Preseason hockey is typically a slow warm-up, but that wasn’t the case for Bobby Brink and Wyatt Kaiser. A wild night on Monday night saw the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks battle it out, and two homegrown Minnesota boys decided to take their fans back to the 80s. Brink, a former Minnetonka High School star, and Kaiser, an Andover High School alum, turned a routine exhibition game into an absolute throwback rivalry. It’s the kind of energetic, high-intensity action that reminds everyone why hockey season is finally back in full swing.
The fireworks began in the back of the second period, when Kaiser got a hard open-ice shot on Brink. Brink wasn’t about to skate away, though, as he took a stand against the Blackhawks defender on the same shift. Out of the gloves, in the fists, and in the United Center crowd burst out. Quite ironic, this bare-knuckled showdown was the first actual fight of Brink’s career, and Kaiser had a few more scraps under his belt with three previous matches.
The added fun of this tilt is that the two talented players come from the “State of Hockey” and have a shared past. Prior to hitting NHL ice, Brink was busy leading the Minnetonka team to a state title in 2018; in fact, Kaiser was anchored at Andover on their way to a state tournament title in 2020. Both players don’t typically have the reputation of being an enforcer on the ice; in fact, Brink scored two goals for Minnesota early in the game, and his spontaneous brawl was entertaining for fans of the home team who have followed both players since high school.
Although Chicago defeated Minnesota 4-3 in the exhibition game, it wasn’t strictly a scoreboard show. It was about two old-school rivals bringing that authentic high school tournament fire directly to the professional ranks. If this preseason scrap is any sign of what’s coming, the rivalry between the Wild and the Blackhawks is going to be packed with plenty of passion and grit all season long.
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