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Rinkside Chirps - MN Hockey Update - 1/6/2024 · Banter with the Boys

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You're listening to banter with the boys talking all things sports from betting and brawls,
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Super Bowl to Stanley Cup finals.
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Get laced up.
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It's time for banter with the boys.
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Hey everybody, welcome back to this episode of banter with the boys ringside chirps.
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I'm your host Kevin and as always, got my main man Smelty over there buddy.
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How are ya?
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I'm doing well, just another wild pod here.
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Haven't talked to wild for a couple weeks.
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Been a few weeks.
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Rightfully so to be honest.
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Not a whole lot to talk about, not a lot of excitement for us.
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Not a whole lot going on and we'll definitely get into some of the meat and potatoes and
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what's been happening with the boys in the green there.
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But as always thank you guys for listening.
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Smelty thanks for being here buddy.
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Just a little disclaimer here everybody.
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This episode was recorded quite a bit ago.
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It's been about a week or so since we've been able to get this thing produced and
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uploaded so some of the information in today's episode is a little outdated.
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However, we're still super excited to talk about the wild and hope you guys enjoy the
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content of today's episode.
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So last time we released an episode was on December 17th.
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Since then the wild have gone 2 and 5.
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They played 7 games.
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Obviously the holiday break kicked in in between that.
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Played 7 games.
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They've went 2 and 5.
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Currently right now on a 4 game losing streak.
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With that overall record for the wild 16, 17, and 4.
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36 points on the season with 5 points being out of the second wild card spot.
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Smelty just give us an overall what are you seeing right now?
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What's going on?
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Maybe you can bring us into some of what our topics are here today.
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What's going on buddy?
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I mean we just need to be honest with ourselves.
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I mean obviously we weren't, we're not really a contender.
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Like truly, truly.
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I mean our soul might say that the wild are always contenders but we're just not.
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And I mean we saw that at the beginning of the season.
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We kind of knew that.
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However, with the team we have fairly confident that we could at least make the playoffs and
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continue being known as maybe a perennial playoff team.
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But I mean teams know, they're used to first round exits from us.
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Which sucks, let's just be honest.
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Which sucks.
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So where we're at right now honestly doesn't surprise me.
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But I mean the biggest factor in that 4 game losing streak is we're losing everybody.
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They're just dropping like flies.
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Every game there's something new.
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Yup, yeah absolutely.
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So right now the injury report for the wild is unbeaten by anybody in the league.
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For one thing that the wild are doing great at is getting hurt this season it sounds like.
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So walk us through a little bit of who's on the IR, what IR means for the majority of
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the players and kind of walk us through what's up with each player.
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And we almost lost another player last night in the first period as well.
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Hartman almost went out.
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He came back 12 minutes later and it was alright which is good.
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But we don't need anybody else to go down.
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So walk us through who's down currently and kind of what their statuses are.
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Obviously this may change by the time this episode is released.
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But as of right now, January 5th, this is where we are.
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Yeah, yeah for sure.
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And actually there's 5 teams with 7 players out right now.
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That's more than I thought.
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We're one of those 5.
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That's crazy.
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I thought the wild led to be honest.
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But I mean hockey bro.
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It's a tough sport.
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It's hard to stay healthy for all 82 games.
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82 of them things.
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You just gotta stay healthy man.
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So yeah let's get into it here.
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I think first what I'll actually do is cover the injuries and then I'll kind of circle
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back and kind of explain to you guys how IR works for the NHL if you don't know already.
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So right now obviously we got Foligno.
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He's more day to day at the moment.
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You know today is Friday.
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There's a good chance he could play this weekend actually.
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So we'll just see.
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So definitely the real definition of day to day so it would be good to at least get one
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big body back in the lineup.
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Moose is one of your assistant captains right?
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So it would be great to have him back in the lineup.
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Help him with leadership presence.
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Help him with a big body.
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Keep us you know a little more aggressive.
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And with that having him back in the lineup you're still without your captain Spurgeon
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who has now re-aggravated that lower body injury from early on in the season.
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Yeah it prevented him from starting the season on time.
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So he's out until at least the 10th of January so he's more of that week to week situation.
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So hopefully you know technically a lot of these guys we're going to talk about are quoted
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out indefinitely right?
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There's no exact timetable for them and when you re-aggravate an injury who knows?
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So I know there's talk that Spurgeon is you know undersized and not a leader and all that
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jazz.
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But he's still a good quality player that you need on the ice for you to make a run
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at that wild card spot.
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He's just a solid overall defenseman.
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He's going to be in the right place at the right time when you need him.
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Go down I think one of the last games he had he went down for a dive.
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Swung his stick one way.
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Missed the puck.
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Swung his stick the other way.
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Made the block on the shot and then got right back up and kept going.
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That's the kind of player you need especially down the stretch 100%.
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So hopefully he comes back sooner than later.
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So Spurgeon on the IR.
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Brodean also on the IR however he did skate yesterday.
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This is January 5th we're talking today.
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But he did skate yesterday for the first time since injuring his upper body.
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So I mean that's a good outlook for somebody who is also listed technically as out indefinitely.
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So we could get Brodean back next week maybe.
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I don't know.
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That'd be great.
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I mean he's still injured from the VanderKane kind of check that we talked about last episode
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right?
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He just hasn't been quite right since then for sure.
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Which is a bummer.
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But like you said hockey big boys game.
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But another defenseman.
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You know that's two of your top four defensemen easily and you have no timetable for them.
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Absolutely.
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So you pretty much have the Iowa Wild up here right now.
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I know.
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Which is good and bad right?
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They're getting experience but we're on a four game losing streak so get it how you
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live.
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Alright Zuccarello also on the IR however Zuccarello.
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BG said on the 3rd of January that he could return in 10 days.
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So we could be looking at a return from Zuccarello on the 13th.
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Another guy that you just need on the ice.
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Put pucks in the net.
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Simple as that.
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Agreed.
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Caril.
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Also back to the IR.
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For Caril's is a little bit different.
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We had Brendan Dillon the defenseman from the Winnipeg Jets kind of taking a couple
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shots at him.
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And I mean you're always going to get shots here and there that will never get called.
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That's just how hockey works man.
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You just got to get away with it right?
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But doing what Brendan Dillon was doing was a little bit extra to be honest with you.
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And as we'll talk about later there's some other things that came outside of that.
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But your boy Russo, main man Russo, hopped on the local sports station here, K-Fan, on
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the Dan Barrero show.
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And he actually did say that it is broken ribs allegedly right?
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From being cross checked multiple times in the back.
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And you can see where he was cross checking him.
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There's no protection there.
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No it was on purpose.
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For that because you saw him do, I believe I saw one of the injuries or one of the checks
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that he got injured on was one of them was right on like the pads, like right on like
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your hip.
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That's what I mean.
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And then the second one was right above it.
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And that second one right above it, there's nothing there and you know that.
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Every hockey player knows that.
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So that's why it was a little dirty.
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That's why we see somebody like Ryan Hartman getting involved a little bit later that the
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whole league and anybody that follows hockey in the US knows about at this point.
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But just a shame.
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However Correll according to Russo should only miss a week or two.
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So we're kind of eyeing up with the IR rules.
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You're kind of eyeing up the 15th right now.
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Which that'd be crazy because you can't put a cast on ribs.
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So if it truly is broken ribs, first off Russo is that's crazy if he's out there stating
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that it is broken ribs because you never identify a specific injury.
