Falness w/Tarasenko and TR w/Mike Guentzel

0:00You're listening to the official Minnesota wild podcast presented by Acresher. Well shots right now seven feet after one period of play. The Minnesota has the lead of one nothing here in this hockey game with the new car mammoth coming to town. And our guest right now is the guy who has seen this team both of these teams many times this year. Even the sort of more so than the mammoth and Mike Genzel. Of course that long time pro scout who's with the Utah team right now. And in presence in the first period. Well the wild got some enthusiasm in their game tonight. I mean you could see they're pushing hard like they've obviously had some power plays. And our guys held us in there. We made a couple of unbelievable leg saves. You know, or this would probably be two three nothing. But we had some good chances down here too. You know, we're quick and you know what? We didn't manage a puck on the one goal. We're going up in the back of our net. And that's a difference in the game so far.

1:00And these pipes you can certainly hear the noise when those pipes, when those shots hit the pipes. No doubt. I mean our guy hit it square there on the power play. And yeah, they, what an effort by Caprice off on that goal. I mean that was second effort to the tee right there. Like he made first shot and banks off the end boards and eat guys and knocks it in. That's why he's an elite player. Yeah, going down on one of these he takes that final shot off. But I want to talk a little bit about the Olympics because you were over there with Jake with the gold medal team. And I assume you had a chance to wear the gold around the house. Yeah, we got to wear the gold in Italy. I haven't seen it since it was over there the night they won. But that was a pretty special time and unbelievable hockey. Like I have been very fortunate to watch the four nations and all the Olympics. And I don't know if it gets any better than that. You know, I think you're right too. You know, you're looking at the game right now. I'm looking at the Olympics and how much fun it was to watch those Olympics. In fact, in the US, one of the gold medalists is terrific. There's no question about it. You're looking at even the high school, the high school last weekend. The competitive nature of these teams is so high right now. And these kids are having a great time. And you know, they may not win the games.

2:01But I tell you, it's memories of their making right now. And there's no question all these kids will have those DVDs going or whatever they're taping with nowadays. Well, there's no doubt. I mean, I haven't fortunate. Last, I mean, four or five years of trade deadline comes on that Friday. And then the Saturday night is, you know, the state championship. And I'm home and I get to watch it. And, you know, what I always circled on the calendar. Like the last four or five games have been outstanding games right to the end. Last year was they 8-7. This year was overtime. I mean, even the single-day game. I mean, the kids want it so bad. I mean, it's every Minnesota kid's dream to play in the state tournament. And to get into a state championship game, I don't know if it gets any better than that in playing front of 19,000 people. You know, Mike, we're talking about the Olympics. And the fact, you know, the length of the ice is a little bit different. The width is a little bit different. But, you know what? It's just out of the game. And both teams have to play in the same ice surface. So, it can't affect them too much. But it had to be a lot of fun for you and your family to be over there to watch your son play. Yeah, there's no doubt. I mean, we were all fortunate to be able to take it in. And, you know, just a quality of hockey.

3:01Like, you know, what I was really impressed with. Even when, you know, you watch some of the European countries, the Latvian and Dane, the Germans. You know, their crowds are so into the game. The atmosphere is so good. It's a big deal in most countries. And obviously, you know, everybody wanted to see the U.S. and Canada. But, you know, that was sketchy for a while. The U.S. were in a battle for against Sweden. And Canada was in a battle against Czechia. And, you know, they both prevailed. And, you know, you couldn't have had a better game for the sport on Sunday than what you saw. I mean, obviously Canada probably had the upper hand. But what a great event for the game and how it showcased it. And, hopefully, it encourages more people to want to watch it or get involved in the game. Yeah. I know in a couple of players in the Canadians, I would never have been able to win the better team. Well, maybe you weren't. We didn't score enough goals when the game. Well, you know what? When Bill Gehrin put the team together, he put together a good team with good goal-tending. He had really good special teams. Your penalty kill was outstanding. He killed a five on three in the game. And, you know, for all the criticism that maybe their management took, he built a grid hockey team and a good hockey team. You know, you need goal-tending and you need special teams.

