Tag Archives: Brent Burns

San Jose Sharks – Shark Bite

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Throughout the year, the Sip Advisor will alphabetically travel the National Hockey League (NHL), discovering the best and worst each team has to offer in a variety of subjects. We will also feature a drink based off the franchise. Today, we visit the Bay Area and go swimming with the San Jose Sharks:

Establishment Story: The Sharks joined the NHL as an expansion team in 1991. The Gund family wished to return a team to the San Francisco Bay Area, having previously operated the California Golden Seals there. The Seals were relocated to Cleveland and later merged with the Minnesota North Stars, which the Gunds wanted to sell their share of. A Dispersal Draft was held to divvy up players between the Sharks and North Stars.

Stanley Cups: The Sharks have never won the Stanley Cup and have only made one Finals appearance, losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games in 2016. This, despite long stretches of time being considered among the best teams in the league, reaching the Western Conference Finals on four other occasions. San Jose have qualified for the playoffs in 21 of the 31 seasons they have been an NHL franchise.

Celebrity Fan: The Sharks have a number of famous followers, including musician Neil Young, tech guru Steve Wozniak and members of the band Metallica. Young and Wozniak have been season ticket members for years, while Metallica – who have been based in San Francisco for much of their careers – have provided the team with their entrance song, Seek & Destroy, since 2013 and were honoured with Metallica Night in January 2015.

Sharks

Super Fan: Sam Tageson grew up a fan of the Sharks. On March 18, 2014, the then 18-year-old, who suffers from hypoplastic left heart syndrome, was signed to a one-day contract by the team. Tageson participated in the teams pre-game practice and hit the ice with them for their contest that night against the Florida Panthers. The night was immortalized with an Upper Deck rookie trading card of Tageson posing by the team’s shark entrance prop.

Mascot: S.J. Sharkie debuted a few months after the rest of the Sharks, in January 1992. He has been called ‘The Hardest Working Fish in Sports’, making 450 public appearances each year, including fundraisers, birthday parties, corporate events and even weddings. S.J. Sharkie was named the 2012 Most Awesome Mascot for the Cartoon Network’s Hall of Game Awards, becoming the first hockey mascot to win the honour.

Tradition: For home games, Sharks players enter through a menacing looking shark mouth, while Seek & Destroy by Metallica blasts throughout the arena. A former entrance song, Get Ready for This by 2 Unlimited, is the team’s current goal song. Another long-standing ritual for fans is to do a chomping gesture with their hands, particularly while the team is about to go on a power play, as the memorable theme track from the movie Jaws plays.

Appearances in Media: Due to his unique look and personality, during his time with the Sharks, defenseman Brent Burns appeared in two episodes of the TV series Vikings and was featured in commercials for Kit Kat Chunky chocolate bars and CCM Hockey equipment. Also, the character of Lester Averman wears a Sharks hoodie in The Mighty Ducks, years before San Jose and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim would be rivals.

Tageson

Events/Scandals: Evander Kane was no stranger to controversy by the time he joined the Sharks in 2018, but things seemed to get worse during his San Jose tenure. Incidents included Kane being sued for unpaid gambling debts, Kane filing for bankruptcy, accusations from Kane’s estranged wife that the player bet on his own games, as well as assaulted her, and Kane using a fake COVID-19 vaccine card. In the end, the organization had enough and terminated his contract in January 2022.

Rivalry: The Sharks chief rival is the Los Angeles Kings, who they met in the playoffs four times between 2011 to 2016, with each club taking two series. The feud is not surprising, given rivalries between San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles teams in other leagues (Giants-Dodgers [MLB], 49ers-Rams [NFL] and Earthquakes-Galaxy [MLS]) and the general Northern California vs. Southern California opposition.

Tragedy: Bryan Marchment, who had played parts of six seasons with the Sharks from 1998 to 2003, had moved into coaching and scouting roles with the team after retiring in 2006. On July 6, 2022, while attending the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal in his scouting capacity, Marchment died suddenly. No cause of death was released. Sharks GM, Mike Grier, paid tribute to Marchment prior to the team’s first-round draft selection.