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Unless it's like a torn ACL.
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Not in hockey.
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Not in hockey right?
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But like Mason Shaw he's torn his ACL three times.
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It's obvious what happened.
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Like it just is what it is.
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You know what the injury is but you don't call out that specific injury very often if
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ever.
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But I think because of what, again we're going to get into it a little bit later, I wonder
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if that's why he's like those cross checks are exactly what caused this specific injury.
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That's why I'm saying it.
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Because again you never really have somebody calling out, especially in the media, calling
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out an injury.
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Because it's just making a target.
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100%.
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That's just it.
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You don't want Correll coming back and now somebody else is like alright let's get Correll
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out of the game.
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You know what I mean?
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Yup.
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And you can't put a cast on ribs.
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They're going to take longer to heal.
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Just make sure he's right.
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Don't bring him back too early.
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If he's not 100 don't do not bring him back.
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We are five points out of the second wild card spot.
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Still have a shot at the playoffs.
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We're not even halfway through the season yet I don't think.
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We're getting close.
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We're close yeah.
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We're close but we're not halfway through the season yet.
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There's no reason to rush Correll back.
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The future of your franchise back even though he's been playing kind of dog water this year
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but he started getting hot and now got injured of course.
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So make sure the wild beast right.
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Just don't bring him back too early.
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You know what I mean?
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If you're sitting in the wild card maybe even a chance to jump up to those top three in
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your division.
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Okay maybe.
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Maybe you consider it but right now dude I just there's no point.
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No I agree.
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And in any sport in all reality you never want to force a player to come back from injury
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early but also these guys are grown adults.
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So you think about in the playoff in the postseason these guys are playing through tons of injuries.
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Broken bones.
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Postseason is different though.
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I know I get it.
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You never want them to have to be in that same situation in the actual season.
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But again like you said you're pushing for like a wild card spot or possibly like getting
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into the actual playoffs.
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Not a wild card type of thing.
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So I get it.
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Let a guy rest up.
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He's again your franchise player.
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Give Correll some time.
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We'll see what happens.
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Right right.
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And then we got old Vinny Leteri also on IR with a lower body injury.
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You know just kind of another depth guy that we could actually be using right now.
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He's got wheels on him.
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Be great to have him out there on the ice.
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So I guess we'll kind of see what we got going on there.
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Another guy listed as you know out indefinitely.
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Still another one that doesn't have a hard timetable.
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He was never one of our staple players in the lineup.
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He was a good solid person we would call in and I believe in a backup type of situation.
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So you never want anybody to be hurt.
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But he isn't one of your top four top six guys.
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So obviously you want him to come back good and healthy.
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But in the sense of like we've got all of our Iowa Wild players up here.
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I believe that Vinny is effectively one of those as well.
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So yeah.
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I'm sure I want him to get back.
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Help the boys down south but also help us out too.
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So he'll up soon Vinny for sure.
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No doubt.
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And then last but not least.
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Oh Gus bus to the IR with a lower body.
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And I do believe do you remember do you know was it a groin.
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I didn't read anything specific.
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I think it was a groin injury.
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That it could have been a groin but I was literally looking right before we started
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and I didn't think I saw anything that could be that.
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But if it's a groin as a attendee you got to take that time and you got to make sure
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it's right.
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I never you know as I've stated before like I've played goalie but I never like pulled
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my groin but I definitely got most of got close because I mean there's times where you're
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just like dude that's just not quite right you know.
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So I couldn't imagine pulling a groin and then trying to go out there and play at the
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level that NHL is.
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It's just that's another one kind of like real.
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He's got to be you got to make sure he's 100 percent right.
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No sense in rushing him back.
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Yeah.
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And possibly re aggravating a groin injury as attendee.
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That's that could you could deal with that all season.
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Yeah.
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Well and he's the number one.
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And he's been and he started getting hot too.
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Again the team started turning it around.
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Yeah.
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But then boom.
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Injury bug city St. Paul Minneapolis next stop.
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That's just where it is right now.
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Unfortunately I get it though.
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I agree.
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Let him heal up.
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We need Gustafson back.
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We need him to be ready to go especially if we're going to have a push on the stretch
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here obviously we're not.
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We're just a handful of games I believe shy of halfway through the season.
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Yeah.
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But you know as the wild always are their crap after the All-Star break.
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Yeah.
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Coming up here in the next few weeks.
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They usually start really hot and then like back door it into the playoffs.
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Yeah.
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Every season.
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We play like garbage every year after the All-Star break.
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So we need these guys to be healed up and hopefully make a push.
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Coach.
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We need the mentality after All-Star break hopefully.
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Yeah.
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You know what.
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That's all we can hope for.
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Ah man we need something.
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And healthiness.
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Health.
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Yeah.
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When is the All-Star game do you know?
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They just announced the lineup.
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Our boy 97 is in there.
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No.
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But he's hurt.
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I don't want him to play.
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He can get recognized and stuff that's cool.
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That's his third time by the way which is crazy he got in this year because honestly he's
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not hasn't been quite the same career this year but when is it?
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I believe it's February 3rd.
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So little over a month a little under a month from now.
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So hopefully if we can like you know limp our way to the All-Star break that gives us
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what another five to seven days of Noah.
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Noah puck for most of our squad.
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Most of the guys.
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So hopefully they can heal up and get a hundred percent.
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We need them to put some together in the second back half year of the season.
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Yeah.
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That's like I said the wild usually play like hot garbage after the All-Star break.
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So with the new coach it's a great point.
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Different leadership different leadership in the room as far as coaching staff but also
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far as players you have different captains alternate captains right.
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So maybe that'll change things a little bit.
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Just hopefully we got something.
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Something's going to go for us while here.
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Sure.
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Yeah no doubt.
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So again Gospas to the IR which just kind of leads me into a quick thing about IR.
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If you don't know how NHL IR works maybe you're familiar with the NFL pod that we do and if
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you have we've talked about IR on there before and the minimum.
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What am I trying to say.
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Minimum term maybe whatever.
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For NFL is four weeks which seems like a lot of time for like the NHL season right.
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That could be how many games is that probably 10.
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That's a lot.
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I mean you assume two maybe three games a week.
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So 10 to 12 games if not sometimes more you got double header in there.
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So luckily that's not how it works in NHL thank goodness.
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But basically first you know you obviously have your club medical staff that determine
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if a player is unable to perform or what have you and the severity of the injury.
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Is it worth the player going to IR or not.
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If not usually that's a day to day situation.
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So more of a game time decision until you're ready to you know say you're 100 percent.
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And again you have to be cleared by medical staff for that to happen.
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Not just you saying yeah let's put me in coach.
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Right exactly.
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So if the medical staff decides the player can't return in less than seven days less
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than a week then they would make the recommendation to have the player placed on IR injured reserve.
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So the NHL almost said NFL again.
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NHL has a minimum of seven days on IR.
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So what a drastic difference.
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Right no kidding.
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So you cannot touch the player for seven days.
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Obviously it can go to team meetings.
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They can do all that still actually.
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But you can't you can't put them in the lineup even if they're 100 percent.
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You got to wait for that minimum seven days.
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Now if you get to the end of the seven days I'd imagine you're reevaluated at that point
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like OK can we send a player back to like for us it's the Iowa Wild.
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Right.
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Can we send a player back to Iowa and activate him off the IR.
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But maybe now he's a quote unquote healthy scratch because he needs another game off
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before he's back.
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Or nah he's not right.
