Wild on 7th – Episode #121 Nico Sturm, Bratwursts, and Cigarettes

Wild on 7th – Episode #121 Nico Sturm, Bratwursts, and Cigarettes

This is Wild on 7th, your favorite wild podcast. Did you guys see this? This is unbelievable. What is that all about? Kanger, get in here for the real thing. Like, let’s get weird. Maybe I blacked out trying to figure out what was going on. Doubt, worry, fear, cuz that’s what we’re breaking the mold on here. Welcome to Wild on 7th, presented by Pilot Games. We’re here until it’s here. Welcome back to Wild on Seventh, your favorite Wild podcast presented by our friends at Pilot Games, make sure when you’re out this Wednesday, which is I think the biggest party day of the year, King or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Yep. And maybe this is for those those 20some listeners that we have. Yeah. The White Bear Bar will be filled to the brim. Yeah. Grab one of those tablets up at the bar. Get there a little early. Cash only. Yep. um deposit that into the tablet and play some games, pilot games. You know, they’ve got a wild game, Vikings game. I mean, Wilder winning right now. Go with a hot hand. Play that. You’ll win some extra dough. Your community will win some extra dough. Everybody wins. Can it’s a win-winwin. So much winning. Sounds like the wild. Not five wins in a row. Five in a row. I think what are they? Nine one and one their last 11. Govember. Hey, we called it man. We knew, we had our own players only meeting at the podcast, end of October. We felt it coming. We felt the change coming. Govember, it’s been awesome. By the way, scoring first. Does it feel real? I do think it feels real. I really do cuz the goalending um they’re beating good teams, you know, and uh I know there’s pieces missing, but everybody’s missing pieces. We’re missing pieces. like the injuries this year crazy and they’re saying like the the schedule’s condensed and that has something to do with it and but the injuries are off the charts early in the year. So yeah, everybody is dealing with it except for maybe I don’t know one team and that team might be Colorado cuz what are they right now? This I I really didn’t pay enough attent they’ve won nine in a row. Um, so I we haven’t played them, right? So I haven’t been paying attention that much, but they have 37 points in the standings. It’s It’s not even Thanksgiving. I mean, they could like make the playoffs by the end of the year, the calendar year. I mean, it’s unbelievable. They’re 16 one and five. Um, I I don’t know what the hell’s going on. It somewhat reminds me of Boston. What? Two and a half years ago. Yeah. But then they blew up in the playoffs, right? They lost first round. They did. Like that was that was Bersron’s last year, Crerache’s last year. Like they went bananas and then losing the first round and then it was like what couple months later Montgomery had lost his job. I know. And we got two wagons heading right at each other between uh the day after Thanksgiving. You’re going to get to see Colorado play our Red Hot. So it’s a pretty good day to get them, right? hockey holiday. No one plays hockey on Thanksgiving and they’re coming in. Belly’s full. Well, they’ll be here on Thanksgiving. Perfect. They have super sad Thanksgiving away from family and friends, probably alone in like the Omni Hotel, just eating like lukewarm gravy out of a chafing dish. And then they come maybe no gravy boat. They don’t they don’t gravy boat and they don’t have a Zamboni gravy. Yeah, this is like just a big spoon of grav spots in there because it’s there’s like a Bunson burner under it. Bunson burn microwave is involved somehow. Kale Mar Hey, he’s touching his meat. He touches it’s a little it’s not warm enough. It’s room temperature. He takes a little walk to the microwave, shakes his head as he walks back and he says under his breath, “Worst Thanksgiving ever.” Right. Yeah. I thought where you going with that where like he touches it cuz now I have another I saw you give me the look. No, I’m curious. That was some straight beas but no on your plate cuz I thought some you were going somewhere with like this with it. Don’t confuse me. All the food touched on his plate and like these OCD guys or are losing it now or something because the gravy ran into the stuffing and into the turkey and into the cranberry sauce on your plate. Can you let the food touch? Like, do you like I do and I know you probably don’t cuz you don’t like hugging. I I like gravy on everything, man. I love gravy. I’m prog gravy. I would put all right gravy on the stuffing. I don’t do stuffing. Graving on the meat. Uh I’m not putting gravy in the marshmallow, you know, that kind of cranberry stuff. But like I’m not a psychopath, but I’m I’m pro gravy. I’m I’m gravy, turkey, mash, but I skip mash cuz I like sweet potatoes so much. It’s It’s I think it’s my favorite food. So, I just go super heavy sweet potato. Should we do a little gratitude here? I mean, this is the best holiday, right? I mean, Thanksgiving is the best. No, I disagree. It’s Christmas is the best, but yeah. No, that’s not true. Thanksgiving would be second. What do you like about Christmas? That would be third. Is one of your favorite things about Christmas? Just having a small index card where you keep track of how many gifts you gave to each of your kids so that they’re even and it’s all about commerce and purchasing things. Is that what you like about it? No. You want to know what I like about Christmas? You know what Thanksgiving is about? It’s about taking your belt loop one looser, watching three football games, maybe gambling on it. No, you like it cuz it’s about TV trays. It’s all about TV trays and it’s about food and it’s about fellowship and it’s about gratitude. I’m thankful for you and our listeners here. I’m thankful for our producer, the little community we’ve built here at Wild on 7. See how I turned that on you? Yeah, you didn’t though. Christmas is superior in this. uh like one, it’s two days. You get to hang out with more family over the course of two days because Christmas is Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And then it doesn’t end there because you don’t have to go back to school until after the first of the year. So then you have like 5 days of ODR hockey uninterrupted with your buddies. Like Christmas, what it means and what it stands for is so much more than just one. You cannot like Thanksgiving is like I’ve got I’ve got Thursday to enjoy myself in two football games and eat my face off and then I’ve got to worry about Christmas shopping the next day. No, Christmas is like you get like a week of just awesomeness. I think you’re forgetting that that winter break is not part of Christmas. I’m just talking about the holidays themselves. You can’t even take Eve. You can’t say like, “Well, I got Eve. Eve’s on my team with Christmas. No, Christmas is December 25th and Thanksgiving is better than December 25th. Wow. I think all the listeners are gonna entirely disagree with that. You’re so wrong on this. This is And as much as I might have got PJ Fleck wrong, you are, you know, when you’re watching something and somebody’s trying too hard, that’s I think that’s Kinger right now to just say that Christmas is not Christmas Eve too. It isn’t. That’s It’s even Are you kidding me? They call it Christmas Eve. cookies and milk and reindeer food and like Santa Claus. None of that is real. What are you gonna take the whole advent calendar? You’re just I mean we got to get back to something else. Staint Nicks is like December cuz I don’t think you could be more wrong here. Well, speaking of Santa, I this look at this beard. So I I uh haven’t grown I I don’t cut my beard until the wild don’t get a point in a game. And I’m like a blanking right now. I mean, you can hear it. I know this is an audio product. Listen. It’s like real. Like I’ve cleaned it up. I mean, this is a winning. I have winning on my face right now. I mean, this is Govember has been awesome. I Yeah, it looks good. Looks good. I like it. You’ll be staying warm. Temperatures are about to drop for sure. Um, that’s what they say. I do I I was making this point the other day, too. And if uh I’m a little edgy, it is because we had a rough day yesterday. Okay. I just know that. Oh, I this is if I’m a little ornery. Yeah. I want to hear I want to ask some questions about this. So, break it down for the listeners. You’re coming back from Winnipeg and you’re thinking perfect early. You’re thinking, hey, I’m going to be home with the family. Maybe tuck the kids in. Yeah. Read a little Good Night Moon and what happens? Well, sit on the plane. Plane decides it doesn’t want to work that day. So, then we got to get off the plane onto a bus back into downtown Winnipeg, hang out in downtown Winnipeg till midnight, get a text. They they maybe flew another plane in, go back to the airport, go through customs all over again. Um I shouldn’t say customs, security all over again, jump on another plane, end up flying back to Minneapolis. Customs in Minneapolis. So we end up getting home at like 2:33 in the morning last night. That’s terrible. So when we thought we were going to get home at 8, you go back to Winnipeg. It was a 6-hour drive. Like it was like if we just busted, we would have been home. But if you’re in Winnipeg back, So is is this a like a bar restaurant that’s open to the public? Yeah. Sunday night football hockey team come over to the players and stuff. Um I don’t know. I mean you are in Canada so they they recognize they know who they know who the fourth liners are. They know who everybody is. There was a guy there that worked for a boring company that we ended up talking to for a minute who recognized like Hines head coach and everybody like they they know up there. Andrew, this was an Irish guy. This is a this is an Irish guy in Winnipeg working shortterm for a like a tunnel boring company. Yeah. He knew that’s how much that’s how popular hockey is in Canada. They know. Hey, anyways, I’m I want to finish this. Okay, cuz you there’s one thing I don’t like about that beard until the Wild don’t get a point. And I’ve I’ve I’ve kind of been getting I’m kind of like jumping on this bandwagon where I want the loser point to go away. Yeah. You’re talking about the overtime loss. Yeah. I want that point to go away. Well, that’s what the Kachchuck brothers started that on their podcast, right? They want um just recently. Yeah. They want it to go three They want to go 321. But you still have the one, right? No, it’s three. You win in regulation. So each game that that theory is each game is worth three points. Yes, that’s if you win, right? It’s three. That’s what they want. Yeah, that’s what they said anyway. I kind of want it to be two or zero. Like I would love to see teams play to win. Like and I don’t know that it impacts it that much, but think about it. the final final eight minutes of a tie game. Like how much push is there? You see more of a push when a team’s down a goal, right? Like I would like to see what that’s like. And now overtime has turned into who can win the first faceoff and then outchange the opposition three or four minutes into possession before they elect to shoot. I would like to see him like just win. Like you’re not trying not to lose this game. You’re trying to win. And if you went two-0, you’d try to win the game. Well, I think it does the same thing because if you So, if you win it in regulation and you’re chasing in the standings, you would see people throwing the kitchen sink in that last couple minutes trying to get the three. Yeah. And the team you’re chasing maybe gets zero, right? And I think when you make the shootout a one, it’s still two points less. So you don’t get into I think what you were trying to say about my beard is you’re saying some of these whiskers are kind of diluted. Yeah. Like like it’s not like your face right now is you’re saying I’m wearing some like overtime losses are mixed in. Yeah. Your your face right now is 129 and four but really you add those four losses you’re 12 and 13. You’re under 500. But well it’s never been done before. No one’s ever say I’m not ordinary. I like it. This is just a point that came up to it like it should we want more wins like outright wins. Well, we had some Let’s just talk about the week that was. We’re going to beat the Canes in a shootout. Okay, so that would be one of your wiggly ones that you don’t like so much. Then we go into Pittsburgh. This is when the wheels fell off. You remember last time we played Pittsburgh? We beat them 5 nothing. Sid’s yelling at people on the bench. Uh and then we take care of the hated Jets. We hate the Jets and we beat them three nothing. I mean, back-to-back shutouts. I mean, we are God, we’re on a heater. It’s been great. It has been great. And I think what’s been impressive about it, you can’t say that the Wild are catching teams um at on like a bad day and and maybe they are, but Pittsburgh Wild dismantled them and then Pittsburgh goes out and wins a big game like two nights later. Like the teams that are coming and playing Minnesota are playing Minnesota, not getting anything offensively, struggling, and then going out the next game and winning. I think that was the case for Anaheim. It was the case for San Jose. Like a lot of these teams are coming in here not having an answer for the Wild, but then going elsewhere and able to win those games, you know. And I do think that when you lose, you sharpen up a little bit. I I don’t know. You know what I mean? Like when good teams lose, they find a way to like level up so they don’t lose two, three in a row kind of thing. And that’s everything if you can stop the bleeding. Um I mean that’s how you make the playoffs. And with that the good so some of these good teams that have the ability to do that don’t have an answer for the Wild right now, which I love. Sid Sid and the crew have been great this year. And I get it. It’s their first game back after Sweden. Yeah. Like I get it. But they blanked him and it wasn’t even close. And he was visibly upset on the bench. And backto back shutouts. Pittsburgh, Winnipeg. Yeah, we’ll