Minnesota Wild’s Jake Middleton Drops All-Time Hockey Interview

Hockey players can go two ways when it comes to post-game interviews. Some are more reserved and give boilerplate answers about how the team did or did not go out and execute if needed to get pucks in deep.

Or, they could show some character and give us a gem of an interview like Minnesota Wild defenseman Jake Middleton did on Wednesday night after his team defeated the Buffalo Sabres 1-0 in overtime.

That lone goal came courtesy of Kirill Kaprizov who is leading the league in points and having an unreal season (the Wild are in general good for the State of Hockey).

After the game, FanDuel Sports Network’s Kevin Gorg pulled Middleton aside to talk about the game and what it was like watching overtime, and thankfully he did because Middleton delivered an all-time Hockey Guy interview.

“So much fun,” Middleton began. “Gus (goalie Filip Gustavsson) was unbelievable, Kirill stayed out there for two minutes, Brock (Faber) had a two-minute shift too. Everyone played unbelievable.”

Then — with the missing teeth and killer stache to boot — Middleton gifted us a quote for the ages. 

“Kirill; top-titty two-by-four to end the game, that was nice,” he said, echoing throughout St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild have been on a roll this season which has put them in first place in the Central Division. As Gorg noted in his interview, the Wild find ways to win, and Middleton had an answer for how they go about doing that.

“Stick together, dude,” Middleton said. “That’s what you saw tonight if [the Sabres] want to go after our big dogs, we’ll go after theirs, and we’ll play longer than they do.”

What an interview. If you were good with some kind of post-production, special effects software and edited Jake Middleton into the iconic 1977 movie, no, film Slap Shot, I think it would take a couple of screenings before anyone noticed.

The dude is a throwback-style character and the NHL can never have too many of those.