4:03And, you know, let those are key parts of the game. Two Canada had some tap-ins and they messed them. And that's hockey. Like, I mean, sometimes the best team doesn't always win. It's a team that's more fortunate. And the breaks went to the US's way that day. Yeah, you mentioned Bill Gehrin. And the reason I say that is because the fact that even when they're the four nations' cup, and he put a team together, it wasn't so much about talent as it was the compete factor of as a team to play against the opposition. Well, I mean, you have to go back to the Olympics and look and see what Trotechek and Miller and Larkin and Brock Nelson did. Those guys, especially on the penalty kill, they were 18 for 18. You know, a lot of times everybody wants to just pick the best players. And those best players are all offensive players. But these guys, check their egos. They killed penalties. They blocked shots. They played 10-11 minutes a game. They did their job to perfection. And that's what you need to win. When you look at the Olympics, where you're welcomed into the community, I mean, you were telling me that the ice skating and the hockey games and the speed skating were all downtown. But you had to drive three miles to get to where the slope was or where the snow was.

5:06Now, three hours to get into the, you know, where the real Olympic experience was. So it was a little bit, you know, I expected like maybe a Lake Placitor, a Calgary or Salt Lake or a Vancouver where you get everything kind of close and you can go to different events. But that wasn't the case. You know, it was a 3.5 hour car ride each way if you wanted to go to the mountain events. And, you know, that's where the snow was and all the winter activities. I mean, in town, it was just men and women hockey figure skating and speed skating. So, you know, it was a little different. I couldn't really walk around Milan and see, you know, banners and logos and, you know, different souvenir shops or whatever that you'd see Olympics going on. There was more graffiti on the walls and there was anything else in Milan. But it was, you know, the hockey made it special. And, you know, that was the big draw there. And we talked about the hockey, too. But it's so often they're saying, well, they're not going to be ready. They're not going to be ready. The dress rooms aren't done. It's just plywood and so on. But, at the end, they got it done. And what, what, what, what a finish it was for the team. Yeah, I mean, they did get it done. I thought it was amazing that, you know, all the talk about the rink being a little bit smaller.

6:07You could have had a four-lane track going around the rink from the boards to the beginning of the stands. You know, they could easily move the rink. They could have put an Olympic-sized rink and they're all the distance between it. It's not like when you look down here and the people are right on the glass. I mean, there was like a four-lane track going all the way around the rink, so you were away from the rink. That made it unusual to me that they couldn't, you know, make it specified to the, it's 200 by 100 length and it should have been, or 200 by 85 length and it should have been. Yeah. Olympic-sized being at 200 by 100. Yeah. But this is a little bit smaller. This is NHL size. And it was great. It was great. It's great. How about you, gentlemen? How much fun did Jake have for this whole thing? Well, I mean, I think the guys, he was really impressed. You know, the two guys at Jake was most impressed by, like he didn't really know him or Quinn and Jack Hughes. Like they're special people and it was great. So he had an unbelievable time. My game's out of guess here. Kevin, let's go back to you. Thank you, Tom, with Wild Forward, Vladimir Teresenko. Wildly, the Utah Mammoth 10 after one period of play.

7:07Vlad, from my perspective, entertaining first period. I will for you. Yeah. I mean, that's an interesting game to watch. We lost a couple games to those guys and we cannot let them have easy offensive. Yeah. I'm going to finish our checks and skate with them. It is like you guys are taking it to them. The setup for Karol Kapriza was one thing. The finish was a thing of beauty. What can you say about Karol Kapriza? It's 37th of the season. Oh, he's obviously a great player. He gets his stuff open after good forecheck and score a beautiful goal. I know you know what it's like to succeed at this time of year, Dune end in 2019 with the same was Blues. How nice is it to be back in the thick of a fire of a playoff chase here once again? Yeah, it's exciting. You know, no playoffs for me last year and I missed the playoffs games. It's a different game and excited time of the year. But you know, I have to be able to block the noise out of the noise and focus on our game. Are you feeling playoff intensity lately? Not only today, but the last three, four games.

8:07Tampa, Vegas, Colorado feels like there's some intensity going on. They didn't have maybe earlier on in the season. I think there is no easy games in the league. Every game is hard and sometimes it's my look easy from both sides, but it's not. So we're preparing every game, you know, game by game and focus on all sorts. Thanks for doing this. Good luck to us again. Thank you. Here you go. Wild forward Vladimir Teresenko joining us in the intermission. We owe him a gift certificate down to Tom Reed's hockey city pub. He set up Carl Caprice up. Only goal in the period full recap after this. You're listening to Wild hockey. Present a by grand casino. An extraordinary advantage in sports. You need a game plan. For an extraordinary advantage everywhere else, all you need is Acresher. With a high tech human approach to insurance, cybersecurity and more, Acresher helps you take care of what you care about. That makes winning easy. See what Acresher's extraordinary advantage can do for you at Acresher.com.