take it. Like you go two games, you score eight goals, you give up zero. And now we get our first look at Chicago. And interesting, Chicago, I think, lost three in a row, but they just lost to Colorado yesterday one to nothing. If you would have told me this Blackhawks team, everything we’ve known about them the last few years, it would be one to nothing against Colorado. I mean, that’s a that’s a loss. It’s a legit loss. Like you said, it’s a full two points for Colorado. But I mean, they must have played pretty well structure-wise. Yeah. Spencer Knight must have been pretty good if they’re only losing one to nothing to the the wagon. And the point you’re making is that Chicago’s different. Yeah, San Jose is different. San Jose just beat Boston last night. I mean, some of these teams, these kids, it’s real. Yeah. You can’t They’re hanging around. You can’t bank those points anymore. No. Anaheim has proven that, too. No. I I don’t even know what I mean, you could even whether it’s Nashville or Pittsburgh or whoever. Calgary, somebody could just catch you. I mean, it’s a tough league right now in the standings right now with the way the Wild started, which was worst October franchise history. Yes. There’s there’s only four teams with more points in the NHL than the Minnesota Wild right now. That’s how much parody there is. I panicked because I didn’t see them in the wild card spot and I’m like, what? Oh my god, are they are we lower because we’ve played more games and then I realized they were in third place in the C Central. So jeez, Colorado Dallas both have more points. That’s why Wilder third in the Central. Anaheim has one more point than Minnesota. Then you’ve got to go out east and the only team is Carolina with two more points than Minnesota. Those are the teams in the NHL that have more points than the Wild. Like overall they’re they’re sitting at like what? Seventh place, what a tie for fifth just on games played. Like Seattle has a a game less played. Yep. Like I want to hear your answer to something. So someone asked me this this weekend. They said they did the exact same thing you just did. They said, “These guys were terrible in October, right? And now they’ve been it might end up being the best November in franchise history, right?” They said, “What’s changed?” And I was kind of put on the spot. And I said, “Well, Zukarelloo came back. I I think you got to look at whatever happened with the lineup when he came back and it and it shifted down like a game of Plinko. Like all these guys suddenly were in better spots. goalending has been a huge part of it uh with Wall-E and and the bus. Um but then if you listen to Felino and some of these guys, they almost said like and I don’t know if this was the players only meeting or what, but they kind of said we all stopped worrying about ourselves and just started playing hockey is kind of how I’m translating that. I don’t I don’t know how you would qualify that but like what do you attribute it to? cuz I said, “Wasuki coming back for whatever that did, it seemed to change everything.” The goalending in the back end cleaned up and then there was this Spurgeon players only, you know, let’s quit feeling sorry for ourselves and just play hockey. Um, yeah, stop thinking. A lot of them have been stopped thinking. I think some of what’s real about that is, and you think about who else was at that game, last game, October pit, the game they drop where they’re sitting there third period, they just have to have a solid third period. They come out, they get beat three-0 in the third by Pit. And then that’s when things change. That was also the night that Weston was here, you know. Yeah. Terrible. I mean, so sad. Rest in peace, Weston. Like, terribly sad story. Yeah. Passed away last week and um you hear he was his mother said he was watching hockey. But I do think that that that had an impact when you see a 10-year-old kid struggling and and he’s excited to be around the game and at the rink and he’s there with Pittsburgh and Flurry’s taking him to prank and uh his old teammates and you get a little perspective like let’s stop feeling bad for ourselves. Yeah. You know, we don’t have it all that bad. This kid’s fighting for his life and he still has a smile on his face and I’m mad because I’m -6 at the start of the season. Yeah, I think it and even seeing how Pittsburgh pulled him into their locker room after they won. I mean, that’s a classic hockey thing, right? the the whole community kind of worked together uh and and took care of him and you know and I I think that that had an impact on the guys and perspective and then they hash a couple things out in their meetings in their talks and Jared Spurgeon um does his leader thing and guys simplify and and maybe it’s a perfect storm spur or Zukarella comes back and that does help but they they’ve also lost critical pieces too, you know, and and Zukarella hasn’t been like he’s been good. He’s not been like Jojo was in at the start of the year. He had not been lights out carrying it. So, he that’s certainly a part of it, you know, but it’s not it’s not a huge part. If I had to pick what’s the what’s the number one thing that changed, it’s it’s probably putting uh Faber with Broadin and Middleton with Spurgeon and committing to playing for the top 4 D together heavily heavily. And then on top of it, it was the fact that we could go back and look, but it was the fact that the Wild had uh probably 10 of 12 games at home where Hines could keep Erikson Ek Baldi and Johansson together even without Rossi and get the matchup that he wanted cuz Ek has been dynamite and that line isn’t getting enough credit for what they’re doing, but he’s been absolutely dynamite. Not in a shutdown role, but he’s been shutting down. Think about who came to town. It was Mlin Celbrini. Like he was top three in the league in points. It was Leo Carlson, top three in the league in points. And these guys come to town, nothing. Wild beat them 1 z 2 or they lose to the Sharks 2-1, whatever it was. But point is Hines can control the matchup and he can get the team to buy into a defensive first style of game and prove to them it will work if you buy in and controls the matchup. Good solid D. They get some puck movement. It’s not can we get to 34 tonight. It’s let’s not beat ourselves. And the Wild have not beaten themselves in that time. And it it’s it’s not coincidence that that’s the exact same time goalending turns around. Right now goalenders aren’t facing twoon- ones, breakaways, and even if they’re making those stops, it makes their night frantic. And they haven’t had a frantic night since, right? It it’s been controlled hockey in front of them, predictable, play my angles, you know, um play my percentages, and then with that, they’ve gotten good performances. So, I think it’s probably all of those things, you know, and um Capri Soft continues to be Capri off. You can’t look at the guys that play heavy minutes and and not give them credit for it. Baldi’s been tremendous. Different guys have stepped up. Johansson’s still been a really bright spot. So, it’s it’s a lot of different things, but it’s probably Erikson, that line, their ability to shut down while still providing offense, the fact that they’re at home and Hines can control the matchup, and then those top four D being able to be on the ice together and shut down. Yeah, I like that. That’s a I wish I would have said that. It seems smarter than what I said. The uh NPK has been good. I will say uh so Faber’s top five in scoring right now with 13 points. And watching that game last night, this is on the team. you mean on our team? Uh, and have you ever seen a guy that’s just when he gets a goal, he he has the joy of like a squirt hockey player playing Eric Stall in the big He’s like in the big pumpkin or something. I mean, he’s just the visor’s up high. He’s smiling. The mess is he has to push the visor up even higher after he scores, you know? I mean, it makes me happy when he’s happy. So, uh, good for him getting out of that rut. Uh, I I think the D pairs is is absolutely huge. I want to talk about Carell for a second. So, um, Carell is interesting this season because he comes in every game and does something Carell. Okay. Like, uh, I was trying to figure out what it reminded me of. It’s remember the salt bay, the the chef that used to come in and throw the salt over his Well, no, it was off the forearm. Off the forearm, right? Boop. So, like Carill does that in every game. There’s like a little moment where like he would take his samurai sword out and do a thing that only 97 can do. But it’s typically so far, even in this winning streak, it’s been mostly one point, maybe two here and there. He’s got 27 points in 23 games, which is 15th in the league, right? You know, these other guys, McKinnon, Celibbrini, McDavid, Baddard, they’re they’re higher. Um I my question is do we need 97 to drive games? Yeah. Like threepoint nights, four point nights. Um or is there something happening with our lineup where he’s taken a lot of the top defenders away? You really give Baldi a different opportunity with that other like I’m just trying to figure out what we need out of 97 to get I think you’re getting it. If you if you go back and watch the pit game, Capri off was dynamite. Like he had maybe he was so flashy in that game. That was a national game, right? Where he was just slinging it around. No, Pit. No, this is different. But Pit was Pit two games ago cuz this last trip was just Pittsburgh uh Winnipeg, but the Pittsburgh game where he was on the fore turning pucks over and then that’s when he can he can make like the no look beautiful plays where you’re like, how did he see something there? You know, it’s not off the rush. It’s like off a turnover. Was that the game where there was a play where he was in the corner in the ozone and he somehow got a puck out front to Eurovv? Yeah. Like it was almost like he had to dislocate his shoulder and put the stick in his sternum to make that pass. I have no idea how he did that. That’s what I mean. every game you get this thing, this wizardry. Um, but I’m just trying to figure out if do we need him, do I need to see his name next to McKinnon, Celebrinia, and McDavid in the NHL scoring leaders or not? No, this is what I would say. At the start of the year, he was playing the type of hockey where he was he would be in that category. He was getting three points, but we were losing those games. like it was minus one in those games, you know, like the power play was cooking, they were scoring and he was making plays at the blue line and it was turning over and it became a story. It was remember erased the name on the board like not being accountable for it. It became a problem and now he’s been probably more responsible with the puck. And this why I think it’s different how he makes these plays, these high-risk plays. It’s different where they where they come from, where they’re materialized from. And uh early in the season, I think it was off a rush where the other team has control and maybe numbers coming back and he has to make a terrific pass, floating it over somebody to somebody streaking into the back door, but they’re ready for it, right? And they’re on it. Now, where it’s different is he’s doing it off turnovers. So, he’s doing the work to for check forward one, forward two, pressuring a guy, forcing a guy into a hurried pass. He knocks it out of the air, then it’s a quick no look. Boom, snap to the front. So the other team’s not ready. They’re not prepared for it. And with that, he’s not feeding rush the other way, chances the other way. His team’s not caught in a bad spot. So I think that the numbers will start to like creep up where it’s one and a half, two points a game. What are his team winning? What’s Hines doing with his minutes? I was trying to cuz it feels like he always tries to get him around 21 to 23. Okay. And he’s still doing that. I feel like he’s playing him a little bit less. Um he does that fun thing where he throws them with Baldi after penalty kills. I love that. But um I feel like he’s really balancing his lines. Like there have been games where the fourth line is playing a ton, the third line’s playing a ton. I was just wondering if he was maybe a little lower. There’s also been games where the fourth line plays very little. Yes. You know, um last one actually, I think. Yeah. Game logs for Capri off this year. I’ll give you give me one second on it. Uh it was just a question because I don’t really know. I don’t know if we need him to be, you know, the guy that gets two points a night or if he gets one and he’s right around 21 minutes a night. Like it’s if you want to go from November 1st, it’s 24, 25, 22 1/2, 17, 18, 24 1/2, 23, 24, 22, 20, 21. So, it’s right around. So, those last few games, he’s played less, right? Little bit. Yeah. I just was noticing it. I I um and I I mean, I think he’s playing great, too. Don’t get me wrong. I was just trying to figure out how much uh how much we need from him cuz we’re winning. I mean, we’re playing great. And so, you’re like, okay, maybe if he’s a 90 point guy and we we’re dominating that that’s maybe better than 110 110 points, but you know, dash 15. You know what amazes me about him is, and this is one of those things that that you can’t like justify or find a reason for. How about the pit game when he’s just floating through the slot and Middleton shoots that puck and Capri off just like throws the stick out. Yeah. Touches it and it changes direction but doesn’t miss the net. It just floats like an extra one inch higher and then hits the top corner. Like think about it. How many pucks have you seen him tip? Almost every goal what they always show the guy going to the bench first and half the time I’m like I don’t know. I think Carell touched it somehow. He was in there somehow and touched it. But every every puck he tips it goes in. And those are the kind of things that just happen to to good players. I’m like how how does this happen? Earlier in the year I can remember one too where he’s on the side of the net. I think it was Baldi