Judd's Hockey Show - A Minnesota Wild Podcast
BEAUTIES; U.S. women GUARANTEE GOLD but can the U.S. men?...
16 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Far Down Beauties with Jesse Pierce and Kirsten Kroll. Two hockey minds trapped in bodies that can't skate. They may have never laced them up, but they'll break it all down with sharp takes and plenty of laughs. This is Hockey Talk, the beauty's way.
Hello. Good morning. Happy Monday. Jesse Pierce, Kirsten Kroll. Tons of hockey to talk about. Obviously, Olympics. You've got high school hockey sections going on. Girls State Tournament starts this week. But the biggest hockey news, Kirsten, that I would like to address. There's two components that I would like to start this week's episode off with. The first one.
being Matthew Kachuk, giving us the greatest chirp we have all probably ever heard to Leandra Seidel in yesterday's U.S. vs. Germany preliminary, where he said, always the bridesmaid, eh, Leon? Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Iconic. Literally, it's poetic. You can't, I think, hit a player harder than that one. Like, that one just... That one is so good just in general, but it hits so much deeper considering Matthew Kachuk was the one to make Leon in the Florida Panthers. Yes. To make Leon in the Edmonton Oilers the bridesmaid second best each time.
The best thing, too, is before it went viral and made its rounds, I'd heard it live because I was watching the game, but I only caught the always the bridesmaid, never the bride, eh? And I was like, that's got to be to Leandra Seidel. That's got to be. Please tell me it's to Leandra Seidel. And sure enough, once the internet picked up on it and we, in fact, discovered that was the case, right?
Because it even goes back, I realized, too. it goes back to the Calgary Edmonton rivalry as well. Right? Like they didn't like each other from there. Like I'm sure that kind of stems, but it just, it just, I think it can hit Leon in so many factors too. Like he's just always the bridesmaid to McDavid's bride as well. Even.
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Chapter 2: What makes Matthew Kachuk's chirp to Leon Draisaitl iconic?
Yeah.
I thought of that as well too. Like right there underneath con our personal good friend, personal good friend of the pod, but man, that was just so good. I also feel like Leon recital is a man. I would not want to piss off. But also, I feel Matthew Kachuk's not a man I'd want to piss off either.
But also, I think maybe even a little bit more Leon, because he's got... There's just something about German men.
It's a very brood. There's a very brooding aspect of him. Exactly. The follow-up, and I don't know if you saw this, and I'll pull up the tweet when we clip this out. The follow-up was Matthew Porter, who was on the ground in the Olympics. I'm not sure his affiliation, so I apologize.
But Matthew Porter tweeted out he had asked Quinn Hughes, Minnesota Wild's own Quinn Hughes, about the interaction that Matthew Kachuk had. Like, oh, it was a pretty good chirp. Quinn not only responded with, yep, you know, he's good at that, blah, blah, blah.
But it was the follow-up, Kirsten, where Quinn Hughes acknowledged all of the social media memes and viral situations that he has of himself where he sees ghosts. And Quinn Hughes goes, yeah, well, apparently I'm always seeing ghosts, so I've got my own stuff to worry about there. And I just... I love it.
We're starting to see a little bit of Quinn's personality, I think, more and more in the past month.
I think it's because he's not depressed in Minnesota. I think he's genuinely happy here. I really think that's what it is. Also, even more than his comment, it was his outfit. It was the sunglasses. It was... It was the whole look. And I don't say look as in L-O-O-K. It's L-E-W-K.
Oh, that's fair. Do you think the sunglasses are to ward off the ghosts or just so people don't see them zoning out?
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Chapter 3: What does Quinn Hughes mean by seeing ghosts?
So it'll be interesting to see how they handle that. The U S and Sweden matchup actually is much closer than most people would assume based on some of the stats. And the U S power play has been pretty grim as of late. So I think that's the one area where they lack, but other than that, U S should cruise their puck drops here and, or just did drop a little bit ago.
So it's underway as we record, but Canada U S gold medal, and it's going to be the U S for gold, right?
yeah if there's one thing i can confidently say it's i think the women will be wearing the gold i think so too next and you're getting to see some really cool the the thing i've loved about the this tournament in particular is you're seeing that passing the torch you you still have hillary knight you still have kelly panic you still have lee's deckline right the the names that have been synonymous kendall coin um schofield all of those players have been around for so many olympics and so much u.s women's hockey success
but now you're seeing Layla Edwards, Caroline Harvey, you know, Abby Murphy is getting her international shining Taylor Heisey. This is her first Olympics after being one of the last cut last go around. So you're seeing that passing the torch and how good they're all complimenting each other, which I think has been tremendous.