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These guys go on IR for another seven days or these guys out indefinitely.
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You just you probably don't have you have probably certain dates that you reevaluate
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those players.
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But like it's not every week at that point if they're out indefinitely like you know
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I mean.
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Yeah there's a lot that comes into it especially with all the cap issues that the wild they're
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having and injuries and stuff coming up.
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They're having to juggle a lot.
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And IR being only seven days compared to the NFL.
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It's a drastic difference.
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So makes a little bit different.
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Like can you imagine if no matter what Caprice I've had to be out for a month.
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Oh my god.
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That'd be wild.
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No pun intended.
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It'd be crazy.
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Right.
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So we're lucky that it's only a week but we hate to see all these players being out.
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The fact that they do have the ability to be reevaluated so quickly they can only miss
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potentially a couple of games in a week.
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So got to give them some chance to heal up and get better.
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But we'll see what happens going forward.
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That does bring us into our next point here though with Gustafson being out.
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Who's our latest backup here.
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I know you and one of our other co-hosts Kyle had a nice discussion about some of the
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goaltending statuses here.
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What do you got to say about this one here buddy?
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I love it.
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You absolutely bring Zane McIntyre up.
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Now if Jesper would have been healthy do I think they bring up Jesper?
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I'm sure they probably make that decision to do that.
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And with five points out of the wild card you're definitely there's still definitely
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plenty to play for at this point.
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But it's just I just wish we could hold off to Jesper until next season seriously and
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then give him the starting role or have him be Gustafsons backup which I'm cool with.
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But like if he gets hot I'm cool with him taking over for Gus next season.
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But I just I hate to rush him this year and now again it just really depends when Gus
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can return.
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Yeah well I think to that point is had Jesper been healthy I believe 100% the wild would
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have brought him up.
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The downside now is that with Gustafsons still being out Jesper's coming back from that injury
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and I believe he's playing tonight if not tomorrow night in Iowa his first game back
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from injury.
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So that now poses the question when the wild play tomorrow night or play the subsequent
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game after tomorrow if Jesper is back say tonight and plays his game there would the
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wild bring him up and play Saturday night?
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No.
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Would they wait?
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He could come up and be a backup to Saturday night but I don't think they'd bring him up
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to have him play directly tomorrow.
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No I don't know that's what I meant I meant as a backup in the for the wild but also you
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got to think Flurry hasn't been playing fantastic he's been playing well but not like.
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He's been playing great better as of late but we're still not winning games and again
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we there's plenty of other things going on too I mean we can't blame it all on Flurry
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at this point either.
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Absolutely not.
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But you got the Iowa Wild Up here playing against you know stars of the NHL so you're
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not going to win every game but I put something together.
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But I do see that as a possibility if Jesper is healthy it's hard to not want to bring
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him up.
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I get it I get it I mean one of the best if not the best current goaltending prospects
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in the entire NHL so it's just so hard to pull back the reins and just be like no stay
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you know you know I mean like I just I'd love to see him up here for sure next season that's
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just where I'm going to stand.
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Yeah I'm going to I'm going to die on that hill because I'm sure we'll see him up here
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if he's healthy.
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Yeah and Gus like let's say they get new news right.
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Let's say they wait.
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Yep.
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So let's say Jesper plays tonight maybe in Iowa.
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And then we wait to bring him up until you get the next like that next evaluation of
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Gus.
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If Gus if they say Gus is down for another two weeks at least you're probably I think
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you see him.
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I think you see Jesper coming up and making his real legitimate debut.
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Yeah because right now Zayn McIntyre I believe he's played maybe a dozen or something it
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was like eight to ten maybe twelve games with Boston.
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So he's got a little bit of NHL experience.
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Well and he's played he's played in situations like this before for the wild but he's always
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been more of that fill in role like you know his role in the NHL is probably going to be
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a career backup guy.
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You know you never know guys can get hot though and that's where you sign a big contract.
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Look at Darcy Kemper got hot.
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Won himself a cup and then he signed a pretty lucrative deal with I think he's with the
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Capitals right now after the Avs.
20:51
I can't remember where he went.
20:52
I could be wrong.
20:53
Could have been the other way around I don't know.
20:54
I know he won the cup with the Avs though.
20:57
You know it just depends on winning your career you get hot.
21:00
Yeah I agree.
21:02
Now it's going to be interesting to see what happens.
21:04
I agree with you in the sense of I'd love to see him down in Iowa just continuing to
21:09
develop especially after coming off of such a hardcore injury to the you know his I'm
21:15
not sure what what Jesper's injury is but I also want Gustafson to take his time right.
21:19
So it's kind of a double edged sword.
21:21
Both of the goaltenders are coming back from an injury potentially.
21:24
I would say obviously let Gus chill and grill for a bit.
21:26
Let him heal up.
21:27
Make sure he's 100 percent.
21:28
Same thing for Jesper.
21:29
Let him heal up.
21:30
Make sure he's 100 percent.
21:31
That's what I mean man.
21:32
Why?
21:33
You know why even and Zane hasn't played a game yet at the NHL level level this year.
21:38
So I say you know Flurry's played the last two I believe.
21:42
Something like that.
21:43
He's not the last three.
21:44
I think the last three because I went Winnipeg, Calgary and then we just they just lost to
21:47
Tampa.
21:48
Tampa last night.
21:49
So I think maybe we see Zane start tomorrow night and then that also helps with that decision
21:53
making on what to do with Jesper if he is 100 percent healthy.
21:57
If Zane does OK, let Jesper get back in the swing of things in Iowa.
22:02
Wait a week.
22:03
See if you get new news on Gus.
22:05
And then kind of go from there.
22:06
But I'm sure this is a day to day thing that BG is sitting there thinking about.
22:10
I honestly I I agree with your point but I don't think that The Wild will put Zane in
22:16
over Flurry if it's not a back to back.
22:19
I think they're going to let Zane just ride the bench as long as Flurry is OK and they're
22:23
not doing two games in a row.
22:24
As much as I'd like to give Flurry a break just for craps and gigs just to see how Zane
22:29
does.
22:30
Flurry also plays better when he stays in the game.
22:33
So it's it's a tough situation.
22:34
You'll see what happens.
22:35
There's a lot obviously to go into all that decision making.
22:38
We're not the GMs, but obviously if BG is listening, you know, take some advice in the
22:42
bandit with the boys, boys here and leave leave Jesper to cook a little bit longer down
22:47
there.
22:48
Man, let him just kill it down there.
22:49
He's doing so well.
22:50
Don't rush it.
22:51
That's a great point, but also on the side of that too is you don't want to run Zane
22:55
is your point.
22:56
Yeah, I agree.
22:57
Sure.
22:58
Sure.
22:59
Fair enough.
23:00
That's about it.
23:01
Yeah, you got it.
23:02
You got it.
23:03
Fair enough.
23:04
All right.
23:05
And onto our next topic here.
23:06
Let's talk about some of the young guns here for The Wild that have really shown their
23:09
stuff this season.
23:10
We've talked about them all season so far.
23:12
Brock Faber, number seven on the defense, taking over from a main man Dumba.
23:16
Let's talk about him.
23:17
We've talked about him a couple of times already this year, kids a stud.
23:21
Last time we talked, he'd already played a couple of games with over 30 minutes of ice
23:25
time or just shy in one of the games.
23:27
It was like 30 couple of 30 minute games.
23:29
Yeah, it was 30 minutes, 33 minutes, 28 minutes there.