that shot it and he just like tips it. Yeah. And it goes in. It’s like how in the world did that go in? No, the dude’s a wizard. I just didn’t know if we needed you can’t be that good. You’re not that good. And he even Capri stuff even after that Pittsburgh goal went back to the bench like man that’s a lucky tip. It hit the top of his blade. So when you’re in that spot you’re tipping down. You can’t tip up. It’s it was at shoulder height. It hit the top of his bait blade flipped and fluttered in. It’s like how does that happen? Like Erikson who’s a great tipper. He tips at 18.2% right now. Capri off is that like 80% of his tips go in the net. Well, he was born in a manger, so there was no room in the end. But those are the kind of things that just happened to to all world players, you know, like trending has to be like how is it possible that I’ll have like 10 more tips than Capri off and 10 less goals than him, you know? Well, so I’m going to ask this in a different way because true to form, I I I talk too much and don’t get to the point, but how many points would if the Wild were going to be the most successful in the regular season? How many points does Carell end the year with? Cuz there’s a spectrum there, right? I think Carell could get 110 points. I also think Carell could have 89 points. Now, that that depends. And I think that that’s a good question, eh? Well, yeah, it is. And it I don’t think it’s as simple as if he gets a 100 points that means the Wild are a good team. That’s what I’m saying. I’m trying to figure out what is the answer. I actually think it’s more like 97 points. There you go. You know what I mean? If you kind of think of how he plays I I cuz you get as a fan, you see this with the Vikings, right? Part of the frustration with McCarthy is everyone wants Justin Jefferson to at least give me some video game stats if we’re going to lose, right? And with Carill, he’s that first guy we’ve had since Gabri where um you’re like, “Oh man, like even if even if we were out of it some year, I’m still going to go down to Grand Casino Arena cuz I might see a four-point night from 97.” So I’m just trying to figure out mentally, should I stop looking at the NHL leaders and just kind of settle in and know that he’s he’s a wizard. He’s part of it and it’s all going to be fine. And Billy says this, Hines says it that the most important category for Capri off is wins. Absolutely. And I I do believe that to be true. But I also think that and again the whole purpose of a regular season is to get to the postseason and win. And then that’s where it becomes complicated because what version of Capri off gives you the best chance to win like Cooerov out there for every empty net and coach wants to get him points. I think he like that coach Cooper understands that that Cus needs that. Yeah. And with that he’s a better player, you know. I don’t know yet or I don’t know that we know yet if if that’s Capri off. Like you could say on one hand like Capri off give me 82 points and a plus 30 and yes we’re we’re a playoff team and we’re good. But maybe the best version of Capri off is a guy that scores more often than that and needs 20 more points. Maybe he needs 102 and then that’s when he’s he’s he’s feeling playing his best, you know. Well, small sample size, right? Even though it’s been govember, you would say the success of the Wild in this month has been team success. Yeah. Carell’s played great. Baldi’s played great. The goalies have been great. the defense, you know, but you wouldn’t say, you know, Carrill propelled us through November at 115 point pace like that was. So, to answer your question, when we do get to playoffs, I feel like as long as you’re getting one or two from 97. Yeah. Right. Through that stretch through November, that’s all you need is one or one and a half points from Carell and everybody’s playing wild hockey. I think that’s the best model for us. Even more so than three or four points in November. Capri off is a point per game. He’s got 11 points. Yeah. So, this is a Yeah, he’s going to end up maybe he’s at 93 points for the season or something. I think that’s the winning recipe for the Wild. I don’t think it is 115. I don’t I I don’t I mean, we kind of saw that the start of the season in October. He was getting a lot of points in those games we were losing in those weird I think he had like three points against Columbus in that Jyjack game. Yeah, he had three St. Louis, three Columbus, two against Dallas, three against San Jose, but they lost those are all L’s. I mean, and they’re there those are like those Kings 87 losses. I mean, or whatever. We won maybe that one. But um Well, that’s that’s an interesting answer. I think it also now 11 points point per game in November for Capri off. Only one game has he registered a minus. He’s been a plus in one, two, three, four, five, six, six or seven games. See the difference there? Yep. Where he registered more points. What did he have? So that means he had 16 in October, but he was a minus player. 1 2 3 4 five of those games and a plus player only two. Mhm. And that’s not him, you know, that’s not just on him. It’s just I think you’re seeing a trend, right? But I also do think it matters. This is where it’s complicated. I think it matters how many points these guys get for confidence for like when it matters like how are they feeling? How are they playing? You’re saying get some here’s some cookies somehow get the guys cookies. Yeah. Well, power play empty netters all that stuff. You’re saying it matters. Yeah. Like you need those points if if you know like all right pull the reigns back five on five you’re cool winning the game one zero two. You need him touching that puck with the empty net kind of thing, you know, like we need to get him close to 100. I think he needs to be close to 100. I like 97 for 97. That’s close to 100. Um, Baldi. Okay. Uh, similar. I believe Baldi’s never scored 80 points in his career. I think that’s right. I think he scored 72 maybe. So, everyone in their head in Minnesota has Baldi as the the Robin to the Batman, I suppose. or maybe depending on your household, maybe you’re arguing about if Baldi’s better than Carell or whatever, but this guy’s 25 and 23. He’s trending to about 80 points if he can stay healthy. Um, he’s been fantastic as well. Um, I mean, this this guy uh now he’s with EC. He may not be seeing the top matchup every night, but what a stud. I mean, ever since the Four Nations last year, this guy is just he’s a recognized player in the league. like this is this Matt Baldy. He’s Yeah, he’s a hockey news player now. He’s great. Um and um and he’s he’s getting that consistency. That was the thing he didn’t have. Remember those other couple years we’d be on the pod, he would go ice for like 10 games in a row, nothing. And then he would go on a heater. Maybe Carell was out and he would carry us for two weeks. Now he’s really he’s really a complete 200 foot guy and he’s chipping in. You can almost count on your Baldi point and you can count on your Carill point. That gets you two. If our defense is playing well and our goalies are doing what they’re doing, that’s a winning recipe. Yeah, I I think you’re absolutely right. And what I see different in Baldi’s game is that I I think when he continues to win these corner battles, which we see him all the time now. Think about him in like the offensive zone to the goalie’s glove side. you know, he’s bullied right winger. He’s got the puck on his his backhand. He’s holding a guy on his back. He’s winning the battle and he’s turning it back up, you know, like it’s awesome. Like he’s boxing out when he has possession of the puck, just nobody else is going to get it from him. You can’t get it. But with that, he’s feeling a little bit more empowered all the time where the game isn’t physically dominant like it’s not physically intimidating and he’s elite. If he’s on a breakaway, you expect him to score. Yeah. That is not a given. How many guys we’ve seen have a breakaway and they rifle it right into the stomach of the goalender. This guy’s five. He knows where to score. And I talked about this in shootout in the show last game. Um but to finish the point on Bully not being intimidated now, now he’s like not intimidated going to the net. He knows he’s a stud, you’re saying basically. Well, and it’s just he knows he can win these physical battles so that when you go to contested ice like Pittsburgh won the won the board battle, beat his guy to the netfront redirection in the net. You know, like he’s winning physical battles and going to the net. And it’s it’s one of those things like even if you talk to like if you’re a coach and you’re talking to any kid, just be like goals are scored at the net. Like you have to get there. There’s an art to being there at the time the puck gets there and being open and things like that, but you have to be there. What was inconsistent with Baldi’s games at times was getting there like where he’d want to take the one time on the weak side. Like there’s a direct correlation to how close you are to the paint and how many goals you’re going to score, right? And now he’s like, I’m not worried about Logan Stanley. I can hold that guy on my back. I’m not worried about, you know, Wther Spoon in Pittsburgh. I can forch check that guy, keep him on my back, make a play, you know, and he’s just playing bigger and I think with that more confident physically to go to the contested areas. Now, to the point you were making and sorry to go on this huge filibuster, I was looking at his last five goals. I don’t know that this guy has a goalc scoring calling card, you know, like you’re saying everything’s different. It’s different. Like he he perfect and it is good. like breakaway Carolina game five hole from distance knew his spot goalcorer spot redirection against Pittsburgh knew how to open the hands knew where he was in tight how to redirect it top shelf where the open spot of the net was he’s a high IQ scorer so he knows like goalie movements and where the open part of the net is and what’s going to be challenging for the goalie so like maybe it took a little bit of time for his processor to be able to get all those data points and analyze eyes at NHL speed, but it seems like he’s there right now. Very balanced. If you look at where he score the where he scores these goals on the goalender, you think it’s read and react. He’s looking and it’s almost like Jokic in the basketball is the same thing. He they say he’s a supercomput, right? He knows the right play to make at the right time. You’re saying Matt. I don’t think he’s reading. I think he knows. Oh, he just knows. Like data points, you know, like I know if I’m here in this spot, pass coming from there. Goender has to be here. his job is to do this. This is where it will be open. You know, he is an iPad guy. So, like you showed the graphic last night on Winnipeg, which I thought was really interesting. You’re basically like shoot blocker on this goender. Like, if you just shoot blocker, you’re going to beat this guy. And he didn’t even look right in the net. Like, it’s so shocking to go from helluck to him. Like, when he when you showed your first shot of the goalie before the puck drop in the first period, all I could think was this guy’s not good. We need to start shooting. And then then you had the graphic. I’m like god I hope the guys know like did they see that you know shoot on the but I I just two things to close one and 1 a Carrill and Baldi two things just nice to see Matt Baldy if you look when the guys come off at the ice after periods now he’s standing there saying something to all of them right so he’s also becoming a leader of the team the other thing I love that I I’ve talked about this before but it’s my favorite Carell moment when he got the A and he’s supposed to talk right and he just says I think we all know why we’re It’s the most I mean that’s the most gangster statement ever. Like that’s all about winning. I mean it’s it’s like and even you could argue being a fan of this franchise for a long time like I don’t know if everybody does know that’s why we’re here. But for him to be like I think we all know why we’re here. Thank you. And like clap and go back to a stall. You’re right. That’s the only category I think he thinks about as long as he can sit by Zuki. Yeah. If he can be happy and win. Which, by the way, how about when Zuki got hit with a right cross from Logan Stanley? Capri off was like trying to get in there so bad with the mellow head him. I got you. I got you. Yeah. No, those are not the guys to do that job. Um, but there’s a I think that there’s a very valid point to be made. And it’s it’s energy. It’s body language. It’s not I don’t know that it’s like easy to see confidence, but not Yeah. Not a changing of the guard, but to your point where Baldi’s like he’s now taking like a physical stance in a spot to support the teammate, you know, like where he’s the guy that’s giving the guys a high five. I think Favor’s the same. There’s like a a changing of the guard happening right now where yes, FelinO is the leader. Yes, Jared Spurgeon is the leader, but the young guys have grabbed hold of like the majority of the ice and it’s kind of their team. And I’ll go back to like 2007 with the Ducks. That’s how it was. We had team Mousolani, Andy McDonald, you know, but then you had Getoff and Getoff Perry and they were like they were grabbing hold of the ice and though they were the second line, they were actually the guys. You know what I think? Actually the difference makers. And you know what I think’s help with that? We’ve never had kids till this year. Oh, not kids that have been able to take the reigns. No, no, no. Underneath them. Boo. Yeah. Year of right. We’ve got these younger guys in the lineup where if you’re a Matt Baldy or a Brock Faber, you’re almost like you’re in the middle now. And to your point, you’re way at the top, but you’re you’re not the young guys anymore, right? You’re almost like the the next generation leadership for this franchise. Well, even even just think about we showed another clip in yesterday’s