Player Nicknames: Long-time Sharks star Joe Thornton was given the nickname Jumbo, thanks both to his large stature and also because there is a statue of the famous circus elephant of the same name in Thornton’s hometown of St. Thomas, Ontario, where the elephant died after being hit by a train. Thornton gained another nickname, Big Joe, in contrast to teammate Joe Pavelski, who was dubbed Little Joe. Pavelski was also known for a time as The Big Pavelski, a reference to the film The Big Lebowski.

Evander Kane

Line: The Jumbo Heated Patty Line (also known as the Burger Line), consisted of Joe Thornton (Jumbo), Dany Heatley (Heated) and Patrick Marleau (Patty). When defensemen Dan Boyle (Boiled) and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (Pickles) were added to the mix, you had the Boiled Jumbo Heated Patty with Pickles Line. These players comprised the core of the Sharks roster for many seasons.

Captain: Doug Wilson was the first captain in Sharks franchise history, leading the team for two seasons (1991 to 1993), prior to retiring. Wilson would return to the organization as GM in 2003, serving in the role until stepping down in April 2022, due to health issues. The team’s current captain, Logan Couture, has held the position since the 2019-20 season. Couture was drafted by San Jose ninth overall in 2007.

Enforcer: Although Link Gaetz only played 48 games with the Sharks, his NHL career ended by a car accident, he’s fondly remembered, in part because of his wild reputation and willingness to take on all combatants. Gaetz was nicknamed ‘The Missing Link’ and legend has it, he showed up to the 1988 draft with two black eyes from a bar fight the night before. In his brief Sharks tenure, Gaetz recorded 326 penalty minutes, a franchise single-season record.

Family Values: Cousins Scott and Joe Thornton played together with the Sharks for the 2005-06 season. Also, father and son, Ulf and Jonathan Dahlen, both enjoyed tenures with San Jose. Ulf played parts of four seasons (1994 to 1997) with the club, while Jonathan suited up for a single season (2021-22). Lastly, brothers Jamie and Tye McGinn had separate stints with the organization.

Link Gaetz

Returning Players: Patrick Marleau had three separate stints with the Sharks. The first began with him being drafted second overall in 1997 and lasted two decades. Following two seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Marleau had his contract bought out and he returned to San Jose. Following a trade deadline deal to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Marleau returned again, allowing him to surpass Gordie Howe’s NHL games played record where it all began.

Short Stint: Hall of Fame goalie, Ed Belfour, was shockingly traded to the Sharks on January 25, 1997, when he refused to sign a contract extension with the Chicago Blackhawks. Belfour’s time with San Jose did not go well, winning only three games in 13 appearances. While with the Sharks, Belfour changed his number from 30 to 20, as a tribute to legendary netminder, Vladislav Tretiak, who was his coach with the Blackhawks.

Undrafted: Jeff Odgers was signed by the Sharks in 1990, joining the team for their inaugural 1991-92 season. Over his five years in San Jose, Odgers set the franchise record for all-time penalty minutes with 1,001, and holds the runner-up spot for penalty minutes in a season with 253. Odgers also served as Sharks captain for a season and a half. He finished his career with 821 games played, 75 goals, 70 assists and 2,364 penalty minutes.

Trade: The Sharks acquisition of Joe Thornton from the Boston Bruins early in the 2005-06 season is regarded as one of the most lopsided deals in NHL history. Thornton, a former first overall draft pick in 1997, was dealt for forwards Marco Sturm and Keith Primeau, as well as defenseman Brad Stuart. Thornton would go on to win the Art Ross (NHL regular season points leader) and Hart Memorial (NHL MVP) Trophies in his first season in teal and become a league superstar.

Patrick Marleau

Signing: In 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks loss, was the Sharks gain, as San Jose picked up the most recent Stanley Cup winning goalie (the first Finnish backstop to do so) on a relatively team-friendly deal. Antti Niemi had been rewarded $2.75 million by an arbiter, but Chicago was forced to walk away from the decision, due to their salary cap constraints. The Sharks swooped in and signed Niemi to a one-year, $2 million pact. He would go on to become San Jose’s netminder for the next five seasons.

Draft Pick: The Sharks have never drafted first overall, but have done well with the second choice, highlighted by selecting Patrick Marleau in 1997. The team also has a couple diamond in the rough picks that looked like steals later in Evgeni Nabokov (219th overall in 1994) and Joe Pavelski (205th overall in 2003). Time will tell how recent high draft picks, such as William Eklund (seventh overall in 2021) and Will Smith (fourth overall in 2023) turn out.