23:32
And then another 30 minute game.
23:34
It's just just crazy how how this guy is able to just stack up.
23:37
And there's a tweet that he said, how are you doing this?
23:39
It's caffeine and adrenaline and just trying to be there for the boys.
23:42
Nice.
23:43
Trying to be there for the boys.
23:45
How?
23:46
That's awesome.
23:47
But no, I mean, you talk ice time in.
23:50
Geez, let me gather my thoughts.
23:55
Wow.
23:56
But in in all the rookies, you know, he's leading in ice time by over four, four minutes.
24:01
Which is crazy, especially as a rookie.
24:03
And especially when Conor Badaert exists.
24:06
Like don't get me wrong.
24:08
Different position, right?
24:09
So it's going to be slightly different.
24:11
But it's obvious the wild are leaning on their young stud defenseman.
24:15
He's but he's showing up to he also is tied for the best plus minus in for all rookies.
24:22
Which that's crazy.
24:23
I don't know.
24:24
That is at nine with him is a wing or something.
24:26
Right.
24:27
I think he's he's he was not even in Calder contention earlier this season.
24:32
Now he's in second place.
24:34
He's not.
24:35
That's what we're so I tweeted out the other day.
24:37
He's now in second place for the Calder.
24:39
I think this is the first time I have to disagree with your boy, Russo, because I don't pull
24:43
it up, pull it up because I'm right.
24:45
Pull it up.
24:46
This is life.
24:47
Pull it up because I'm because I'm curious.
24:50
Because I swear to God, I was just looking it up and he's had votes, though.
24:53
Don't get me wrong.
24:54
Oh, yeah.
24:55
Faber said votes.
24:56
Rossi is also actually gathered himself a couple of votes.
25:00
He's not going to contend.
25:02
And I don't think anybody honestly truly is going to actually contend and beat out Conor
25:07
Badaert.
25:08
But definitely not.
25:09
I suppose I like Rossi and how great he's played this season.
25:12
No doubt.
25:13
He's he's not going to beat Badaert.
25:14
Rossi is not there.
25:15
Rossi is third in with rookies and points.
25:18
Really?
25:19
He's about what was it, nine or ten behind Badaert.
25:24
So Badaert impressive.
25:25
Badaert sitting at thirty three points.
25:27
Rossi sitting at twenty three.
25:29
Wow.
25:30
And Rossi's plus minus a seven.
25:32
Conor Badaert.
25:34
Negative twenty two.
25:37
That's actually kind of.
25:38
Whoa.
25:39
That's insane.
25:40
Yeah, dude.
25:41
That's kind of how many points does he have again?
25:43
Conor Badaert is thirty three points.
25:45
Thirty three points, but a minus twenty two.
25:47
So effectively is, in my opinion, is a plus minus.
25:49
Check this out, too.
25:51
That's wild.
25:52
Not to just like read stats off because again, I hate just reading stats because like anybody
25:55
can do that.
25:56
Right.
25:57
But it's how you interpret those.
25:58
I think we do a good job of that.
25:59
We do.
26:00
We do.
26:01
But listen to this, dude.
26:02
Rossi's got thirty three penalty minutes this season.
26:04
Holy crap.
26:05
Thirty three penalty minutes?
26:06
I think it's a twelve for like Badaert and sixteen for I can't remember how to say his
26:11
name, Fetilli.
26:12
Something like that.
26:13
Yeah.
26:14
Wow.
26:15
Thirty three.
26:16
Granted, I do know that he fought somebody for the first.
26:17
He had himself a Gordie Howe hat trick earlier this season.
26:20
He fought somebody, got an apple and a goal.
26:22
So like that's kind of snazzy.
26:23
Oh, that's right.
26:24
That's right.
26:25
That was recently, too.
26:26
That was.
26:27
You're not going to see Badaert drop the gloves.
26:28
Come on.
26:29
Come on.
26:30
I think that right there earns him at least a plus one in my book.
26:33
I think Rossi actually has a pretty high shot percentage out of people.
26:37
Now, of course, these stats could be skewed here because there's guys in here when I sort
26:41
it by shot percentage.
26:42
There's guys in here that have played one game, you know, but like out of guys that
26:46
have actually played the game.
26:48
I mean, Rossi's right there, probably top five, six, seven in shot percentage sitting
26:54
there with a fifteen point one shot percentage.
26:56
That's not bad.
26:57
It's pretty good, especially for a young buck.
26:59
But did you find that?
27:00
I did.
27:01
I just texted it to you.
27:02
I'm not sure if it's on your phone, but yes, so Michael Russo tweeted January 2nd, 2024
27:05
in one month, Brock Faber went from off the board to second best odds for the Calder trophy.
27:10
Oh, second best odds.
27:12
OK, got it.
27:13
Yeah, got it.
27:14
But hey, don't forget, like that's impressive, especially for a defenseman.
27:18
No kidding.
27:19
A rookie defenseman.
27:20
I feel like a rookie is always going to be someone who's just a sniper because Kaprizov
27:23
won a couple of years back, didn't he?
27:25
When he was first in the wild.
27:26
I don't think Kaprizov won the Calder.
27:28
Somebody else did, I'm pretty sure.
27:30
But I could be wrong, and if I'm wrong, that looks really bad on me.
27:35
But no, it is interesting to note that Faber's climbed that much considering he's a defenseman
27:40
on a team that's completely underperforming.
27:42
Yeah.
27:43
Still getting points.
27:44
So yeah, Kaprizov did win.
27:45
Who did he beat out?
27:46
Did it say who he beat out?
27:47
I don't remember who he beat out, but he won it in the 2021 season for his rookie year.
27:54
OK, OK.
27:56
As I'm sure he should have, but I was just curious.
27:58
I couldn't remember who else was considered.
28:01
Back in 21 is a couple of years ago, a lot of player, a lot of stuff going on.
28:03
Plus I was back in the COVID era as well then too.
28:05
So a lot of stuff happening back there.
28:07
But at the end of the day, Rossi is still playing pretty darn solid.
28:12
Faber's playing pretty darn well as well.
28:13
The thing that sucks, again, that we talked about before, lineup changes and whatnot.
28:18
I think it's actually I was kind of contradicted myself in doing some research for this.
28:22
Wild have been notorious for changing up their defensive pairings.
28:24
I complained about it earlier in the season in one of our earlier episodes, but they've
28:27
actually kept the Middleton and Faber lineup pairings ever since those 30 plus minute games
28:34
where Faber was just a stud.
28:38
Hasn't gotten worse, quote unquote, per se, worse by any means.
28:42
I'm liking his play still.
28:44
He's still on the power play, I believe.
28:45
I think he's doing pretty well.
28:47
I like what I'm seeing from Faber.
28:49
I think he's a very, very good addition to the team.
28:53
Obviously I'd love to see him back with Brodean.
28:55
Once Brodean comes back, I think that's going to be a huge asset for us to get those two
28:58
back together.
28:59
Middleton will probably go down to the second or third pairing and we'll call our day from
29:02
there.
29:03
But I want to see him back.
29:06
All right.
29:08
Now we're going to talk about something that's a little bit controversial.
29:12
Spellensie and I mentioned a little bit earlier in the episode.
29:14
We're going to get into it.
29:15
Let's just jump into it here.
29:16
As Philip DeFranco says, let's just jump right into it.
29:19
So Brian Hartman, we talked about the aggressive cross-checks to Kaprizov.
