter has the quote of the night.

So when the third starts, Maroon is still in the box for taking off the guy's helmet.

Shortly after that, Marcus Foligno did get into a fight.

So he is also in the box.

So Freddie Gaudreau, who has been centering that line.

is a man on an island.

He does not have his own line around him.

And Ryan Carter said, Gaudreau is a helicopter because he's without his wings.

And that was just, he just pulled it out of nowhere.

And then Maroon gets back on the ice and Anthony LaPanta goes, well, how do helicopters fly with one wing?

And Ryan Carter, without missing a beat, goes in a circle.

And I love it.

This is the kind of commentary that we need.

Thank you for your service, Ryan Carter, and Anthony Lapanta for feeding into it.

And then after all the fun and games, the Flames end up scoring a shorty to take a 2-1 lead, which, you know, always kind of takes the wind out.

But at the same time,

The Wild, they're becoming this team again where they're never quite out unless they're out.

If the game is close at all, there is hope.

So, you know, there was not like a loss of hope with the Flames pulling ahead, but it was kind of like, aw.

But then, Marco Rossi, who...

I try not to rave about the same players all the time, but I do.

And Rossi is one of them.

He came back less than a minute later and scored to tie it up 2-2.

Rossi is currently in second place for rookies in goals.

He is only two goals behind Connor Bedard.

Connor Bedard has 12 goals.

Marco Rossi has 10.

And Rossi is also the second fastest wild rookie to reach a double digit goal count.

Everyone last year, if you are someone that last year you even dared to utter the word bust alongside Marco Rossi's name.

I hope that you have repented.

And on that note, I have seen people trying to call Kirill Kaprizov a bust.

And I don't think you know what that word means.

Speechless.

Speechless is the only thing when I read that.

Flames.

On the side of my face, flames.

Kaprizov is not a bust.

So moving on.

I'm really silly this podcast.

I'm sorry.

I love it.

I'm sorry.

Overtime.

We go into overtime.

Brock Faber somehow manages a two minute and ten second shift during overtime.

It's only a five minute overtime.

He was half of it.

He was on the ice for half of it.

And oh, man.

And, you know, he was so mad when he got back to the bench.

I don't know if he was mad because he was tired.

If he had missed something, I don't know.

He was like slamming his stick and it was a Brock Faber that we have not seen.

Move to shootout.

I hate shootouts.

I don't think it's fair to put the entire...

Win on one person, basically.

Two people.

You know, it was on one shooter and one goalie.

You know, I'm all for just lengthening the three-on-three overtime.

But we had Zuccarello come out, made a goal.

Kirill Kaprizov, no goal.

Freddie Gaudreau.

He actually made what would have been a highlight reel goal.

But at the last second, the...

Flames goalie Vladar made a highlight reel save.

Like, literally kicked it in the air.

Good on him.

Like, that was amazing.

Then, thankfully, Matt Boldy scored.

And then we had Gus Bus to save the day.

Caught it.

Once he was out, he threw it up, hit it with his stick like a baseball celebration, and the game was won.

So that makes six out of eight games have been wins under John Hynes since he started.

They are to this point where they're starting to be very consistent.

They are manufacturing good plays.

They are being reliable.

There's really good structure happening.

And we have to remember that all of this happened without Jonas Brodin or Jared Spurgeon.

And just that fact alone

Amazing.

I am very, very curious, though, to see how they play tomorrow against the Vancouver Canucks.

Now, they played them like eight days ago and they lost 2-0.

They're going to come back with a vengeance.

This wild team is going to come back.

So I am just very curious to see.

especially how the blue line does because of these injuries.

Now, they did say apparently this morning, Jared Spurgeon, he didn't practice with the team, but he did skate.

They're still saying he's day to day and that he could possibly play on Saturday against the Canucks.

Now, I am mostly excited because I will be in attendance.

I'll be at the game tomorrow.

It's an afternoon game.

And guess what?

It's a 78th game.

My brother, the jersey collector, owns two 78s.

And so we will each be sporting one.

I usually take, when I'm with him, I usually take Marcus Foligno.

He takes Kirill Kaprizov.

And we go on our merry way to club level.

If anyone else is going, make sure that you, you know, wear a reverse retro, a 78, something green and yellow.

Just, you know, it's nice to match.

And for my last segment here, it is future considerations in a bag of pucks, meaning miscellaneous.

I'm going to say one more time.

That Brock Faber is a hockey robot.

He every time that he has an obstacle that seems like, oh, man, this really might be tough for a rookie.

he's just like nope nope i'm good last night he played 30 minutes that is the most by far of the whole rest of the team the next was jake middleton who he was partnered with and midzi skated 26 minutes that is

Everybody knew that that's what was going to happen because with Spurge and Brodino, that's kind of what had to happen.

But still, like, oh, man.

Now, there was a little hullabaloo on Twitter about apparently...

John DeCosmaker, who is the amazing singer of the anthem at the Xcel Energy Center, apparently seeing a few of the words of Oh Canada incorrectly.

And someone on Twitter thought that that was just like terrible and awful.

And.

I mostly want to say that I think it's really dumb to play the anthems, either of them, both of them.

The anthems make sense in something like World Juniors.

You're playing with the world.

The Olympics, where there are multiple different countries.

And then, you know, depending on who wins, then you play those anthems.

But at the beginning of every game, I just... Especially with two anthems, it gets really long.

It's not that I'm not patriotic.

I just...

I just don't think we need to.

And then Ryan Reaves, who I loved last year, but he has been on my list because of that hit on Goudreau.

Anyway, yesterday in his game with Toronto, he had this really weird crash into the boards where he injured, I believe it's like his left leg of some ankle or some part of his left leg.

Anyway, the trainers come, they help him off the ice.

And there's a shot of him where he's like starting to go down.

Apparently there are stairs though.

And the trainers did not help him.

And then he fell down the stairs and I felt terrible for him.

First of all, terrible that it happened, but also that they happened to have the camera on him at that point, because now everybody knows that he fell.

It's embarrassing enough to just fall as it is.

Now everyone knows.

So you know what, Reaves?

I have a little bit of sympathy for you.

I hope you will take a little bit of sympathy because I'm not going to give you more.

I'm never going to get over that hit on Gaudreau, ever.

All right.

So I think that's all I've got.

You are all beauties.

You are all hot girls.

Let's keep the vibes immaculate and let's keep rooting on the wilds of all their wins.

I'll see you next time.