Holdouts: Goalie Evgeni Nabokov was one of the NHL’s best goalies going into the 2002-03 season and he wanted to be compensated as such. Five games into the season, after the Sharks managed to win only one contest, the team and Nabokov finally agreed on a new deal. One year prior, defenseman Mike Rathje sat out 24 games, before a four-year, $8.25 million contract brought him back into the fold.

Buyouts: In July 2017, the Sharks signed Martin Jones to a six-year, $34.5 million contract extension. Just three seasons into that deal, following a drop in performance (three straight .896 save percentages), Jones was bought out, owed $10 million over the next six years. Jones has bounced around the NHL since departing San Jose, playing for a different team in each subsequent season.

Joe Pavelski

Unique Game: The Sharks opened their 1998 season with a pair of games against the Calgary Flames in Tokyo, Japan. They also took part in the 2010 NHL Premiere with two contests against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as back-to-back matches against the Nashville Predators in Prague, Czechia, for the 2022 NHL Global Series. A 2015 Stadium Series event featured San Jose against the Los Angeles Kings.

Goal: The Sharks have a history of upsetting favoured teams in playoff Game 7s, based on memorable goals. Underdog Sharks teams defeated both the Detroit Red Wings and Calgary Flames back-to-back in 1994 and 1995, with goals from Jamie Baker and Ray Whitney in double overtime, respectively. In 2000, Owen Nolan’s center ice slap shot tally helped to eliminate the St. Louis Blues. Also, goaltender Evgeni Nabokov became the first European backstop to score a goal, when he did so on March 10, 2002.

Fight/Brawl: The playoffs brings a whole new level of intensity to NHL hockey. A great example of that occurred during the first round of the 2009 post-season, when the Sharks battled their California rivals, the Anaheim Ducks. In Game 6 of the series, Joe Thornton fought Ryan Getzlaf, while later Joe Pavelski scrapped with Ryan Whitney. All four players were not known for their fisticuffs, but rose to the occasion at the most important time of the year. The Ducks would go on the win the series.

Injury: It’s not often that an injury leads to good. That was the case in the 2019 playoffs, when Joe Pavelski fell to the ice after being hit by Cody Eakin of the Vegas Golden Knights and suffered a head injury. Eakin received a five-minute major, during which San Jose scored four goals, to erase a 3-0 deficit. While Pavelski did not return to the contest, the Sharks would go on to win the deciding Game 7 in overtime.

Joe Thornton

Penalty: Raffi Torres had a long history of NHL discipline before his hit to the head of Anaheim Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg during a 2015 pre-season contest. Torres was suspended for 41-games (half the season, which is the longest ban in NHL history for a hit and longest non-lifetime suspension in league history). Torres never played again in the NHL, being assigned to the Sharks minor league affiliate after serving his punishment.

Wildest Story: The Sharks once invested in a Chinese hockey team, agreeing to send five players and three coaches to China. Thus, the China Sharks briefly existed, lasting two seasons from 2007 to 2009 in Asia League Ice Hockey, before the NHL Sharks were done with the international experiment and pulled their funding. Perhaps the most notable occurrence of the team’s existence, was Claude Lemieux beginning his comeback attempt there with two contests, before suiting up for San Jose for 18 games.

Blooper: Blunders happen, but it’s not often they result in playoff elimination. Game 5 of the 2011 Western Conference Finals went to double overtime, with the Vancouver Canucks one win away from a Stanley Cup Finals berth. Suddenly, Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa was celebrating, while few others had any idea he had just scored the winning goal. Replays showed the puck had bounced off a glass stanchion, allowing Bieksa to shoot the puck on net, while others on the ice had lost sight of the biscuit.

Miscellaneous: A little more on how the Sharks team name was chosen, the moniker could have been Blades, based on the name winning a fan vote, but concerns about the term’s association with violence, led to Sharks being selected, as it was the runner-up amongst 5,000 submissions. It should be noted, the Sharks minor league affiliate from 1990 to 1996 was the Kansas City Blades.