29:25
I took him out.
29:26
Brian Hartman pretty much blatantly hit Profetti square in the face off of a face off.
29:34
And it was kind of a back and forth, he said, she said for a little bit there of wasn't
29:38
on purpose, wasn't an accident.
29:40
There's a quote, a couple of quotes I'm going to read off here from Russo's athletic article
29:44
stating it's written on the wall that he's wearing a mic.
29:47
I know he's wearing it all game.
29:48
He comes up to me multiple times and asked me if I did it on purpose.
29:52
And finally, I just told him, I'm not going to say it wasn't on purpose.
29:56
So I didn't tell him, Hey, I did that on purpose.
29:58
He kept coming up to me and I finally said, I'm not going to say it wasn't on purpose.
30:02
That was the extent of it.
30:03
Let's just stop right there for a second.
30:05
That seems like he was fishing to me.
30:07
Oh, no doubt.
30:08
Hundred percent.
30:09
Right.
30:10
Like if he's going to come up to you and ask you the same question multiple times, you're
30:13
absolutely fishing for something.
30:15
Absolutely.
30:16
Some sort of answer or reaction or something.
30:18
Yep.
30:19
Absolutely.
30:20
And in Hartman also put in Russo put in the Hartman article here as well.
30:24
These there is a states are to me, Hartman states.
30:26
I'm trying to be better on draws off the face out for you hit him in the face.
30:30
The kid comes in with his head really low and I'm trying to be hard on the puck and
30:33
hard on him so you can take that any way you want.
30:36
And then talking about one of his other suspensions that was kind of brought up into correlation
30:41
on my EELR suspension.
30:42
EELR runs Caril again, standing up for Caril after getting blatantly destroyed behind the
30:48
net.
30:49
So I make a hard clean hit on EELRs after I have the puck.
30:52
And obviously with this play that when we're talking about now how it happened, I'm not
30:55
sorry he got hit in the face.
30:57
It happens on face offs.
30:58
And as far as what I said, and I'm not going to say that it wasn't on purpose.
31:02
If I can say something to get them fired up and get them to retaliate, I'm not going to
31:07
apologize to the kid or say that it wasn't that it was on accident.
31:12
I'm going to try to fire them up.
31:14
How do you take that?
31:15
There's a lot happening here.
31:16
There's a lot.
31:18
Give me your thoughts.
31:19
I take that how everyone should take that he did it 100% on purpose.
31:25
And I mean, you see that you've seen the video.
31:26
Yeah.
31:27
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty blatant.
31:28
Yeah, it's pretty blatant.
31:29
Right.
31:30
But like somebody's got to stand up for Caril.
31:35
And a lot of these times people aren't getting called when Caril gets decked.
31:40
So at some point he's just trying to do something to make the league pay attention.
31:43
So hopefully they pay attention to what happens before the Hartman incident.
31:49
What caused that?
31:50
What happened right before that?
31:51
Oh, there was that.
31:52
Why was that not called?
31:53
You know what I mean?
31:54
That's a lot of times what happens.
31:55
So hopefully that's the hope with it too.
31:58
But I mean, Hartman was also, you know, also now that he has, I like using the words allegedly,
32:06
right, because he didn't say that he did it on tape, but he pretty much did.
32:12
But he was fine the maximum amount.
32:15
Just shy of $5,000.
32:16
Yeah.
32:17
$4,427.
32:18
Hey, for NHL players, it makes a little bit more of a difference than say like an NFL
32:23
player.
32:24
That's true.
32:25
But yeah, dude, that's crazy.
32:28
Somebody's got to do the dirty work, you know, but like I'm not a fan of dirty plays though.
32:33
I really am not.
32:34
So as much as I get why he did it, it does suck to see how blatantly obvious it was to
32:43
me that he hit him in the face.
32:45
Yeah.
32:46
So in the article there was a bit, I believe from Sportsnet, a couple of the reporters
32:51
on Sportsnet had gone back and forth a bit talking about was it fair?
32:56
Was it a good hit?
32:57
Was it dirty?
32:58
Was it called for?
32:59
Were there leagues like standard on these types of plays, like self-policing, if you
33:05
will, how does that come into the mix?
33:07
And one side of the table was like, how can you do that?
33:11
Would you want your kids to do that?
33:12
Or how would you feel if your kid got cracked in the face by a stick as retaliation for
33:16
something he wasn't even involved in?
33:18
Other side of the table is like the refs aren't calling it.
33:21
Our best player got injured.
33:22
He's continuously getting cross-checked cheap shots that no one's calling.
33:26
You have to self-police.
33:29
Do you go after the guy who's doing it and just kind of squash the beef or do you go
33:32
after somebody else?
33:34
And maybe in the postseason, if you play Winnipeg, now you've got Profetti in your back pocket
33:38
saying, hey kid, you better watch yourself and tell your boys to watch themselves because
33:42
if anybody, anything happens to Kaprizov, you know what happens.
33:47
It's a wild thing where I love the NHL to where the aggressiveness and the physicality
33:53
can come out.
33:54
You can drop the gloves, square it up man to man.
33:57
And also in this case here, I wasn't a huge fan that he did it against somebody who wasn't
34:01
the player that did it.
34:04
However, it's all gamesman and sportsmanship, right?
34:08
And to the part of it where one of the players had stated that the guy that it happened to,
34:14
Profetti, didn't say anything to his teammates that Hartman said, hey, I did this on purpose.
34:22
Apparently Profetti said, I kept that to myself, kept it on the chest.
34:25
Allegedly, right?
34:26
But if he did.
34:27
Well, that's the thing.
34:28
That's what I'm getting to right here.
34:29
That's huge.
34:30
He said, Profetti apparently said, I didn't tell anybody on my team until after the game
34:34
was over.
34:35
Hartman in this article said, if everything that was said on the ice was released, the
34:40
media, there'd be a lot more people in the league that would be in trouble.
34:43
And then right after that, he said, I talked to multiple Jets players during the third
34:46
period and he told everyone.
34:49
So Profetti is like, I didn't say anything, kept it on the chest.
34:53
I kept it to myself.
34:54
And his teammates are saying that, no, he did tell us.
34:57
He told everybody in the third.
34:58
Yeah.
34:59
He said, I didn't.
35:00
So Hartman said in quotes, he's acting like I didn't say anything.
35:04
They made me tell them.
35:05
And then he's blanking, told everybody right away.
35:09
And then to bring it up to the media, whatever.
35:12
I'm not going to apologize for high sticking him.
35:14
I didn't see Dylan apologize for cross checking Carrell.
35:18
I love it.
35:19
Now it gets greasy.
35:20
That right there, that's NHL in a nutshell right there.
35:22
That's it, man.
35:23
And then the players hold grudges all year and like, you just better not say the wrong
35:27
thing or otherwise, you know what?
35:28
Let's just take care of what happened three months ago right now.
35:31
Well, and that's the thing, too.
35:32
The why, if you remember the Foligno Superman punch a couple of years ago, opening night
35:37
was against the Winnipeg Jets against none other than Dylan.
35:40
Yeah, of course.
35:41
So like, and I believe that was a retaliatory punch or a fight for some garbage that he
35:44
was doing.
35:45
Yeah.
35:46
So I could be wrong on that, but I was at that game.
35:47
That game was the Superman punch was ridiculous.
35:50
Yes, home opener, seasonal or a season home opener at the X.
35:54
That's what you get from Foligno.
35:56
Just a crazy night.