broadcast of Zukarella talking about Baldi. Just the way just the way he talks about him differently. Like he took big steps last year. How about his hair in that clip? I know. I tried to get a picture of it. My wife, I’m like, “You got to get a photo of this cuz if he ever comes on the podcast, which he never will, styled it with a pork chop.” I’m like, “This guy has a hair company.” And look at this hair. He styles his hair with a pork chop. God, what did she say to me? She goes, “He looks like uh oh, the like Hunger Games or something.” Um, it was amazing. His hair took a beating in that Logan Stanley right cross, too. Like, that’s always such a tough look when you take a a punch and like your bangs come down in front of your eyes, but underneath your visor and you like it’s just a It’s just so hard to be like confident. Oh, right after that, my wife My wife is tough. My wife goes, “God, he’s got such white teeth. How do you have that nice teeth?” I’m like, “Connie, that’s a mouthguard. He has a white mouthguard in for God’s sake. There’s no lines. There’s, you know, on the thing. Should we finish with just goalending quick? Uh, I think before we finish with goalending, we’ve got to talk change like maybe changing of the guard on I think so. Like, well, it’s not really on the Thanksgiving dinner plate. Do you think that sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, overtaking regular mashed potatoes? Cuz I kind of do. If you did, where would you get it from? I am a regular mashed potato guy. Um, I actually think you should put a pad of butter in there. That’s like excessive. Like you already have the butter lake cuz some of us melt it, but you still have you can still see a visible square. And if you eat part of that square before it melts, that’s okay. The holidays are here and that means family food and celebrations. Make Cub your go-to for everything you need this season. From fresh produce and quality meats to festive treats, I don’t know what that is, and your holiday essentials. Cub has you covered. If you’re hosting a party to watch the wild, grab game day snacks and drinks. You’re ready when the puck drops. This doesn’t sound how I talk, but shop cub shop happy. Um, if uh if you were a goalender for the Wild and uh your water bottle was filled with just clean, crisp, filtered water, what would it be from? It would be from our friends at Kinetico um and by way of Aquarius Home Services. But back to Cub real quick. Cub is a great spot for like popping in, getting your stuff that you need. Like that’s actually my go-to spot. Like when you’re scrambling, Cub, like I guarantee you I will stop at Cub on Wednesday at some point for something. I just like that it feels like Minnesota. You know, it’s like uh in a world of Starbucks, we have Caribou. You know, this is our grocery store. Yeah. This is for us. You know, all these out oftowners coming home. You haven’t seen your relatives in a while. Maybe you’ve been at college. Roll into Cub and feel like a motan. So holiday season is I mean yeah you’ve got to keep everybody hydrated because I do think that uh the wine tends to flow maybe an oldfashioned or two too many you want to keep everybody hydrated a little extra salt on the turkey whatever that might be gravy um but with the home service it’s it’s all services they’ve got you taken care of like it can be a stressful time and uh it means there’s a lot of things to do and worry about like you’ve got company coming over you got to get the house in order the grocery shopping cooking all that you know shopping Black Friday you name it uh the Last thing you need is more stuff to worry about like equipment in your home. My advice, keep Aquarius home services on speed dialer. Plumbing issues like the water heater that stopped heating, well, call Aquarius. A light switch that seems to not like turn the lights on or off, call Aquarius. Faulty furnace that forgot that, hey, old man, winter’s on its way, you’ve got to heat up, call Aquarius. Uh Aquarius is the company I trust to take care of my home. Plus, Aquarius provides 98 off any repair and are just a click away at aquarius.com. Enjoy a worry-free home and the one you deserve this holiday season. Kinger Accoria earning the right to be recommended. Good job. That thing’s buddy. Hey, uh, did you do we have a lookalike on the So, we I want to have a little Swedish segue here. Um, the Swedish Olympic team might look a lot like the Minnesota Wild. I’ve been seeing some projections. Uh, Mr. Return on investment Johansson is is is penciled into the lineup. Roy. Uh we got uh E obviously Broaddin. I saw something recently. Both of our goalies would be Sweden’s goalenders uh with the wall of St. Paul and the Gus Bus. But Jonas Broaddin’s participating in Movember. Um how how do you think how do you think it’s going for him? Broaddin. Broaddin. Broaddin. Nine times. Nine times. So we got to look alike. What Who does he look like? I was sitting on the bird the other day and I saw Broaddin with his duster profile and I was like, “Dude, that is Principal Rooney from Ferris Beer’s Day Off.” His name is Jeffrey Jones. The actor’s Jeffrey Jones. I think he’s in Howard the Duck or something like that, too. So, that one that one I think I recalled. But yeah, Principal Rooney from Ferris Beer’s Day Off is Jonas Broaddin’s here right now. And now now you’ve told him that. So you think this thing’s coming down. This he’s cutting this thing off before November. I think it’s possible. That’s a tough I think that’s a tough kind of bit of information to tell. We got it going on on the flight, too. And um I showed him he had no clue who Ferris Beer. Not surprised. Not surprised. I know. I’m not surprised either. Or who Principal Rooney was. So you should carry this out with Jonas the rest of the season cuz he hasn’t watched the movie. So, you should be like, “Hey, do you want some gummy bears? They’ve been in my pocket all day and they’re kind of warm.” And he’s like, “Huh?” And then you could be like, “You know, life’s short, Jonas. You got to if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” And he’s like, “Huh? You just got to keep just hammering. Can I go for a ride in my dad’s car?” Yeah. Hey, I’m I’m donating money. I’m raising money to save Ferris. Huh? Carter’s acting so weird. And it’s just cuz he’s just he’s he’s Rooney. Yeah. I mean, that’s a gift to all you listeners. We had uh coach used to look like uh the guy from the office, right? This is a pretty special one with Jonas Prodin channeling principal Rooney. That’s our gift to you for the holiday season. Um goalending. I love the no rebound thing from uh from Walstead. Like I don’t know how long this is going to last. I don’t even like talking about it. I don’t want either of these guys to be a guest on the podcast until something changes and I feel like we’re not jinxing them. But um it’s been great. Uh the fist pump. Uh Gus is getting shut outs. Wallally’s getting shut outs. The wall of St. Paul. Um it’s a treat. I I just love that feeling. I really feel relaxed watching wild hockey games. Like when the puck does go there, it’s not really a great shot all the time. And I don’t Nobody’s looking behind themselves. I can’t remember the last twoonone or breakaway the Wild have given up. No, it’s all perimeter. Uh the guys are in the right spot. The defense is playing great. No rebounds, no rebounds, no scrambles, like a very few like extended zone time, like second chance, like where a team gets a change on the wild. Like that’s that’s not happening right now. Gusen and Walstead, uh maybe even more so than Gustoson like able to control the pace of the game by getting a whistle when the other team shoots. The other team’s grinding, grinding, grind, and finally get some open shot whistle, you know, change and uh that that’s going to play into the Wild’s hand more with Nico Sturm coming back, a faceoff guy, and if they can get Rossy and Hartman, you know, and start to win some of these draws like that. I mean, that’s that’s going to be amazing. But you’re right, the goalenders have just been good. And there’s just a confidence to Volstead right now. And I don’t know, I I do think that Gus is breathing some of that secondhand smoke because I think he’s getting some confidence from the young guy, too. Like, and iron sharpens iron, whatever you want to say. Like, Gus has gotten better watching Wall-E kind of just excel, right? And um but in the net, Vstead, he almost looks like he takes pride in covering the little mistakes that the teammates make. Like he gave one little tap to Spurgeon the other day where it was like I got you. Not like waiting for Spurge to be like good save. It was like I got you. Hey, did you like the He knows like there’s a difference. When he won his last game, uh I guess it was the Jet game. Um he did a little half pump after the game. He’s on the road, so I don’t think he was going to go out there like Katniss Everdine and and shoot an arrow at center ice, but you could tell he still wanted to do it. And he just he just did kind of a little a little half pump in like an abbreviated pump. Yeah, it would be like Pete Townsen doing like a half like a half circle on the guitar. It was weird to watch. U but I think on the road maybe. Yeah, we’re not going to It was like a start the lawn mower, but the lawnmower was like hot. It’s been running for an hour. So, it’s just like a tiny little pole kind of. He did a He did a half pump. It happened. It was right by the net before the, you know, tap the head. Um last thing, injuries. Uh we got Sturm back. We got Bogo back, but we’re still missing Rossy Hartman. Vinnie, doesn’t matter. Terara Senko, you’re just saying next man up. Let’s just roll. It hasn’t mattered. Let’s be in the blender. Your office is playing in the middle. Like he’s been a bright spot. He’s he’s been great. Yeah, he’s been great. He’s got six points in 18 games, but uh he’s didn’t play a lot of minutes in a lot of those games. So, this is a guy that uh and I don’t think his thing. He’s just accountable. Well, I think he’s a lot like Rossi. I think he’s a playmaker, right? You think? Yeah, that’s who he reminds me. I think he’s I think he is a guy that’s going to get He does a good job 40 60 points pretty quickly in his career. He does a good job finding like w quiet ice. Mhm. And with those guys that are playmakers and have great vision, they should be able to find him too. But the other thing he never is is above the puck. So like when he’s the center, it’s low and slow. Responsible. Yeah. He’s not cheating, you know? And I think that one that’s good. I mean, I I think like the way the guy carries himself and plays, you don’t we don’t realize that like this is game 819 in the NHL for him. Doesn’t he already look like he’s this is he’s a hockey player? He’s smart. He looks like he’s maybe more calm out there than like an Ogrren or like he’s he’s got two years of of North American hockey under his belt. Like he reminds me it reminds me of a coach’s kid. you know, when you see like the the guy that was the coach’s kid the whole way up, he just seems to have that mentality. Um, I think he’s he’s good. I think that that’s been a real bright spot. Yeah. And, uh, overlooked story like Rossi goes out, Yurov, slides in, and that line’s been just as good. You know, maybe the point production isn’t there, but I do think that that’s what we talked about earlier, which is kind of puck management more than it is like anything else. And you know, missing Hartman I thought was going to hurt a lot more than it has because um those other guys have have stepped up like not having two of your top three centermen should be devastating and it it’s not been no like amazing even against a team like Pittsburgh on the road against Pittsburgh matchup nightmare. Crosby Malcin good luck you can’t control this. I’ve got for sure I’m gonna have some version of your bottom two centers out there against one of those guys. Not an issue. Five nothing. Yeah. No, and I would say fans um you get this little treat after the holiday here. You got a 2:30 start, maybe some day drinking against the ABS on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, work off some of that turkey, get your steps, and then then you get a 7:00 against Buffalo on Saturday. So, why not make a little puck pilgrimage down to the GAC uh after after Thanksgiving? Let’s get to my favorite part of the show, trivia. Yeah. Uh well, for those of you that weren’t in the studio before, Kinger, he likes to sit in his chair, but today he was active almost like he was trying to get a couple of steps on the Fitbit. No, he was checking the lens capabilities or the zoom capabilities on his camera lens trying to see if he couldn’t get a shot of the producers’s paper and I did but I I can’t quite read it. I think the first question he’s going to say something like the word legend is written around something like a legend in the league. You got closer than I thought. King played his first something. Wow. Legend. I can’t. Oh, here’s some. Maybe I can read this. Sketchy. Oh. Uh. Oh. Okay. Here we go. I got something. I got something. No cheating. No cheating. All right. I got to think about this now. All right. Let’s go. Let’s play an honest game. All right. Uh, number one. Signed with the Wild at league minimum $300,000. So that tells us when the league minimum was that low. That’s a good clue. Played his final NHL games as a wild player. Was a legend of the Quebec Major Junior League. I feel like he was like CHL player of the year. this guy. Um, that wasn’t in your photo, was it? Let me think. Uh, Quebec Major Junior League minimum played his last games with the Wild. Uh, you going to guess? Yeah. Well, good. Stefan Vu. I got a shot here. Okay, I’m not gonna know the person. It’s gonna be so embarrassing. He revived and ended his career with the Minnesota Wild. Okay. H interesting. So he revived and ended his career. So he was struggling before he got here. Still would have gone to you there and then he finished his career here, but but he’s Okay, keep going. I don’t have to rush. I mean, he’s out. There’s