San Jose Sharks: Shark Bite

Shark Bite

  • 0.75 oz Spiced Rum
  • 0.75 oz Light Rum
  • 0.5 oz Blue Curacao
  • Top with Lemon-Lime Soda
  • Drops of Grenadine
  • Garnish with Shark Gummies

I amalgamated a couple different Shark Bite recipes here. This was a fun drink that took a little more prep than your typical cocktail, but was totally worth it!

Minnesota Wild – Wild Thing

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Throughout the year, the Sip Advisor will alphabetically travel the National Hockey League (NHL), discovering the best and worst each team has to offer in a variety of subjects. We will also featuring a drink based off the franchise. Today, we enter ‘The State of Hockey’ to see what the Minnesota Wild have to offer:

Establishment Story: The Wild joined the NHL as an expansion team in 2000, although they had been founded on June 25, 1997. The franchise was promised to the city when the Minnesota Stars were relocated to Dallas in 1993. Before settling on the Wild nickname, other monikers considered were Blue Ox, Freeze, Northern Lights, Voyageurs, and White Bears. The Winnipeg Jets were almost moved to Minnesota in the mid-1990s, but no arena deal could be reached.

Stanley Cups: The Wild have never won the Stanley Cup, having furthest reached the Western Conference Final in 2003 and even that was a surprisingly successful run. Since that 2003 achievement, the Wild have only advanced to the second round of the playoffs twice (back-to-back in 2014 and 2015), while missing the post-season altogether seven times during that span.

Celebrity Fan: Richard Dean Anderson, best known as the star of the original MacGyver TV show, is a proud Minnesotan, who played hockey while growing up. When the Minnesota Stars were relocated to Dallas, a fandom void was left for Anderson that wasn’t filled until the Wild debuted. Anderson was also a regular for celebrity charity hockey games back in the day.

State of Hockey

Super Fan: Alyssa Nelson, dubbed the Lady in Pink, first garnered attention during the 2014 playoffs for her passionate cheering of the Wild. When the team staved off elimination in Game 6 of their series versus the Colorado Avalanche, she became a lucky charm of sorts. Minnesota would end up completing the comeback and move on to the second round of post-season action.

Mascot: Nordy is an animal – some say he’s a puma, others a bear or fox – where the only thing certain about him is he’s wild. Nordy wears the jersey number 18,001, a reference to The Team of 18,000, the number of fans at a sold out Wild game. Nordy debuted in 2008 and is available to be booked for birthday parties and even wedding receptions, where he’ll show up for photos or time on the dance floor.

Tradition: The Wild had a very unique tradition from 2017-2020, dubbed This is Our Ice, where fans were invited to help the team form its ice sheet, using water from their local ponds, lakes and rinks. It would then be filtered and frozen for arena use during an event called Flood the Rink. The Wild also host Hockey Day Minnesota each year, with the 2023 rendition being the 17th annual running of the spectacular.

Appearances in Media: Becoming Wild, an Emmy award-winning TV and online series, has aired since 2011, giving viewers a behind the scenes look at the players of the Wild, including their personal lives and how they navigate each season. The club has also released a couple of DVDs, including Minnesota Wild: The State of Hockey (2004) and Minnesota Wild Hockey Club: Celebrating a Decade in the State of Hockey (2010).

Nordy

Events/Scandals: In a November 2020 lawsuit, Wild GM Bill Guerin was named for his role in allegedly covering up a reported sexual assault that occurred while Guerin was GM of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The incident was said to have been perpetrated by head coach Clark Donatelli on the wife of assistant coach Jarrod Skalde. An investigation was launched by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, with a variety of punishments possible if it’s proved Guerin acted inappropriately.

Rivalry: The Wild’s biggest adversary is the collection of teams that make up the rest of the NHL’s Central Division, particularly the Colorado Avalanche, Chicago Blackhawks, Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues. They also had a brief rivalry with the Vancouver Canucks, when both teams were part of the Northwest Division from 2000 to 2013. Some fans may also harbour some resentment for the Dallas Stars, given the franchise’s move from Minnesota in 1993.

Tragedy: In September 2012, Wild goalie Josh Harding was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). He attempted to play through the disease and continue his career, being awarded the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in 2013 for his “perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey.” Unfortunately, Harding’s career came to an end during the 2014-15 season, as a member of the Wild’s American Hockey League team, as he could not overcome his MS.