35:57
Yeah.
35:58
A wild one anyway.
35:59
But at the end of the day, where do you stand on this?
36:01
Do you think the cross check in the face was warranted for what happened to Carrell now
36:05
knowing that he broke his ribs potentially?
36:09
And he's out week to week.
36:11
Or do you think that it's not warranted because it was against not a player involved in the
36:15
situation?
36:16
Well, first off, at least it wasn't a cross check in the face because that would probably
36:20
be like possible charges, right?
36:23
Using a weapon or some some crazy stuff.
36:25
But like he did stick like made it look like he's trying to stick, lift him and just completely
36:30
miss and just plows him in the face.
36:32
He does.
36:33
I mean, yeah.
36:35
If Carrell's ribs are injured now, I guess that sounds messed up, right?
36:38
If I'm like, oh, well, if Carrell's ribs are not actually broken, then I hate it.
36:44
But if they are, you know what I mean?
36:45
Like that makes me sound stupid.
36:47
But I think no matter what.
36:51
Something had to happen and it did.
36:53
And he got caught.
36:55
You know, there's a lot of stuff that happens on ice that does not get caught.
36:59
Of course, that happens all the time.
37:01
Yep.
37:02
So I think he just was too blatant with it.
37:03
He got caught.
37:05
Do I think you should try to injure another player ever?
37:09
Absolutely not.
37:10
Not on purpose.
37:11
If it's an accidental thing, that is what it is.
37:12
It sucks.
37:13
It sucks.
37:14
But like the cross check to the back where you know there's no protection.
37:16
It was twice.
37:17
That's messed up.
37:18
Yep, that's bad.
37:19
That's messed up.
37:20
So that's my two cents.
37:21
Yeah, no, I agree.
37:22
But I'm not a fan of it.
37:23
At the end of the day, what's done is done.
37:26
We'll see.
37:27
We do play them again, I believe, like mid January, early February, I think.
37:31
So I don't know exactly what day they'll play them, but it'll be interesting to see how
37:36
that game pans out and to see how this translate over because this is obviously not done.
37:41
No, no doubt.
37:43
It's not finished.
37:44
So there's definitely some more to this coming, that's for sure.
37:48
So yeah, we play them on February 20th away in Winnipeg.
37:53
So wonderful.
37:54
It'll be fun.
37:55
It'll be a fun game to watch.
37:58
Really quick here, we're going to follow up on a topic that we had talked about in our
38:01
last episode.
38:02
Whitey, Andrew Haight, the Minnesota Wilds kind of just right hand man for Bill Guerin,
38:08
not Bill Guerin, but just for the team in general, let me rephrase, has agreed to mutually
38:13
part ways with the Minnesota Wild Hockey Club.
38:17
That to me speaks volumes to what actually happened with those allegations and whatnot
38:22
that we talked about.
38:23
To me, it seems like something got crazy heated.
38:26
Bill Guerin said something that was just off the cuff, excessive unwarranted, uncalled for.
38:33
Andrew Haight was like, no, dude, like that's not okay.
38:36
Went to HR, HR did their investigation externally with a different company, a different firm.
38:42
They found some information, went back and forth with it, sent their findings to the
38:47
league.
38:48
Nothing was really done.
38:49
Haight stepped away for a bit and now they've agreed to mutually part ways.
38:52
It seems like when Haight came back, things were still either really, really weird or
38:56
wonky or just not, not okay.
39:00
He didn't feel that way.
39:01
It didn't feel like-
39:02
He didn't feel comfortable enough to continue working there anyway.
39:04
Like obviously something was still off.
39:05
He was like, you know what?
39:06
I'm done.
39:07
So.
39:08
Yep.
39:09
And that sucks.
39:10
Like I said, you know, interviews and the podcast that he and Russo have done that I
39:13
love to listen to.
39:15
This guy means a lot to the organization, breaks his back 24-7 for the crew.
39:19
I'm hoping that he gets picked up.
39:20
If he wants to continue in NHL, I'm really sure that his experience 10 years with the
39:24
Wild will go and take him very, very far with another team if he decides to stay in the
39:30
league.
39:31
Maybe he goes off and does something else.
39:32
Who knows?
39:33
But time will tell.
39:34
But unfortunately, Andrew Haight has stepped away mutually from the WOD.
39:40
And just one more quick thing.
39:41
I mean, well, actually we got one more thing after this, actually.
39:44
That's really exciting to talk about.
39:46
Actually really exciting.
39:47
But one more quick thing here.
39:50
Just to note, the 2024 IIHF World Junior Champions as Team USA, of course, they beat Sweden 6-2.
40:01
Kind of led there by Isaac Howard, who actually ended up being the player of the game.
40:05
But he is a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect.
40:08
Ooh.
40:09
Actually, fun fact, I have been to a couple of Tampa Bay Lightning games there and that
40:14
place is surprisingly lit.
40:16
Really?
40:17
Oh, dude, the atmosphere in there.
40:18
I couldn't believe it, actually.
40:20
I did not think Tampa is a big hockey city.
40:24
No, no.
40:25
I know other teams have always been all right, but I did not think they're a big hockey city.
40:28
But wow, dude, that like that's an experience.
40:30
If you ever down there for the heck of it and want to see a random hockey game, that's
40:33
absolutely hit it up, dude.
40:35
It's fun.
40:36
But yeah, all in all, I just wanted to mention that.
40:38
Congrats to them.
40:40
You know, USA Hockey looks bright.
40:43
But you have something really exciting to talk about here more locally, but definitely
40:48
more nationally as well.
40:49
Internationally as well.
40:50
Oh, you're right.
40:51
It is international.
40:52
Yeah, take it away.
40:53
Let us have it to wrap us up here.
40:56
Yeah, so last segment we're going to talk about here is the newly formed, newly created,
41:01
newly begun PWHL, Professional Women's Hockey League has officially begun three games under
41:09
the belt for the league.
41:11
This is awesome.
41:12
There are six teams in the league.
41:14
I'll rattle them off.
41:15
You got Boston, of course, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto.
41:21
All hockey cities, too.
41:23
That's exactly it.
41:24
All classic hockey cities from back in the day, other than maybe Minnesota.
41:28
But obviously, like, it's part of our life here.
41:31
And when you grow up, you grow up around the game.
41:33
So other than us, that's a lot of almost original with almost the original six.
41:39
Almost.
41:40
Yep.
41:41
I'm to say I'm excited about this is an understatement.
41:44
First things first, women's sports in the US and in the world and internationally is
41:49
growing exponentially.
41:50
Let's just be real.
41:52
Women's soccer, basketball, now hockey.
41:54
And what do you think started that?
41:55
It's got to be women's soccer, I would imagine.
41:57
Women's soccer really put women's sports more on the map.
42:00
When they put the pressure on to get equal pay, I believe it was the women's national
42:04
and Olympic team.
42:05
The US women's national team did that.
42:06
Yeah.
42:07
And when they started pushing for that, I think that brought awareness because they
42:09
won that, if I'm not mistaken.
42:10
And that really brought awareness to women's sports in general.
42:14
And from there, I think it really just went crazy.
42:16
I think people in the world and especially in the US started focusing on women's sports.
42:20
I know my wife and I, our families, heavily focused on women's soccer and now women's
42:24
hockey is a thing.
42:25
And we're going to the first home game for the PWHL Minnesota team.
42:30
They don't have names.
42:31
It's just the states or the city that they're in tomorrow at the Axel Energy Center.