no rush. King, is this chat is this were these chat GPT questions? Because chat GPT can be wrong. This one’s for you, Kinger. He once posed in a controversial fashion quote fashion magazine. So, he was in GQ. A little uh more controversial than GQ. So, he was in Playboy or Playgirl. Well, how many clues does he get? So, this guy must have been really good looking. Um, this guy was like a stud who revived. This is so bad. This is just bad podcast content. Like people listening, it’s good to hear you struggle though. It’s good. I mean, I I So, he’s got to be This doesn’t just give you the answer here. Is there another question? That’s great. Just give it to me. Another clue. He was drafted ahead of Chris Pronger. Oh my god. This guy was like a legend. Carts, do you know it yet? No. Ahead of Chris Pronger. Um, maybe I can get a half point if I if I buzz in after. We’re going to have to cut out some of this dead space. Man, there’s a lot of dead space, Kinger. All right. Five. I thought you were going to get play girl. Three, two, one, and Alexander Dag. Boom. Shoot. That is a tough one though. Like, you are not going to know that. You were never going to know. He was in He was in like what? What was the magazine? Play Girl. Play Playgirl. Yeah. I was thinking Sports Illustrated. The body issue, but I hate trivia so much. That was made for you, Kinger. No, man. I know. Like, like to me, what do they say? Uh, uh, BC A D. Like to my my real wild specialty is after Carrill AK, I I besides the the true beauties, the Clutterbucks and the Boogards and the Burns and the I I really got I’m very limited. I I would love to check and see. I think VU checks a few of those boxes. I don’t know the salary, you know. I think he probably was be after the minimum was 300, but I thought that that would be possible. You don’t need to rationalize it. Play girl. He was never in play girl. No, but that was I answered before that question. I just want to point out I knew I knew Back Major Junior. I don’t know if AU finished here. I’ll have to look that up. And Dag was out of the NHL and he came back and signed with the Wild. All right, let’s just wrap this up. That was awful. So, we got a great guest coming up now. Um, guy we’ve been waiting to see. He was banged up. Uh, Nico Sturm. Um, and this is a fun interview because watching you and him get nerdy on faceoffs and all the little details of the game. Uh, he is a faceoff specialist. I think if you’re a if you’re a hockey technician, you’re going to really enjoy watching the subtleties of Mr. Carter and Mr. stirring down the dot, but he gets into some stuff that’s intriguing to you, too. Beers and broths and stuff. Yeah, brought worse and cigarettes. Yeah, there’s something for everyone in this interview. And uh he was my waiter at the Wild Gala. And he’s a grinder. I mean, he was like a real waiter. A lot of the guys, he for sure had like the white towel over the arm and he would pour your wine and then wipe it off. He’s buttoned up. He’s over 20% tip. I mean, he did a great job. Like even my family was like, I like this German guy we had. He’s a hard worker, you know, and a lot of the other guys are just standing on the perimeter waiting for someone to come over with a Sharpie. Uh, true to form, fourth liner, third liner, whatever he is. He was grinding at the gala. So, yeah, enjoy this one. Um, awesome guest. Uh, welcome to Minnesota. Two-time cup winner, Nico Sturm. Drafted by the Wild in 19. All he’s been doing is winning Stanley Cups. He basically wins everywhere he goes. Brock Favor calls him Jack Daniels cuz he’s the old number seven on the wild. But now uh 78, the faceoff specialist, the legend Nico Sturm, welcome to the program. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Solid intro. Yeah. Yeah, that was a good one. Does Brock actually call him? No, I thought that’d be good though. Old number seven. Old number seven. Yeah, I didn’t say Duke Cannon. I should do that. This is sponsored by Duke Cannon. If you want your hair to be a weapon, if you want to smell good, if you want some cologne like the high schoolers, um, head into a Target, look for Duke Cannon, and earn your clean. Welcome to the program. How you settling in back in Minnesota? Oh, it was easy. We had the house already. We we we bought that about two years ago. Um, I’ve spent pretty much every offseason. If I wasn’t in Germany, I’ve always spent it here, skated here with my skating coach, um, my whole career. So, we bought the place two years ago and so it was kind of just drop in and be ready to go, which was kind of nice not having to look for an apartment or a new place for once. Also, only paying for one place is also Yeah, that’s that’s preferred. Yeah. Yeah. How do you want to do How do you want to do this? We got options. I got little boxes. We got rapid fire. We’ll get to rapid fire. But since we’re talking about living, I want to go back in time because you your first year here, you were living at your in-laws place, but they were like your billets because it wasn’t like you were living with your girlfriend because she was living in Boston. So you basically moved in with your with your girlfriend’s family. Yes, I did. So that was she So Taylor played in Boston. uh uh she played uh pro there and uh worked at a uh center for kids with autism. So she was out the whole year. Um and her parents were gracious enough to you know open their home for myself and uh her her younger her twin brother actually lived there at the time as well. So it was uh it was nice. You know I it’s your first full year pro hockey. Um, obviously you you’re trying to make it uh stay on the squad. There’s a lot of pressure you put you don’t really know. You’re not established in the league. So, I think just having the true family feel when you leave the rink and when you go home. I think that was huge for me. But you were not married. No, no, we’re not married. This is talk about They weren’t engaged either. Talk about betting on yourself. So, you go into the lion’s den. I mean, what I mean I mean are you keeping a clean room? Are you uh you leave and follow all the rules? Towels on the bathroom floor. Like how did you get through this? No, I was uh I kind of have my my own setup in the basement. Um like my own bathroom and everything, but uh No, I tried to I tried to air fresheners. Yeah, I was going to say bathroom’s a big one. I think I soiled myself once cuz I wouldn’t go at my in-laws house. I tried to It’s not better by the way. I tried to be part of the household for sure. you know, go grocery shopping every once in a while, cook, and um No, but the biggest part was just to not come home from the rink, your first year of pro, and just sit in an empty apartment. And I think that was that was massive for me. I think I think I don’t know cuz there’s I feel like there’s way more pressure living with your girlfriend’s parents on trying to be like the like the perfect human being versus trying to be a good player. I feel like Yeah. Did you do fake stuff? Were you like, “I’m going to be downstairs reading a non-fiction book and doing and doing one- arm push-ups.” Did you like have any like No, it was not. I didn’t like I wasn’t like out the whole year trying to impress those folks. It was just like I just I know I was myself. And it’s also like I I didn’t just uh meet them and were like, “Hey, like can I move in with you?” It wasn’t like that. Like I had known them for years and um it wasn’t even my idea. they just kind of they had they had the idea and and they they were gracious enough to to offer that to me and um yeah, it was it wasn’t even like awkward at all to be honest with you. And at the time I was like I was sure of you know where Taylor and I were headed together. So it was like not it was not awkward or anything. That’s great. Well, let’s go back in time a little bit because you have had some experience with before, right? Like you you played in Austin, right? How was that? Um, that’s very unique, let’s put it that way. Um, it’s, uh, it’s small town USA. Um, not much going on down there. Except for Hormeell. They got Hormell. That’s big. Martin Zeller. Yeah, you kind of always knew you’re back from a road trip when you you were smelling smell smell the spam as you drive into into the town. Um, but I loved it there. It’s uh it’s uh, you know, we had a really good year. Made it to the finals. Um, and uh, that was my first exposure to Minnesota. Um, and I’ve just always liked the bluecollar, familiar, very down to earth living in Minnesota. Well, your bio is amazing. So, you did the null like Chucky Slick. You’re also in Corpus, which as I understand it, that rings like right by a beach, right? That’s Texas Corpus Christie. That was kind of my first foray. Amazing setup. I think the junior hockey. It’s great. They because I think they used to be in um they used to have the the pro league with all the teams in the south like the little Oh yeah. Southern Professional Hockey League, whatever that used to be. Um and so the arena was set up for pro hockey. Um American Bank Center I think it was called. And so it was great like for me coming from uh some junior program in Germany where you play in front of you know your parents and 15 other people in some rink that open on two sides to go into that like that for me was like oh wow this is this is the big leagues and then you go USHL you win a Clark Cup with Tri City and then you do the college hockey ECAC best defensive forward twice. I mean, you’ve seen a lot of the American hockey levels. What um where did you grow the most as the player? Was it the null, the USHL, college? Where did you what what what did you get out of that experience in college? And what did you work on? When people always people from Germany are always asking me why college was so important or why that’s such an important time is because I think in Germany in particular we don’t have that league where people can grow from ages say 19 or 18 19 to 22 23. It’s like in Germany you turn you turn 20 and then you can’t play in the you know under 20 leagues anymore. And so then you’re either ready to play pro hockey and ready to play in the DL like the highest league or they’re going to ship you off into the second league or third league. And then a lot of times your career just kind of fizzles fizzles. And so I was not ready at all when I was 18 years old and I left home to play in in the in the highest league in Germany. Like not even close. So it was like for me that gave me another five years to play two or three years of juniors and then three years of college hockey and I probably in that time frame I probably gained I don’t know 15 20 pounds of muscle and just allowed me to to you know at the end of my junior year of college hockey I was at a point where I could truly say I I don’t think I can get better at this level anymore now I’m ready for pro hockey versus a lot of other times I feel you need to leave because you’re aging out or whatever and then you’re just kind of get tossed into the fire but you might not be ready for what’s next. So that’s how I always say it. So how did you end up in North America? Like cuz when Junior was what 18 years old he came. Yeah. I actually um my initial thought process of coming to America was because of school. Um I think when I was like 16 17 I I wanted to go to co I want to study here. I want to go to college here. I always, you know, you we see the movies, the college, the party movies and stuff and so I always thought like I like the vibe on the college campus and and I think just having that under your resume having studied in the US. So that was that was it for me and ideally I would have wanted to keep playing hockey so that I could maybe play pro hockey in Germany after that but I did not have the NHL or you know that level of hockey on the radar at all. And so, you know, I’m I I don’t even have an agent or anything at that point. So, I’m kind of doing my own research. And then I quickly find out, hold on, it’s not that easy even to play D3. A lot of times these coaches, they want you to play junior hockey first. So, my first concern now is to play junior hockey. Well, I don’t have any connections. I I don’t have anybody. So my my coach back then sets me up with my uh with my adviser Jay Luknowski, my family adviser, who’s a Michigan Tech alum. He works out in Germany and has players there. Um and so he starts looking for, you know, junior teams. And that takes him about a year, a year and a half to find the guys in Corpus that take me about halfway through the year. And then as I go along in my junior career, I, you know, the the goals start shifting and then I was maybe looking D3 first and then, you know, my my second year juniors in Austin was pretty good and I get offers from from from Western Michigan and Clarkson and so my goals start shifting and then once you’re D1 hockey player, it’s like your doors open out to become maybe a guy that could earn an NHL contract and then maybe at your end of your freshman year, you get your first training camp invite uh uh it was Winnipeg for me and then you know the first time you put on NHL practice jersey you’re like hey maybe I maybe there’s a chance maybe I could do this and then at the end of my sophomore year I had my first uh my first offers to sign wanted to come back though because I think I could still get better playing college hockey and then at the like I said the end of my junior year it was like hey I’m ready to sign an an NHL contract but initially it was all I want to get a good education and potent potentially keep playing hockey, but the NHL was definitely not on my radar. You won in college the best defensive forward award. Yeah. Is that something you were after or did it just come based on the way you play? Yeah, I think it it came naturally. I’ve always felt more comfortable, even as a forward to play a more defensive-minded type of hockey than an offensive mind of hockey. like if we’re doing a drill out there um you know like the the the NASCAR drill or something like that where you can pick even as a forward you can go on the D side or the