Hockey Class Is In Session, and It’s Time for a Group Project

Playing professional hockey is a full-time group project. But unlike many group projects we’ve done at work or in school, this is a rare project with 100% buy-in, where every member has a stake in the outcome.

There’s no way that dedication would translate into a group presentation like a college speech class. How would members of the Minnesota Wild react if they were forced to write a speech, make a slide deck presentation, or choreograph a short dance as a group?

The Leaders

The worst part about a group project is that someone has to take the lead. Sometimes, a natural leader will be among the group and step in without any kerfuffle. The Wild have a leadership team, but would they be able to handle a group project? 

Jared Spurgeon would be the ultimate leader of a group project. His strength lies in his softness and his ability to quietly shape culture. He would be the one to call out the slackers without anger, but sternly enough to make them pick up the pace.

Marcus Foligno would have no problem running a meeting to plan out the group project. His natural charisma and charm would make it fun to have to write a ten-page essay together. Unfortunately, he would be too nice to tell someone that their idea doesn’t fit within the project's scope, and he would get distracted easily. 

Kirill Kaprizov is a good leader, but he leads by example. He doesn’t seem like he could be firm with the others and would end up doing the entire project himself, the same way he puts the team on his back during a tough game.

The Over-The-Top Workers

Joel Eriksson Ek is the sort of person you want to do a group project with. He will be so dedicated to the project that he will be sort of annoying. He won’t mince words if someone has missed a deadline or turned in shoddy work. Ek will give you the dead-eye stare if you try to explain it away. He’s the project partner that you love to hate.

Marco Rossi would be a lot like Ek, but probably a bit more sassy about it. He will cut you with his words, and he won’t care that you don’t want to sit next to him in class anymore.

Obviously, Marcus Johansson would go above and beyond his pay grade on the project, just like he has been this season. Write and perform a three-minute skit for a theatre class? Nope! Now it's an eight-minute skit with songs and full costuming. 

The Slackers

While some people will go above and beyond on a group project, others will do their portion, and that's it. Nothing extra or over the top.

Mats Zuccarello is a good example of this. He knows his role, and he does it well. He’ll even step into a scrum with someone a foot taller than him, but don’t ask him to take on three extra slides of the presentation. He did his part, thank you very much, and that is it.

Matt Boldy is the same way. Don’t even think about asking him to expand his role. He already does enough, and he will eviscerate you with one glance.

Absent

These guys forgot that you were meeting today. Next time, you should remind them about it. What’s that? You did remind them a few times? Must not have been enough. Don’t worry, they’ll get their parts of the project done, but it’ll be last-minute, and they won’t communicate with you beforehand, causing you to panic.

I’m talking to you, Jake Middleton, Zach Bogosian, Brock Faber, and Zeev Buium. Thankfully, all of these guys will make up for it with the happy-go-lucky way that they’ll handle to presentation part of it, capturing everyone’s heart with a quick joke and a good smile.

Devil’s Advocate

This type of project partner is a bit of a conundrum. They can be either a slacker or a worker, but they just want to cause a little bit of chaos during the process.

It’s no wonder that goalies would be notorious for this. Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson would be the ones to cause the most innocent chaos. But what if we filmed a 10-minute indie film about the topic instead of writing a paper like we’re supposed to? What if we wrote a few jokes to open our biology presentation?

Ryan Hartman, on the other hand, would be playing devil’s advocate for entertainment purposes only. He would egg on the debate about how to set up the experiment to grow sugar crystals because he wants to see how far he could push the chaos, not because he feels as passionately as Sally that using popsicle sticks would create a more uniform look. Hartman simply wants to sow the seeds of discord.