42:35
By the time this episode airs, this game may already be over or be coming out soon.
42:40
But to say where I'm excited about this is an understatement.
42:43
I'm jacked for this.
42:44
I just hope that they can garner, you know, people are like, oh, can they bring in the
42:48
viewers?
42:49
Can they bring in the fans?
42:52
You know, and you said already for Minnesota's home game tomorrow, you're looking at 10,000
42:56
tickets sold?
42:57
Yeah.
42:58
So I, forgive me if I'm wrong, but it was either Ottawa or Toronto.
43:02
One of those two cities has set the record so far for a women's hockey game, professional
43:06
standings or sorry, professional hockey game for capacity.
43:10
It was over 8,000 seats at that game.
43:13
Which is crazy for a brand new league.
43:16
Crazy.
43:17
It was the first game ever, if I'm not mistaken.
43:18
First or second game in the league that I was ever played.
43:20
And then now they're coming to Minnesota playing at the Axl Energy Center with a wild play
43:26
with a capacity of over 19,000.
43:28
The lower bowl right now, from my understanding is almost sold out with the club level now
43:33
being open.
43:34
There is apparently rumors of already over 10,000 seats sold for this game.
43:40
I think that Minnesota is going to show up tomorrow and I am all for it.
43:46
Dang, they opened the club level, huh?
43:47
I think they opened the club level, which is crazy.
43:49
I think, so you mentioned how they're called PWHL state or province.
43:58
I think eventually if the league does actually take off, you can see team names at that point
44:03
and then an expansion to 8, 10, 12 teams.
44:06
And I really hope that happens.
44:07
That would be awesome.
44:08
It would be awesome for the game of hockey as a whole.
44:10
But it's awesome for all these little girls out there that there's so many girls that
44:15
play having to play on a boys team because either they don't have a girls team local
44:21
to them or they want to hit boys and that's fine because you can at some point.
44:27
But I think it's great.
44:29
I think it grows the game for everybody.
44:32
And just in comparison, let's say there is 10,000 seats sold tomorrow and I'm really
44:37
curious so now that this is going to be Minnesota hockey, ringside chirps, we will be talking
44:44
about the women's team as well here in Minnesota.
44:46
So I'm curious as to the next episode is to see your experience at the game tomorrow.
44:51
But if there is 10,000 sold, let me put it to you this way.
44:55
I know you don't watch football, but you've heard of like the XFL becoming a thing again,
45:00
right?
45:01
That other football league.
45:02
You know, there's a USFL too, but the XFL, right?
45:06
So their top attendance at the XFL, 35,000 that's in St. Louis.
45:11
There's a big deal because it's a secondary league and they're still garnering 35,000.
45:15
That's crazy.
45:16
That is a lot.
45:17
The next step down is only 14,000 at second most attendance.
45:23
So their lowest attendance though, 6,000.
45:27
And then above that 8,000 and then 11,000 and 12,000.
45:31
We could see the women's hockey league already start pushing some of those numbers, which
45:37
would be pretty crazy.
45:38
And I know it's messed up for me to compare it to the XFL, but I just was thinking here
45:42
while you started talking about it, I was like, you know, I wonder how many fans XFL
45:45
garnered, you know, cause it was on TV, on ESPN, most of the games.
45:49
And again, St. Louis was packed because they used to have an NFL team and they probably
45:53
want one back there again.
45:55
But so maybe that's why they're showing out whatever.
45:57
But I think that's interesting.
45:59
If Ottawa had 8,000 fans, that's already more.
46:02
Now obviously this is the average for the year for the XFL for each team, right?
46:07
But it's crazy that you said Ottawa or Toronto.
46:09
It was one of the two.
46:10
I can't remember off the top of my head, but it was one of the two that set the record.
46:13
But it was 8,000 and that's already at the second lowest attendance for the XFL.
46:17
Yeah.
46:18
And this is their first game ever.
46:20
First or second game ever, I think, which is great.
46:22
And also another thing I just found for the first game ever for the PWHL, which was on
46:26
New Year's day in Canada, there was 2.9 million viewers.
46:32
Wow.
46:34
Wow.
46:35
2.9 million viewers.
46:37
Isn't that insane, dude?
46:39
I think that right there, Smelty, is just, it's what you need to see.
46:44
What you need to hear that people are actually paying attention, right?
46:50
People are listening, people are watching, and people are going.
46:54
And that is freaking sweet.
46:56
I think it's something to pay attention to for sure and see how the growth happens.
47:00
I think they play, let's see, I did look it up.
47:03
But are you excited to go to the game tomorrow?
47:05
Dude, I'm so stoked, man.
47:06
To be really honest with you, I was goofed.
47:08
I goofed when I bought the tickets and I bought tickets in the single attack zone because
47:12
when I was purchasing them, I had tickets in the double attack zone and also single
47:15
attack in the cart just for giggles to see what like the price difference was.
47:18
And it was not a very big difference at all.
47:20
I thought I got rid of the single attack tickets and I purchased them, but I actually got rid
47:24
of the double attack zone tickets and bought the single attack.
47:27
But to be really honest with you, I don't care.
47:29
I'm just excited.
47:30
My wife and I are going to go to this.
47:31
We love women's soccer.
47:32
We love women's sports.
47:33
This is going to be a lot of fun.
47:34
I'm curious about the atmosphere.
47:35
I think it's going to be fun.
47:37
And I think you're going to see a lot of, you know, young girls getting the opportunity
47:42
to finally see these pro, you know, women at the pro level do this.
47:47
They've probably all been to a wild game at this point.
47:50
If they love the sport, you know, that's where you do or you go to a go for hockey game,
47:53
men's or women's, because the women's team there is awesome as well.
47:56
Actually, historically has been there a little off right now, but they're great.
48:00
But it just gives them another chance, so I just I think the atmosphere there will be
48:05
great.
48:06
I agree with you.
48:07
And just to throw it over to soccer again here for a couple of seconds.
48:09
So the Minnesota Aurora is the Minnesota's women's soccer team.
48:13
When my wife and I had their when they had their inaugural first season, my wife and
48:16
I were season ticket holders.
48:18
I can't tell you how many times you saw just little girls with giant smiles on their faces
48:23
watching these women run around, play, celebrate goals, come around and give everybody high
48:28
fives over the over the seats around the field and the games were over when they won, waiting
48:33
for autographs and just like their faces lit up.
48:36
It was insane.
48:38
And that's going to be the same thing with this hockey.
48:39
I mean, I really think so.
48:41
And it's not just Minnesota.
48:43
I think all the cities that have a team right now, granted, again, it's only six.
48:47
And I did look up.
48:48
They play 24 games.
48:49
Yes, you're right.
48:50
But I just think it's great.
48:53
I think we'll see.
48:54
I think the first year is going to be super successful.
48:56
Yeah.
48:57
I only saw snippets of the game, but it was a fast paced game.
49:01
I mean, first two goals for the Minnesota team won by Taylor Heisey, who was the first
49:07
overall draft pick, which was insane.
49:09
Just an absolute snipe, a little back, forth and upper left over the glove.
49:13
Uh, shoulder, just a snipe.
49:16
And then, uh, Sophia Cunning, I believe, not sure if she's related to Luke, an ex wild player
49:20
that we go out and that'd be crazy if she was.
49:22
She had a snipe as well.
49:23
Same concept.