Player Nicknames: When Kirill Kaprizov finally joined the Minnesota Wild in 2020, five years after being drafted by the team, he immediately became a fan favourite, scoring 27 goals and adding 24 assists in 55 games, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year. He was dubbed Kirill the Thrill and signed a five-year, $45 million contract, ensuring he continues to wow Minnesota crowds for years to come.

Kaprizov

Line: Dubbed the Big Line, the trio of Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston and Marian Gaborik enjoyed great success playing together. More recently, the unit of Kirill Kaprizov, Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello have rewritten portions of the Wild record books, while as their name suggests, the GREEF Line of Jordan Greenway, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno have made Minnesota frustrating to play against.

Captain: Mikko Koivu spent all but seven games of his NHL career with the Wild. Starting in February 2008, Koivu served as one of Minnesota’s rotating captains. He was named the Wild’s first permanent captain for the 2009-10 season, a role he held until 2020. After only seven games with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Koivu announced his retirement. Koivu’s number was the first retired in franchise history in 2022.

Enforcer: The Wild signed Derek Boogaard (nicknamed Boogeyman) during the 2002-03 season, placing him with their East Coast Hockey League (third tier) affiliate. From there, Boogaard worked his way up to the NHL, claiming numerous fighting victims along the way. Boogaard made the Wild out of their 2005 training camp, thanks to his intimidation factor. Boogaard finished his Wild tenure with 544 penalty minutes over 255 games.

Family Values: Uncle and nephew Jacques Lemaire and Manny Fernandez were members of the Wild together, as Lemaire served as the franchise’s first head coach from 2000 to 2009, while Fernandez minded the Minnesota net from its earliest days until a 2007 trade to the Boston Bruins. That must have made some starting goalie decisions awkward. Also, cousins Marc and Eric Chouinard played together during the 2003-04 campaign.

Mikko Koivu

Returning Players: Andrew Brunette played two stints with the Wild and returned a third time as an advisor to the hockey operations department and later assistant coach of the team. Brunette was very durable for the Wild, playing at least 80 games in all six of his seasons with the franchise. His two tours of duty with Minnesota were split up by three seasons with the Colorado Avalanche.

Short Stint: Enigmatic goalie Ilya Bryzgalov played 12 games for the Wild in 2014, after coming to the team at the trade deadline. In those contests, Bryzgalov posted a 7-1-3 record and also saw playoff action with Minnesota, as the team was eliminated in the second round. Bryzgalov then became an unrestricted free agent and didn’t sign his next contract until December of that year, with the Anaheim Ducks.

Undrafted: Niklas Backstrom was signed by the Wild in June 2006 to be the team’s back-up goalie. It wasn’t long before he took over the starter role and by 2009, he was runner-up for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s best goaltender. Backstrom was traded to the Calgary Flames in 2016, before returning to Finland for the final three seasons of his career.

Trade: Some of the Wild’s best transactions have involved acquiring goaltenders, such as Manny Fernandez in 2000, Devan Dubnyk in 2015 and Filip Gustavsson in 2022. The worst trade in franchise history saw the Wild send Brent Burns to the San Jose Sharks at the 2011 NHL Draft. In California, Burns would flourish as a multiple time all-star and win the 2017 Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman.

Bryzgalov

Signing: When the Wild signed Eric Staal in 2016, few could have imagined he’d return to his early career form. Staal recorded 92 goals and 193 points over that three-year deal. As for the Wild’s worst signings, on July 4, 2012, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter agreed to identical 13-year, $98 million pacts. The massive splash landed Minnesota two of the most coveted free agents of that off-season, but the team was criticized for the length of the deals and for overpaying.

Draft Pick: The earliest the Wild have ever picked is third overall, when they snagged sniper Marian Gaborik in 2000. The following year, they selected future captain Mikko Koivu sixth overall. The Wild’s greatest diamond in the rough find was Kirill Kaprizov at 135th overall in 2015. Kaprizov finally debuted with the team in 2021, following five seasons in Russia, and immediately became a superstar.