offensive side I still my tendency is I feel a lot more comfortable uh without the puck than with the puck I just always felt comfortable skating backwards defending boxing out probably also has to do with you know I’m a big guy I’m a tall guy I’m strong uh but I can still move pretty fast on my feet and So, it just kind of came naturally. Um, and then, you know, that’s just how my game developed. And then obviously when you get to the point where it’s like, okay, how can I become an NHL player? Where can I carve out a role role for myself? Well, as a 24 year old unrestricted free agent out of college, you’re not they’re not going to put you on the power play when you come to your first camp, right? And put you in the top six. So, I had to figure out what what can I do in order to stick. So, how can I stick out in a third, fourth line role? Well, I need to be, you know, I need to come to camp in elite shape. I need to be a great skater first on for check, be big in a circle, kill penalties. That’ll give me ice time. That’ll force coach to put me out on the penalty kill at the end of games. And that’s how I carved out a role in my first year or two here in Minnesota. And that’s kind of when you ask I think coaches, managers, scouts or whatever about the player that I am, those are probably the attributes that come to mind. Yeah, that’s interesting too cuz um you you come from college where you’re you’re scoring and you’re relied upon for that, but it’s hard to accept a role and to be smart and to understand that won’t be my role, at least not day one. And it, you know, and it it takes some time to embrace that because we all we love playing hockey because we want to score goals like everybody does. I want to score goals. I want to be on highlight reel and with the game winner and having three points every night. But um I think that’s where a lot of guys that are kind of inbetweeners at the start of their career, AHL, NHL, maybe why they don’t make it is because it takes some putting your putting some of your pride aside and be like, “Okay, I’m not I’m maybe not going to be that guy, but I might have an NHL career in return if I start, you know, putting other parts of my game first.” And my time in the AHL, like there were ton of players that are better scorers, you know, have better hands, play a lot more power play minutes, but they just kind of end up being full-time AHL guys because whenever they did get called up or got called up to the AHL NHL, they weren’t willing, either able or willing to change their game. You know, maybe you’re not going to be that guy that on a threeon three, you drive the play, you dangle at the far blue line. Maybe you might have to put the puck behind the Dman and go for check. That might just be what you have to do. But um so I made the conscious decision that that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to put my best foot foot forward and try to excel at those things and become that player. Well, and that’s interesting too. So you play a couple years here and then you’re and this is the phrase they use kind of pigeon hole into that role now. And did did you feel you wanted to maybe spread your wings, see what you can do, and you like, well, now I gotta maybe see someplace else. No. Uh, it wasn’t even about someplace else. It was my whole time here, I was always in the fourth line role. Um, especially towards the end um, uh, under Dino like I didn’t get the chance I felt like to even try to become maybe more of a player. Now, it turns out that this is who I was going to be in my career. you know, I was going to be a fourth line center, but at the time at 27 years old, I was like, I think I’ve had two and a half, three years in the NHL. No, I think this is the time, if if any time, it’s now to try to become maybe a third, second line center to see if I can cross the blue with a puck. Exactly. To see if I maybe get some power play time and get some more minutes. So, I didn’t see the chance at the time here to get those minutes. And so that was the reason why um around the the Winter Classic at the time, we said to to Billy that we’re not going to sign that extension, the very fair extension that they offered me at the time. And um so naturally then your contracts up at Trade Line, you get chipped out. And then I had some some great times in in in San Jose those three years where I got more minutes. And uh you know like I said it turns out this is what I’m great at being a fourthline PK center big strong skating forward and so but I think at the time it’s fair to explore those options in your career. Totally. I wanted to ask you um so defensive forward you’ve played with uh Celabbrini you’ve played with McKinnon you’ve played with 97 here. Who are the guys in practice um as someone who likes to box out and who who’s just who are some of the players in the league that are just a handful where you go this guy, you know, if you’re picking names to go at in a drill, uh who’s at the bottom of the list in terms of uh difficult to cover? I think for me, Nathan McKinnon is the best player in the NHL. He’s the best hockey player in the world. the way he um and I’ve had the chance obviously to play with him for a little bit. Um first of all, the way he practices, he practices how he plays with that same intensity. Um and a lot a lot of times maybe he rubs some guys the wrong way. Um but he does it doesn’t matter if you go out for 20-minute optional skate or if it’s a fullon practice, he he practices this the same way every time. And um I think the like nobody the thing he does so well is when he comes obviously full speed down the ice then he cuts back and how he explodes out of those turns and you know a lot of times when you go up with up the ice as a forward with a puck and you cut back then you’re tired and a lot of times forwards will cut back and but then they’ll stand still. They’ll stand in that spot. They look up the ice look for kind of the the trailers to come in and Nate is so good at never standing still. Um, you know, and what it does is he guys respect him. Guys respect him so much that they’ll give him more room now. Yeah. Once they once he embarrasses somebody, they’re like, “I’ll give you a little more room.” Exactly. You don’t want to be the guy that gets like exposed. Like you saw McDavid the other night where he goes, “Uh, the rapper spin around.” Like you’re he’s breaking your ankles like you’re on the highlight tape the next day and so defenseman or guys that have to defend him automatically back off of him. And so that’s kind of what makes those guys so good. This celibbrini’s haunted us a little bit. Yeah, Max. I I got to see him in Chicago in the US for a bit. I mean, he’s pretty special. What did you What did you make a a He’s very young, but being in San Jose with him, what do you make of him? M is going to be a special player in this league. He already is. And the thing that’s that maybe people obviously the honest stuff kind of speaks for itself. the skill level, the speed that he has and and probably leading the league in points now with with one or two other guys. But the thing that impressed me the most about him is how mature he is at 19 or last year was 18. At 18 years old, um how competitive he is in practice. He’s not he’s not in his head. He’s not a kid. You can tell he wants responsibility and he wants it right now. He doesn’t want to wait three or four years until he’s got, you know, 250 300 games under his belt. He wants to, you know, he struggled in a faceoff circles his first year cuz you all of a sudden you go against massive guys in the league. Like it rattled him. He wanted to be better. He wanted to score. He wanted to be the guy that decides games. And that’s that’s so impressive because you got all this hype coming in into a franchise that, you know, we’ve struggled massively for three, four years. Um, so everybody thinks, “Oh, here comes the messiah and this guy’s 18 years old and he’s got the all the pressure on the world on his shoulders.” And he just kind of shrugged it off and played his game. And he was like, “You know what? Yeah, there’s a lot of pressure, but I want that pressure.” You know, he didn’t try to deflect it or be like, “Ah, you know what? I’m going to, you know, kind of be in the back and be quiet and let the other guys do and I’m just doing my time here till I get, you know, some responsibility. you know, he wants to he wants the lights and and and and he’s going to be incredible. Like, uh, great. I can’t even imagine how he’s going to be awesome when Yeah. when he has another like 300 games under his belt. I can’t imagine. Yeah. Should we warm them up and, uh, cuz we can figure out which way to go off that. We’re going to do a little thing called rapid fire. Um, I think uh, alumni uh, Backrom, the goalie, took about 45 minutes to do this. So, the goal is to be fast. Um, and and you can pass and just be like, “Nope.” And we’re going to kind of You got to have a head on a swivel because we’re going to go back and forth. All right. Nickname Ster. Who do you text the most? Not Taylor. Um, my best friend, buddy. Buddy from Germany, Simon. What do you listen to in the car? Uh, podcast. It’s your birthday. Where are you going to dinner? Um, um, let’s go like a nice steak host. Favorite social follow? What do you mean? Like who do you follow that you like? Who I follow? Um, let’s go. Um, let’s go with my favorite soccer team, Bayern Munich. You can have a green light in any NHL city. Get to rip it up. Where are you going? Um, Vegas. Yep. Uh, pet peeve. pet peeve uh is something about your in-laws. Oh, I something about my fiance. She doesn’t know how to load the dishwasher. Oh, it’s terrible. Oh, that’s terrible. Hockey jersey as a kid. Um, it was all local as a kid. Like my hometown team. We didn’t have it was there was no streaming phones in the day. It was tough to watch the NHL. Uh, how about your first job? Um, I worked in a hockey shop. Yeah. It was like, uh, do you guys remember T-blade? Yeah. Yeah. The Seidenberg used to have the the Yeah. And so they had like the circles. Yeah. People would bring their skates in, like the nicest skates, and I would take the holders off and mount the tea blades on. Oh, those are awful. They sounded different, too. Yeah. I don’t even know if that’s still a thing. It’s not. Pregame meal. Um, sweet potato, salmon, uh, side salad. Nice. Uh, he has abs, by the way. Yeah. Any weird food combos? You know, ketchup on your eggs, ketchup on your spaghetti, like yogurt with avocado. Oh, Jesus. That counts. That is tough. That is a rugged ride. Uh, go-to drink at the bar. I got to think I know what this is. Vodka soda. Really? Not beer? No. The big German style? Uh, no. No. I got kind of got away from the from the beers, especially here in the US. It’s if I do drink beer, it would be back home in Germany. But no, it’s a vodka soda. I got to talk about that after this. What’s the best German beer? Like if I was going to Well, this is what we got. This is would be a big point of debate in All right. Well, lay it out there. Let’s get some views. Well, we going to finish rapid fire. Sorry. Go ahead. You’re back. Are we rapid firing or we All right. I’m I’m getting distracted. Yeah. Uh Netflix, are you on the in-laws account or do you guys have your own now? I have my own account. Congratulations. Perfect weekend. What are you doing? Um, perfect weekend would be um, Saturday early morning, get a workout in. Um, sun is out. Sun has to be out for a perfect weekend. Sorry Minnesota, but it can’t be like a snowy wintry kind of weekend. So, sun’s got to be out. Maybe take the boat out. Um, that would be nice. Yeah. First concert. Um, first concert was Jason Elden. Nice. Hidden talent. Yeah, that was in that was in uh Iowa, I think. Yeah. Hidden talent. Oh, my hidden talent. Um, pass. All right. All right. I’m good. All right. I got one more. What is the last thing you binged, watched, movie, show? Crushing some Netflix. Um, Game of Thrones. It’s a good one. We’re always guilty of telling the guests like rapid fire go fast and then he says something interesting and then we’re like hey so about that and then we slow it down. Um but I do want to get back to this cuz I played in a world championships in Cologne and we stopped at a couple different cities. Uh but each city had its own beer. So it’s it’s not like Budweiser was German’s beer Germany’s beer. It’s you’d have like the kulch of that town. We I I don’t think I’ve ever had a kulch in my whole life cuz that’s where they would drink in cologne. Like that’s where they I don’t Maybe you can buy it somewhere. I wouldn’t know. But like where I’m from in Bavaria, we would not drink that. It’s just I I don’t know what it tastes like if it’s And that would just be like a local brew from Cologne. Yeah. So where you’re from, they just have their own local brewery and it’s just the beer from there. Bavaria and in particular, we have hundreds of good beer brands. Like if you had a frozen mug and you just have to pour one, you’re back home in Germany. You got your leader hosing on. What are you They do frozen mugs. It’s like room temperature, right? Frozen mugs. But um you’re so cultured, Stanley. just have a um a thing. What kind of beer is it? Is that like a logger? Uh I I don’t know like the kinds of beer. Yeah, it would be Yeah, it would just be like a logger. We have So, also what a lot of people like, but people kind of people in Bavaria in particular would consider this kind of a a sin uh is that we would take a a light beer. Um you go half light beer, half lemonade and we call that a which would kind of be a summer chandandy. Yeah. But people don’t like that. Like a lot of purists don’t like it. A lot of Yeah. purist like traditionalist you go to beer tent and you want that. It’s like Yeah. Yeah. That’s not good. That’s like asking for my peach selzer. But it’s like if I if I were to go to the beer garden with say my fianceé, she’s not going to slug back a liter of like just I don’t know. Yeah. Molasses, whatever. She So she’ll have a summer chandandy. What makes you a bigger rock star in Germany? Being a Stanley Cup champion or winning a medal at the World Championships? Oh, winning a medal at the World Championship. Really? Isn’t that what Gabri said, too? Yeah, that’s uh uh it’s also hockey is still fairly niche. I think our biggest star with Leon, if you were to ask a 100 random people on the street and you showed them a picture of Dry Cidle, I’m going to go ahead and say that not even 25% of people would know who he is. Really? Yeah. Wow. And he’s our biggest guy. Oh, yeah. Everybody in North America that follows hockey for sure would know him. But yeah, he’s everybody in hockey, like any hockey fan would obviously know who Leon is, but it’s like hockey is just still so so niche that it’s like people don’t really know us. I don’t The only time I get recognized is in my hometown when I go out. So you won silver at Worlds. Was Leon on that team with you? No, he was in playoffs that year. Okay. And then uh so this year winter games, Germany’s in the hockey. Yeah. And that would be something you’ll be doing potentially. Yep. Uh hopefully obviously get healthier in the next few weeks, get uh get in a rhythm, start playing. The women are also qualified for us, which is great. That’s great. Um so I want to talk about hockey in Germany a little bit. So it’s not it’s not huge. Like soccer is a big sport. Soccer is massive. Dominates everything from uh money to media. Um, hockey usually gets a big push around world championships, Olympics, that kind of stuff. We have worlds in Germany 2027. So, you usually what you’ll see is big media push right before and during the tournament and then also a lot of in big influx of children into the sport right around that time or right after. But then it just kind of fizzles down and it’s just uh yeah, we just don’t have uh soccer is just like TV stations would rather show a a third league soccer game than a a league from the German hockey league. So it is what it is. So it real quick I played world uh in Germany the world championships there. Um and we played in a out indoor game huge indoor game like 70 something thousand people. 