49:24
The goals were directly over the glove, uh, my glove or block, I can't remember what side
49:27
it was, but it was over the left or yeah, goaltenders, right shoulder.
49:31
Upper shelf somewhere.
49:32
Yep.
49:33
Top shelf, beautiful goals.
49:34
Uh, and they look great.
49:35
Yeah, the team looks good.
49:36
It's been fun to watch.
49:37
I wonder if they'll, uh, if they score at home, if they'll play the, the wild's horn.
49:43
I was thinking about that myself.
49:44
I really hope they do.
49:45
That'd be fun.
49:46
I'm pretty sure that they will just because like if you're trying to get the arena rocking
49:49
and you're going to have just like some goofball down there with like a blow horn or like a
49:53
bull horn or something like that.
49:54
That's not like an airplane.
49:55
No, I don't do that.
49:56
That's not it.
49:57
You're going to use the whole thing.
49:58
You're in a huge pro arena that sits 19,000.
50:00
You're using the system.
50:01
Use the system, bro.
50:02
Yep.
50:03
I light the lighthouse up.
50:04
Yes.
50:05
Let it get it banging in there.
50:06
Get, bring the DJ in.
50:07
Yes.
50:08
The whole, the whole work.
50:09
The shirt guy.
50:10
I hope they, I hope they really give it the same effort as they do wild games, you know,
50:17
as far as like presentation.
50:18
Yep.
50:19
And I think, because I think it would only do good.
50:22
Absolutely.
50:23
So depending on how many people show up to these games, if they continue to sell out,
50:27
the production for these games will continue to increase.
50:30
100%.
50:31
It's just a financial thing, right?
50:32
For sure.
50:33
For sure.
50:34
With anything that's starting.
50:35
Absolutely.
50:36
Look at us, right?
50:37
Right.
50:38
Right.
50:39
If you're expecting a few thousand people to show up and you've now got three times
50:40
that amount that are going to show up.
50:42
You're going to start spending more money to make it a better experience.
50:44
Yeah.
50:45
Absolutely.
50:46
You're going to pay for the shirt guy.
50:47
You're going to pay for the DJ to spin records there in the middle of the intermissions and
50:49
stuff.
50:50
You're going to pay for all sorts of different production and just craziness.
50:53
You're going to show up because if that's the expectation going forward, this league's
50:56
not going anywhere.
50:58
This is going to be awesome.
50:59
And you're going to hear a lot more about it in the next couple of episodes of Minnesota
51:02
Ringside.
51:03
Think about it too real quick.
51:04
And we should really wrap this up because we've already gone too long.
51:08
But if you think about it, this can also have a trickle down effect, not only to like, you
51:14
know, the U8, U12, U16 teams, all that stuff, but also the college level.
51:20
Because now, now these girls that might be like in high school, like, no, I'm done.
51:24
I'm just going to focus on school.
51:26
There's nothing after college for hockey.
51:28
So there's no point.
51:29
Well, now there could be.
51:30
There is.
51:31
And you could make money.
51:32
Yeah.
51:33
I'm not sure what the average salary for these players is.
51:35
Doesn't matter right now.
51:36
Guarantee it's going to go up.
51:37
These, what are they, what do they call it?
51:39
The trailblazers.
51:41
These women right now are the trailblazers for what could be of this league.
51:45
And again, it could just grow the game at every level on the, on the way down.
51:49
So I'm excited to see it.
51:51
I'm really excited to hear how your experience goes tomorrow.
51:54
And yeah, we'll just go from there with it.
51:57
Yeah.
51:58
So looking it up real quick, the, the, the general play for, or the pay from my understanding
52:03
from Reuters website is certainly pay equality will remain far off going forward.
52:08
But right now at the standing, the beginning of things right now, league is beginning,
52:12
a lot of stuff still starting.
52:14
The budget's not there.
52:15
Average salary from my understanding is 55,000.
52:19
You know what?
52:20
It's not terrible.
52:21
It's obviously in comparison to NHL it blows right?
52:23
Cause league vet minimum is 750 in the NHL.
52:27
Yeah, something like that.
52:28
Yep.
52:29
But also the NHL has been around for a hundred years, over a hundred years.
52:32
So this league has not even been around for two months.
52:35
So it's going to take a while to like get up to that level.
52:39
You know, but who knows?
52:40
I mean, 55 K to at least continue playing the game you love.
52:44
And in the off season, you're probably allowed to either.
52:46
You can do whatever you want.
52:47
You can get a job or whatever if you want.
52:49
But like, I'm sure there's other ways or hold the youth camps or I don't know.
52:55
There's definitely a ton of avenues.
52:57
This could go in a positive way for not just, you know, the team and women in general, but
53:03
just the community again.
53:05
Absolutely.
53:06
I think I can't tell you how excited I am for this.
53:09
I'll definitely report back.
53:10
We'll do another episode of this here pretty quick coming up so I can kind of recap and
53:13
talk a little bit about it.
53:15
But looking at it right now, there's 20, I believe 24 games that the ladies play and
53:20
I'm excited about them.
53:21
You guys can catch them online.
53:22
I believe the PWHL YouTube channel streams all the games for free.
53:26
You can catch them.
53:27
Which is exactly what you need to do right now to get to get people to watch it.
53:32
You can't have it behind a paywall.
53:33
No, not right now.
53:34
Nope.
53:35
There's no way.
53:36
Now, granted, I think there'd still be people that would pay.
53:37
Of course, I think you need to grow it first.
53:39
So I think that's a really good idea.
53:41
It's on Valley Sports.
53:42
If you guys have that in your local area and you have a team right now, it's on Valley
53:45
Sports North here in Minnesota.
53:46
Same team, actually, same channel that the Wild play on.
53:49
So which kind of makes sense, right?
53:51
Everything in the arena is already set up for all that.
53:53
So just keep it, right?
53:54
Yeah.
53:55
So we'll see what happens.
53:56
I'm excited about it.
53:57
Smell and see.
53:58
It's just another thing we can talk about on the Minnesota hockey ringside chirps.
54:01
You know, I think we're going to start working in some gopher talk into it or St. Cloud State.
54:05
I mean, all of them.
54:06
We got Division 1 hockey all around us.
54:09
I think it's worth talking about as well.
54:12
So we may work some of that in here.
54:14
We got the PWHL Minnesota squad.
54:17
This is going to be obviously our beloved Minnesota Wild, which is kind of our flagship
54:21
for this show for sure.
54:22
Yeah, no doubt that won't change.
54:24
Focus on the boys.
54:25
We'll bring in the rest and let us know what you guys want to hear.
54:28
You want to hear more about the ladies playing for PWHL Minnesota?
54:32
Let us know if you want to hear more about the Gophers or the lady Gophers or the women's
54:36
gopher team.
54:37
Let us know if you want to hear more about that.
54:38
Whatever you know, whatever you guys want to hear more about, we'll start bringing them
54:41
in.
54:42
I can't tell you how excited I am.
54:44
It's going to be sweet.
54:45
Yes, sir.
54:46
Yes, sir.
54:47
Awesome.
54:48
Well, thank you everybody for tuning in.
54:49
This has been Minnesota Hockey, Ringside Chirps.
54:51
Smell see any final thoughts?
54:53
Nah, man.
54:54
Lace them up.
54:55
Go play some puck.
54:56
Absolutely.
54:57
Thanks for watching, guys.
54:58
Catch you in the next one.
54:59
Don't forget to follow, like and subscribe.
55:00
Tune in next time for more Benter with the Boys.