Playoff hockey is built for the Chiclets format. You get the boys on a live stream, a Pink Whitney sponsor read, somebody screaming at the refs, and a game that swings four different ways before the second intermission. That's exactly what unfolded when Minnesota and Colorado dropped the puck, and the crew was locked in from puck drop, trading first-goal picks before anything had even happened on the ice.
The crew goes around the room on who scores first.
Minnesota answered the question pretty quickly. The Wild struck first on the power play, which is exactly the kind of start a road dog needs against an Avalanche team that punishes mistakes if you let them hang around. Chef Donny was already in mid-season form by then, screaming about a Manson hit that he wanted gone for five and a game.
Minnesota's power-play opener that set the room off.
Then came the moment everyone winced at. Nathan MacKinnon caught a puck flush in the face, the kind of replay you watch through your fingers. For a second the building went quiet and the whole tenor of the night shifted, because if MacKinnon's done, the series changes shape entirely. Then he did the most hockey thing imaginable and skated back out for his next shift like nothing happened.
The MacKinnon puck-to-the-face moment.
He's back out there a few minutes later.
Colorado eventually got their guy on the board, because of course it was Nazem Kadri, a player who has spent his entire career living rent-free in opposing fan bases during the playoffs. The Brock Faber love-fest got plenty of run too — the Wild fleecing the Kings in that Fiala deal looks more lopsided every postseason — and through all of it Chef Donny was the unofficial MVP of the broadcast, leaving every ounce of himself on the desk.
Kadri does Kadri things.
Chef Donny, all heart.
This is the version of Chiclets that works best — not a polished studio show, just guys watching a hockey game and losing their minds at the same beats you are. Wild-Avs has been a track meet with real stakes, and as long as MacKinnon keeps eating pucks and getting back up, the watchalong is going to keep delivering.