70,000. Yeah. US verse Germany. Shiky, I remember that game. And it was awesome. Yeah. But the the number one memory I have of it was that I took my jersey off after and you could smell like the smoke. So they could still like smoke inside the buildings and it was a little bit different, but it and it was like you look up it was like smoky like old school kind of. And this is like 2000. some of my favorite memories or it’s just when I get that it sounds kind of weird but when I get that smell of like cigarettes and broughtwurst it automatically takes me back to my you know days as a kid where I would be in the stands watching games and there’ just be like three guys in front of you just cigarettes and behind everybody would smoke but it just be like at the time and that’s how it was even we had a a rink restaurant upstairs. And I remember, you know, us kids, we’d after practice, we’d go in, we’d eat our our dinner, and people would next to you, they’d be smoking. It just be completely I got to thank thank you for giving us our first social clip from the episode because that’s just amazing. It was also awesome. Cigarettes and broughtworth of your biography. An awesome environment because the 70,000 it was like a soccer game. Yeah. Like I got I actually felt like I was like a soccer player because they cheered like songs and chants, they were dancing. Did you win? No, we lost 2-1 in overtime. Oh my god. They must have gone nuts. Oh yeah. And it was great. You’re almost like, you know, they gave us a lot of We need it more than we do on this. A lot of a lot of people will German hockey fans when they ask you about favorite hockey members, team German, they will probably a lot of them will mention that game for sure. Oh, that’s awesome. It was awesome. Uh can we go faceoffs for a minute? Okay. Because uh I love your phrase big in the circle. That’s so I I I You’re good at faceoffs and we’re excited to have you back in the lineup because we need some help. But I just want to know so much more about this cuz to me it’s like rock paper scissors. I have no idea how you win a faceoff. I think someone needs to invent like a tush push like in football or like there’s got to be a way to hack this. Get NASA involved. Like how do you do this? Do you watch iPad? Are you watching like 50 the most 50 recent faceoffs by this player in every zone and you’re I just don’t get it. How How are How do you become good at this? Funny. I actually want to ask you Carts like were people when you played like when you think you started playing in the league were was were faceoffs like did you guys was that big like a big point emphasis? Yeah, for sure. Cuz I feel like when I watch clips like older clips guys would just kind of line up very casually. You know what I mean? Like I watch clips from like I don’t know not like say go even way back like say you go like 90s or even early 2000s like guys would like line up very casually and now it’s like now it’s like this big procedure you know the one guy comes in puts a stick down and the other guy comes in puts a stick down and the ref talks to the guys for like three minutes. They always kick someone out kick someone out every time. I just feel like back in the day it just be like ref would be like here’s the puck we’ll drop and the guys would just be like all right let’s go. I think it it it became a big deal and it was before analytics, but the elite hockey minds, if we can call on that, I think started to realize that like it takes you 15 seconds to get the puck back if your shift is 45 seconds and threeon-ree overtime. I mean, you lose the first draw, you may not get the puck back. I mean, and faceoffs mattered. Like I I actually hear coaches and people like Colorado actually the year that you guys won it, I think, were like 28th in the league in faceoffs. So people use that argument and say like faceoffs don’t matter but but they do you know that’s like three and three is a great example or you got a killer other team pulls a goalie at the end of the game you were five on six so you got I don’t know 7 seconds left on the clock it’s like yeah I’d rather you know win the draw than not win it and give the other team a chance to to tie the game or win the game. No, for me it’s just Are you technical or are you instinctive? Like are you watching like a pitcher, you know, like a hitter against a pitcher or how do you how do you prepare? Uh both. There certainly is an element of preparation uh in terms of watching video. The other guys um especially guys that you maybe struggle against a little bit. I also like to watch the guys that are just really good. They have good numbers like Tavaris um is always up there in the league. Like I love watching him. A lot of guys now for example started going to the forehand like I like Crosby like what Crosby does terras does nobody did this like four or five years ago there was like Crosby was the only one and now on their weak side almost everybody’s going to their forehand this is a completely new thing couple guys turn their stick around on I don’t like that at all because you don’t have any leverage um and then you got to sweep your swap your stick around if you do lose the draw you have your stick the wrong way around you can’t box out you can’t to anything. So, I’m not a big fan of that. Troche does it a little bit. Couple guys, but it’s not as prevalent, I feel. And um uh in you should still be an instinctive player. I feel like sometimes I start when I start to do too much video, too much overthinking about the other guy. Yeah. Then I’m slow. Then I’m slow to the reaction and then I start losing draws. So, um and I also like the general way for me to win draws is with my strength and my size. being over the dot and just being a bulldog. Being a bulldog. Yeah. They just gain the early competitive advantage. Like even if you can be second on the dot, you’re like, I kind of want to be first and get my head in a spot that’s uncomfortable. And there’s some guys uh where I go into the circle and I know that I’m winning this draw. But then there’s other guys that maybe I have a tougher time against. They maybe beat me a lot of times. And then I start maybe looking more at their stuff and what they do and how I can counteract that a little bit. And the other thing is just reps in practice. You can you can do a lot of things that people maybe don’t realize. Um just get get reps in. You can do I like the where I turn my stick around and I just use the knob of my stick for timing. I like where I have two pucks drop like one from each side and I go bang bang real quick. There’s there’s a lot of things you can do. So what’s your favorite strong side against a weak like a you know what I I like just going on my strong side and then against a righty on your strong side. Oh, you like backhand on backhand then? I like backhand on backhand. And then what do you do? Go over the top or you go underneath it? It depends on the player really. It’s uh because a lot some guys are very upright and then for example Heartsy is a righty but he gets really really low on the draw. So it’s tougher to go to go under. Um and that’s just I feel like that’s just experience. you’ll know what works against based on what you see when you line up against the guy. And that’s what I mean like we talked about Mac earlier celebrating it’s like in your first year in the NHL it’s hard because you don’t know now the centers in the league unless it’s a new center I know this guy like I’ve taken probably 50 draws against this guy so I can tell kind of the tendencies that he has. But what’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen in the circle? Whether it’s somebody saying something to you, somebody doing something. Here’s what I’ve never understood, and the league might have to explain this to me. You know how the league has been very tight penalty-wise on having your stick in somebody’s hands, right? Like now a guy shoots a stick handles and you tap him in the gloves. It’s an automatic two-minute penalty. I do not understand how tying up is allowed because the guy goes, the puck drops and he goes straight with your stick to the other guy’s hands. Yeah. And then you kick the puck back. Is this the European in you? Because that’s a rule that they don’t allow in international. Yeah, they do not allow it in. They don’t allow it. International hockey, you’ll get a penalty if you you can’t win a draw with your feet. It should not be allowed. It makes no sense to have a rule where you have two minute penalty for they call it even if you just tap a guy now on the gloves. It’s like and if they kind of fumble the puck, it’s like oh arm goes out. Oh, and they’re going to fumble the puck if you touch their gloves. So now it’s like I don’t that’s a gray area too though cuz there’s a lot there’s a lot of like that that goes on in a corner like against the wall and stuff too but suppose but then it’s also like sometimes the linesman will then blow blow back to faceoffs and if I see a guy that’s tying me up every day like Max Storm is like tying me up every time I’m telling the linesman I’m like this guy’s not even trying to win the drawback he’s straight up going into my hands so please blow it down and then he’ll do it But um I don’t that’s kind of a rule that I don’t understand. So I could you want to I got a couple more on this. Okay. You have any dirty tricks? Like for example, there used to be guys that I think they would do it on purpose and then I started like I wouldn’t I’d have to get a pad that extended on my elbow pad. So you if you’re losing your draws to a guy, you might purposely miss his stick on a tie up real hard and you could hit like the outside of his wrist right on his bone. I like this. And then you get like a monkey bump on your bone out here. It’s not great. It it and then the rest of the game you’re like if he goes back you’re scared to go back because the guy’s going straight instead of tying it up between your glove and your stick here. Purposely hit your forearm. Purposely go above your glove. Give him a little calcium deposit. But then you just have to get a pad. Like that’s what I had to do. Get a pad go there. The other thing is like some guys just have way more leash with linesmen than others. Like Crosby obviously he is who he is and then he likes going to his forehand but he’s not squared up. No his foreand he’s like he’s brutal. He’s like facing the wall and he slaps it. JT Miller kind of does it too and then other guys that maybe the guy linesman doesn’t know you it’s your first second year in the league. He’ll tell you you have to have your skates exactly on the lines. It’s like come on. I love it. I wish they would call the penalty more too or if the second guy gets kicked out cuz Yeah. See that’s another thing. Why did they even I have never seen that penalty being called. I don’t know if you have, but so what’s the point? I don’t think I’ve seen it. What’s the point of which penalty? So if you get kicked out of a draw, like let’s say Dzone draw ice, you get kicked out, which happens every time it’s Yes. If the next guy gets kicked out, penalty, but the next guy can like jump it and they’ll just restart the draw. They’ll be like restart it, but they should boot them and it should be a penalty. Let’s say we ice the puck and we know we’ve been out there for a while. I need some extra rest. I will purposely not go into the circle to give me another extra 10 seconds. So the guys extra 10 seconds. Then the arm goes up because it’s a warning, right? I have to go into the circle and then the second time around I’ve never changed the way I approach the like I’ve never gotten a second warning. It’s just I’ve done this before where I send my winger in on purpose. I’ve done that. So you like just whatever you do just get kicked out. People buy us 10 or 15 seconds and then I might be able to cheat on the next round. We’re still not going to get a penalty. Is there any chatter? Like any like uh like anything good like get in someone’s head before a draw? No. Guys get