Holdouts: Going into the 2003-04 season, the Wild were dealt a double whammy of having both Marian Gaborik and Pascal Dupuis unable to sign new contracts with the team. Dupuis rejoined the team first, followed a week later by Gaborik, who went through a few agents and returned to his native Slovakia, in an attempt to gain some leverage in negotiations. Gaborik signed for half of the $6.5 million he was originally requesting.

Buyouts: In the 2021 off-season, GM Bill Guerin decided to buyout the twin contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, with four years remaining on each deal. The buyouts will cause significant salary cap ramifications for the team up to the 2024-25 season and will remain on their books until 2027-28. Parise would end up signing with the New York Islanders, while Suter landed with the Dallas Stars.

Parise and Suter

Unique Game: As part of the 2010 NHL Premiere, the Wild opened their season with two games against the Carolina Hurricanes in Helsinki, Finland. They have also participated in two outdoor games, a 2016 Stadium Series match versus the Chicago Blackhawks and the 2022 Winter Classic against the St. Louis Blues. For the 2023 Global Series, Minnesota will join three other teams in Stockholm, Sweden for another pair of games.

Goal: The Wild have only reached the Western Conference Final once and the goal that pushed them there was scored by Andrew Brunette, in overtime, against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of the 2003 Western Conference Quarterfinals. The goal had added significance, as it was the last tally ever scored on legendary goalie Patrick Roy, who announced his retirement a month later.

Fight/Brawl: Among Derek Boogaard’s many notable bouts was an October 2006 scrap with Todd Fedoruk of the Anaheim Ducks. The fight was short, as just moments in, Boogaard landed a punch that fractured Fedoruk’s cheekbone. Surgery, including metal plates and mesh, was required to repair the injury. Sadly, Boogaard died in 2011 due to an accidental overdose, while a member of the New York Rangers.

Injury: On March 20, 2008, Wild defenseman Kurtis Foster suffered a broken leg when he crashed into the boards while racing against San Jose Sharks forward Torrey Mitchell for an icing call. Foster missed almost a full year recovering from the injury. As a result of the incident, the NHL altered its icing rules, making dangerous contact during a race for the puck illegal. Players could only attempt to play the puck and not contact the opposing player.

Boogaard

Penalty: Matt Cooke’s long history of suspensions for dangerous hits followed him to Minnesota, where he was banned for seven games following a knee-on-knee hit on Colorado Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie during the 2014 playoffs. Barrie was injured on the play and missed the remainder of Colorado’s post-season run. Cooke would play one more season for the Wild before being bought out in 2015 and retiring.

Wildest Story: During the 2022 off-season, Kirill Kaprizov returned to his native Russia, despite GM Bill Guerin preferring he stay in Minnesota, amidst the Russia-Ukraine War. In July 2022, news broke that Kaprizov was wanted by Russian authorities for allegedly purchasing a fraudulent military ID card, in order to avoid the mandatory military service for all males aged 18 to 27. It took three attempts for Kaprizov to escape Russia and return to the U.S.

Blooper: Cal Clutterbuck, the NHL’s leader for career hits with 3,756, began his career with the Wild. Always looking for his next target, opposing players must be aware of his presence on the ice, as crafty Vancouver Canucks winger Alex Burrows was during a March 2011 game. Clutterbuck had Burrows lined up, but at the last moment, Burrows spun away, causing Clutterbuck to go flying into the Canucks bench.

Miscellaneous: The story of Wild original Matt Johnson is a tragic one. Johnson, a popular enforcer, nicknamed Moose by Wild fans, played the final four seasons of his 10-year career in Minnesota. He retired following the 2004-05 NHL lockout, as he did not want to be a fighter anymore. Johnson’s life after hockey was documented in the 2017 piece Searching for Matt Johnson, which revealed he had been missing for close to a decade and was later discovered homeless in Southern California.

Minnesota Wild: Wild Thing

Wild Thing

  • 1.5 oz Tequila
  • Top with Cranberry Juice and Club Soda
  • Splash of Lime Juice
  • Garnish with a Lime Wheel

For a time, Xcel Energy Center, home arena for the Wild, also sold a drink called Wild for Jack, with ingredients including Jack Daniel’s Whiskey, Peach Schnapps, Lemon-Lime Soda, Raspberry Puree and Lemon Juice. I went with the Wild Thing recipe because it matched items I had on hand and wanted to put together.