On Monday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman revisited one of the weekend’s oddest moments on the newest episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast. The incident took place during Saturday’s game between the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames that involved star center Mark Scheifele late in overtime.
Scheifele was given a holding penalty after trying to keep up with Calgary’s MacKenzie Weegar in the corner and hanging on too long. As he headed to the penalty box, the broadcast’s hot mic picked up a single, clearly audible “friggin” as he voiced his frustration. The rest of what he said was harder to understand, though it sounded like he was upset about what he felt was arrogance from the official.
When Scheifele’s penalty expired, he came out of the box and continued speaking to the referee. The conversation went on long enough that the official decided to issue a game misconduct, which removed Scheifele from the game and prevented him from taking part in the shootout.
The Jets went on to win 4–3 in the shootout, but had they struggled to score, Scheifele could’ve been to blame as he’s one of the team’s best offensive players and his actions removed himself in a key situation for the team.
On the Monday podcast, Friedman described the entire sequence as both hilarious and wild. He pointed out that moments like this show how easily on-ice comments can be picked up by broadcast microphones and that players need to be aware of how much is being recorded during games.
The brief hot-mic moment quickly became one of the most talked-about parts of the night, largely because of Scheifele’s lone, clean, and unexpectedly well-captured “friggin.”
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