It's been so much fun. And yeah, you're right. Like chills thinking about it. Like,
passing of the torch I don't know like and I hate sorry I'm pivoting so hard here and I acknowledge and I'm so sorry to anyone listening like in the words of Tate McRae you guys know I'm USA down but I keep having to talk about the Canadian men's team it's like similar to like you see Sidney Crosby like the grand or not the grandfather that's really aging him the father period of Team Canada the passing of the torch to like young Macklin who idolized the
Sidney Crosby growing up so excited they were for him in the penalty shot too like McDavid and Crosby were like watching with just pure joy or maybe it was McKinnon I'm not sure but it was for sure I don't know why I'm so emotional right now but that makes me want to cry like I'm like literally getting tears in my eyes right now like I'm just it's so happy like it's exciting I don't know yes I'm I'm USA down but team Canada is really fun right now and I'm really sorry guys
Let's talk about it. You guys know I made the kind of a bold statement that I didn't think the U.S. men's team would medal in the tournament just because there's something holding me back. I'm nervous. We did a live show last week with Judd's Hockey Show and Kirsten called it out. I get sweaty thinking about it because I should have confidence in this team.
I don't know where the lack of confidence comes from, but maybe it comes from not seeing complete domination. I thought their best game in the three preliminaries was against Germany.
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Chapter 4: How do the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team's chances compare to the women's?
will fare against Sweden or Latvia? Again, it's leaning towards Sweden. Do you think that's a team that they can
beat because it is it's still a very good team it's a tough draw considering you know if you had placed first instead you needed to score 10 goals against germany in order to upend canada for that first place spot in the seating but do you think sweden or latvia is favorable for the u.s
Chapter 5: How are the U.S. women's Olympic hockey team performing in the tournament?
I mean, it's, it's a tournament and the stakes are high. Anything could happen. You never know. I think it's the U S is game to lose for sure. And it's not to discredit Sweden or Latvia. I just think, I really think at the end of all of this, it's going to come down to Canada U S which terrifies me. Cause I, yeah. That's so good, but also so good. Like you will see a new level.
And this isn't fair for me to say out loud, but I'm going to say it out loud anyways. And, And it's less to do with the situation that just happened as well. So I'm a little hesitant to say anything because I also don't think the situation that just happened was purposeful. I think it was just kind of like a little bit of a freak accident.
But I'm scared for our players to go up against Tom Wilson. And the incident I am referring to was, I believe it was he had a hit on Kevin Fiala when Canada was playing Switzerland. And Kevin Fiala, unfortunately, we know what happened, broke his lower leg. and had to have season ending surgery. So he's done for the Olympics.
He's out for the rest of the NHL season as well, which is huge bummer for Kings fans. So I don't know. And it's not fair to just say, watch out for Tom Wilson, dirty player. I'm not trying to say that at all. I just, I know he plays a hard style of hockey and he's hard to play up against. So our guys going up against Tom Wilson terrifies me. Yeah. Second time Fiala's broken his leg.
Yeah, different part, though. Thank God it wasn't a femur, right? Okay, a femur. It wasn't. I was like, I thought I didn't know which part of his leg it was from that playoffs. But yes, that's right.
Yeah, it was his femur. So thank God it wasn't that again. But I think it's still fairly serious. Just maybe not as serious. But I'm not a doctor. Don't take medical advice from me. Definitely don't.
Yeah, I think... You can't start late in any of these games moving forward, no matter what it looks like. You need to start from the drop of the puck. And again, I think there's been, I'm loving that Austin Matthews has finally kind of figured it out. He seemed very just despondent almost out there every now and then. I was like, I don't love this. I think Matt Boldy's played really well.
Again, I think the Kachuk boys shockingly have fit really well into this Olympic style. I was a little worried because they're a little crazy. They're a little chaotic out there. I think they've done a really nice job. I'm liking that line together. Jake Gensel, I'd like to see just a little bit more because he has that speed. He has that scoring ability.
Ultimately, you need to get there, get to the net. If it is Jacob Markstrom, light him up, baby. Light him up. If it's Sweden and Jacob Markstrom, light him up. If it's Gus, probably also light it up.
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