frustrated though. You can tell when you have a guy’s number and they start changing the way they normally do things. You can tell. And uh I love how nerdy this is. It’s so good. This is good. There’s there’s one more thing I want to talk about that I was proud of. Do you know the guys that that sneak their their foot in forward so that when you go down on it, you hit their skate and it’s on the outside of their edge? It’s another thing that this could be its own podcast. That’s what I mean. It’s like the the rules are very I think they should change the rules to where the face off is a stick battle. Yeah. And that way it’s pretty clear you can’t tie up and win with your feet or anything. Your feet shouldn’t be able to come forward into the dot and block the other guy’s stick like you just said. I don’t know what I started doing on that one. Try it sometime, is push the laces out. Like if you know this guy does this and he’s setting up for it, just set your stick up to push the laces out on his other foot and he just falls flat on his face. Yeah. You fall right down. You’re like, you could try that move. This what you’re going to get. Heartsy can show you how to take someone’s front rack out, too, if you need it. Um I uh a couple things. Um I got to I mean, so you you’re in Minnesota this podcast. We’re here till it’s here. All we want as motans. I mean, you’ve been staying with your in-laws. We’ve had a lot of frustration as sports fans in Minnesota. Yeah. You get to go win two cups. My god. So, now you got to make a deal. You got to get us a cup here, too. I mean, you’ve had a couple days with the cup. You’ve What was it like? What were those cultures like in Colorado and last year in Florida? You know, the 16Ws, right? grinding through that playoffs two months long. What kind of ingredients did you see in the room that got those two teams you were a part of all the way to the promised land? Um, I think both teams, Colorado and Florida, were comparable in a sense that everything was dialed in from the guys on the ice, obviously the lineup to coaching to the Zamboni guy to the guy making the shakes after the practice. There was no room for, you know, I don’t know what we’re going to do on the road trip here after the game, you know, that kind of stuff. No, no, like everything was down to a tea. Like for example, Florida in playoffs, let’s say we play um and then we wouldn’t fly back that same night. No, we’d stay in the city overnight, get a great night’s sleep because we otherwise you’d come back at 1 2 3:00 a.m. get the bad night of sleep and then the next day is kind of gone. So, we stay the night in the other city, get a great night of sleep, find a spa to go to in the morning. We’d have a sauna, cold tub, right as we get on the bus, like lunch is there, shakes are there, like everything is provided. We go straight to the airplane. But that’s like in playoffs, everything is every meal, every everything is dialed in. So, that’s one thing. The other team is the team itself. You need special players. You need special players like uh obviously Mar McKinnon in Colorado or Marie, you know, Sasha in Florida that can when things don’t go your way and they at some point won’t in playoffs can win you a game um kind of on their own, they just kind of grab change momentum change momentum and win the game. Um you need you need good goalending. You need goalending to win your game that you deserve to lose in the playoffs. Um kind of that’s a thing. Um special teams big. Um penalty kill power play obviously they need to be momentum changers as well. You can’t you can’t have a penalty kill where you have you take five six penalties and you give up three goals in playoffs. Like you you won’t win any games. Um and then um leadership, it’s just guys that have that drive, that desire to win, which was really evident for me with McKinnon and in Colorado and Landersog as the leadership group there in Florida, Sasha, Reinhardt, uh Chucky, the guys bring everything into the fold. Everybody into the fold and everybody has a role. And the other thing too is depth on the team because in both cases in Colorado and in Florida, we had situations where guys would go down with some sort of injury and there’s no panic in the room. Oh, this guy’s out now. Like who’s going to play for him? Oh, this guy everything’s flip-flopping around. No, like we knew exactly next guy’s up. Like in Florida when I didn’t play in the finals, it’d be like we had three great players that weren’t playing in the finals that could like Samos Scavage wasn’t playing. I wasn’t playing. Bokequist wasn’t playing like three established NHL players that could easily come into any lineup and play the game and you need that in playoffs because guys are going to get hurt or suspended or whatnot. So those are some of the ingredients that I can observe. How was Marsh last year? Great. I mean it’s cuz he seemed like a guy that probably sparked the desire to win too a little bit. How was he good in the playoffs? He looked hungry. Yeah. And it was like when he first came to Florida obviously he had an injury before um people were saying he kind of looks slow yeah he’s lost lost it or whatever and we also in general with Florida right before playoff started were kind of in a slump you know we were also resting players and stuff but we weren’t looking great and a lot of people were saying oh like Tampa’s going to Tampa’s going to beat us in the first round and the second the puck dropped the first game in Tampa as well light light switched with like those guys and Marshy it’s like this mode of competitiveness That’s hard to sustain over an 82 game season. And you know this, it’s hard to play the same way on a Tuesday night in February. Then yeah, you can’t fake the one. You can’t fake the It’s You know what? That’s the way I look at it. Like it’s so hard to fake like And you do want to win that game. Yeah, you do. Yeah. But it’s hard. It’s not like from the bottom of your soul. You don’t want You don’t You don’t get up the same way that day from a morning skate and everything knowing what’s on the line at 7 o’clock. So that’s just the difference. And those guys are so good at knowing when to turn it on, flipping the switch, when to turn it off. Marshy looked like he was shot out of a cannon. Looked like he was 26 years old. I saw a photo uh I think of the Florida series where you had some people on the ice with you after. I don’t know if that was the case in Colorado or not, but how was it immediately after? Like, and did you get to share it with uh some people close to you? That’s the best part for me. I always say it’s to have people there and and they’re they’re so they’re more excited than you are really and they’ve supported you your whole life and um you know in for example in the case of like my my fiance like she’s she’s probably stopped playing hockey and you know uh because of me moving around and stuff and her wanting to be with me and Um it’s just your family. I think about coming over to play junior hockey like there was no guarantee where this will would lead to, right? It was just like I came over, they put their money which junior hockey it cost money to play and you know at the NHL level even it’s like I did not have a guarantee for a scholarship or anything like that. No, they put their trust and their money into into my path. And so it feels like you can reward them a little bit with with with some of those moments and that’s that’s the best part. So when now how did this go at home? Because it it’s my understanding did Taylor win an Isabel Cup? Yeah. So she has the first trophy and you say hold my Stein and you go out and win too. She also won. You’ve had that loaded the whole She also also had a way better hold my collegiate career than me. She she won two national championships with Clarkson women’s hockey. So, um she beat the golfers, as a matter of fact. Yeah. So, they were they always had really good teams at school and so um she definitely um she was kind of one uping me my whole my whole career. Yeah. Oh, that’s so winning seems to follow you. The party in Colorado was good. How was the party in Florida? And um which one was better so that when you win a third cup here, Minnesota knows how to one up them? Well, I think here it just be so special because this state is hockey. Like everybody plays hockey, kids play hockey or have played hockey at some point. So I can only imagine the amount of people that would come out to a parade here. There would be no elbow room. Yeah. No. In Colorado, we had I think they said 400,000 people on the parade. Um, and it was downtown, so it was very like it was just people everywhere. So, Florida was just different. Uh, because the setting was just so unique, like right by the beach, it’s June, sun’s burning down, golf carts, golf carts, elbow room. It’s it’s very unique. Um, it’s hard to say better or worse. Um, they’re just different. Well, the best one will be in Minnesota. I actually think I got So, pontoon party, I believe you’re the first player we’ve ever had on that that is a collector of of sports cards, which I’m excited. Now, are you like So, are you deep into the hobby? Like, you you slab up your cards, you get them graded, you u you collect hockey? Yeah, I right now I only collect hockey and I collect uh mostly guys that I played against or played with, but also some some older guys, older cards. Um, and I just sent off like a batch of around 40 45 cards to to Becket to get graded. And it’s not so much about the value of them or what grade they get or what they’re worth. I just want them to be, you know, encapsulated. And and what I do is I get uh I get the young guns or the the future watches, so the rookie cards and then after the games or I give it to the equipment guy and they get it signed from the other team. So um I I just thought a lot of guys collect sticks, you know, I didn’t want maybe to have I don’t know 75 or 100 sticks at the end of my career and then tough to display too. Exactly. So it was kind of like well what could I do? So it’s just sports cards I thought always were cool. Um, and then I so I just get the rookie card signed and then um Well, we got a What do you think of this card here? Um, that we’re showing him for the listeners. This is a young gun. Um, that’s a that’s an exclusive, I believe. Not everybody gets a young gun. A Ryan Carter. What’s the year on that? I’d have to That is a exclusive, too. 31 out of 100. Yeah, that’s number 31. I can tell you left corner, right corner, a little bit dinged. So, you’re going to get dinged on the corners here. Oh, yeah. The back. What number was that? 52. Is that what it says on there? Uh, what his jersey number? You got a try out number? Yeah, exactly. 52. And now, what do what do you make of this? 1992. Uh, that’s a Bill Garren to 10. I believe that’s probably the only one graded besides a gem in 10, right? And then we got Carrill. We’ll have to show you that one. See that? So, what’s a Bill Garren 10 rated card worth? I don’t know. I got it on eBay. I don’t know. 30 bucks, 40 bucks. Kill right now. Gem and 10. And I would say it’s about 200 bucks, I think. Um, usually what happens is when those cards first come out, there’s a massive demand for like I think max CBrini’s card right now is like 500 600. Yeah, maybe more. Maybe more. Obviously depends on what grade they’re in. Um, feel like this card’s Madano. That’s a Madonna rookie. Just got Madan’s rookie card. Yeah. And there’s the other number seven, too. But yeah. So you do you where do you get your cards then? you buying them online or I uh have a couple of shops on road on road cities that I go to. That’s outstanding. Where I then usually go visit those shops um but mostly eBay um and then I either get them where they’re already graded and I crack the case um and get it signed and get it recased or I just buy it raw. If I see it’s in a decent condition, I’ll buy it raw. Well, we were in Billy’s basement, Billy Garin. And I will tell you, I think it’s great you’re doing this because this guy saved all of his helmets. Yeah. He saved all of his jerseys. He saves little uh firet trucks from a convenience store in Jersey or something. It It is awesome. Yeah. When you’re done to have that, I mean, it’s pretty cool. So, good on you. Just a hobby, you know, too. It’s like Yeah. Away from the rank. You got anything else, Carts? I don’t, man. It was fun. Yeah. Appreciate it. Yeah. Good chatting. Yeah, the body feels good. We should touch on this cuz Yes, I think um right now skating with Andy. I would wager next week start practices with the boys. Um I would assume I’m going on the road trip, maybe play at the end of road trip, but surely at the end of the month should be should be playing well. Excited to see you out there. Appreciate you taking some time with us. Um absolutely and best of luck. Yeah, thank you. Welcome back.

The holiday season has finally arrived, and if you haven’t started thawing out your thanksgiving turkey, I’d get on that or you won’t be ready for dinner! Carts is a bit punch drunk on this pod, after a long day of travel and getting stuck on the runway in Winnipeg last night, but still delivered the pod in professional fashion. Kinger, knowing that Carter was sleep deprived, and assuming a possibly weakened condition, approached the age old “what’s the best holiday?” topic with full confidence. We’ll let you decide. The Minnesota Wild are certainly thawed out, and one might argue, HOT! King’s whiskers are coming in thick, Fabes is bringing joy, Boldy is bringing leadership, and Kirill continues to bring points, but one familiar face is also back after injury…Nico Sturm. The German joins the pod this week and has a lot to say! Whether it’s understanding your role, or what you can learn from playing with and against some of the biggest names in the league, Nico’s wisdom is evident. This is a guy that knows how to play the game, because he’s studied it, and practiced it, and then executes when it matters. So get those brats boiling, grab a beer, and settle in for an amazing show featuring your newest favorite German. Prost!