lauren, queer, she/her, 18+

this is a minnesota wild space with a brock faber focus and loser minnycule/core four preference.

sometimes enjoy the whimsy of the sharks. no other teams are tolerated nor cared about. in fact, many are actively hated.

Yup, there’s a difference. I think two players who exemplify that to me are Robertson and McDavid. I think Robertson is a really good player, he’s a points machine but he’s a PP merchant. His goals in the playoffs for example just so not memorable and not impactful to the games. Just boring to watch him and he is awful defensively. McDavid, similar to me. OBVIOUSLY one of the greatest but I just don’t ENJOY watching him. He’s so technical and dispassionate to me.

Now players like Brock, Celebrini, Bedard, they all play with passion and with personality. That’s the players I tend to like the most. It’s also why I like 743 together so much because I feel like Brock brings a lot of personality out of Quinn when they play together. Especially as they got more comfortable and they just makes it way more fun to watch.

I think I’ve said in the past that defensemen are usually my favorite players. Spurgeon was my favorite player for a while. I just really like the position a lot, to me it’s the most exciting and interesting position in hockey. Especially in this era, this is the defensemen era.

But in terms of him as a player you only need to turn to Quinn to wax poetic:

“Yeah he’s been amazing. We’re gelling great, I think that we’re playing really good hockey right now. […] he’s been fantastic, he’s just a gamer. I just think he’s got a big engine, he can really skate. Cover so much ground, so much ice. Ultra competitive. He’s got a great shot, great skill. Put all those things together he’s a heckuva a hockey player. And what is he? 23? So I think that, and really he hasn’t played too many play off games. I mean he’s had the Olympics and Four Nations but he’s just going to continue to grow as he you know get more confident, continue to learn the game, and get better and better. He’s 23, at 27 that could be even scarier. […] he’s been unbelievable for us.”

He’s still really really young but from his rookie year the Wild have really relied on him to be a star and he consistently has stepped up and worked hard. He improves every year. But he’s also just so fun to watch on the ice, I think it’s what comes up the most about him from casuals or people who may not watch the Wild much, he’s just so fun as a player. He’s a super dynamic skater, it’s not that he’s on his edges all the time like Quinn (although he’s learning that and showing flashes of it), it’s that he has a way of power skating forward and out of trouble. He has burst speed that he can turn on at will. There’s a reason too so many people who watch him like Guerin, Hynes, Quinn, Ryan Carter, cite his skating. It’s elite, some of the best defensive skating in the league.

He’s also always all over the ice all the time. He’s seemingly everywhere all at once. He’s great at blocking shots and has a good defensive net front presence, Wally and Gus trust him a lot in front of them and he’s never blocking THEM, he’s a really good partner for them. He’s always giving 110% even when he’s exhausted you never see him giving up a game, giving up a play. He has one of the most fun shots from the blue line and it’s deathly accurate and an absolute rocket. He may not be able to see shit but he always finds the net.

I also think he does have a really funny personality? He’s a home grown boy so as a Minnesotan he’s very familiar to me as just a suburban minnesota white boy in both good and bad ways? But I love that he’s very goofy and weird, he doesn’t care if he looks silly, he’s always the life of a party (as all of Team USA can attest to), he never turns down a charity event if he can help it, he donates so much of his time especially to kids in the community and especially in the disability community which is incredible. But even for like signing Pride pucks, donating random items for auctions of all types, etc. You don’t ever hear of a bad fan experience with him, he’s super accessible as a player which is very important as a future captain.

But he also takes his job seriously. Like some players just blow off interviews or after game availability or whatever but Brock makes it a point to always volunteer if he can and be available after losses, speaks for the team in a very mature measured way, and is very thoughtful and honest. I think that’s partially why Wild fans want to hear from him. Wild fans really respect him and love him in a way that they don’t some of the other players and it’s not just that he’s a great player. We feel like he’s one of us, he knows what it means to be a fan of the team.