“I've been everywhere, man I've been everywhere, man. Of travel I've a'had my share, man, I've been everywhere”.   Johnny Cash

The newest member of our rather exclusive “Once And Future Whale” contingent  is Alyssa Wohlfeiler, who returns to the Pod for Season Six. Alyssa was there from day one in NWHL history, as an Original Whale (OW). Alyssa’s first goal for the Pod came in their second ever game, on an assist from former Northeastern teammate #10 Lindsay Berman. More on the history that those two share a bit later. But to start things off, we’ll dial it back to an event that Alyssa described as something “ I don’t lead with very often, and I don’t share it that much.” So, we are going to share it for her. During  our interview, we asked Alyssa if there was anything about her that most fans wouldn’t know. Here is her reply, and I think you’ll understand why we led off with it.

 “Probably a lot of things” she laughed. "But one thing, I was actually in a McDonald’s commercial with Wayne Gretzky. I was I think, nine years old, so here’s how it unfolded. I went to Canada, British Columbia, for a hockey school. A summer hockey school, it was like two weeks long. I think I was the only girl there, which was normal. One of the players there, his Dad was Gretzky’s agent. And he started talking to my parents, and he told them: I’m Wayne Gretzky’s agent and he’s filming a McDonald’s commercial, and they want girl hockey players. So would your daughter be interested? And they were like: I guess, why not?n So I was part of a group of kids, young hockey players, who were in the commercial. Gretzky was one of the nicest guys. There was one scene where we were sitting in the bleachers, and we all had a different McDonald’s product in our hand, and I had some fries. I ended up sitting next to him, and he started stealing my fries! "she laughed. "It was not part of the commercial, he was just stealing them! We weren't even filming. I was like: Dude! And he just looked over and started laughing and said: I hope you don’t mind, I’m stealing your fries! In my head I’m like: You’re Wayne Gretzky, what can I say? So it actually only aired in Canada. My parents have an old VHS tape of it. It was fun, I got to miss school for two days. And just to see the way they do things, like watching him do takes over and over. They would say, as he shot the puck, hit this spot, hit this spot, and he would nail it every single time, he was amazing! It was at a rink in Irvine, California. I don’t lead with that very often, I don’t share it that much. Because then people are like: I want to see it! And like I told you, I just have a VHS and no one has a VCR anymore. I’m sure my parents will put it on a disc someday. They are always telling me I should use that more. I don’t know, I just feel like kind of a dork. I only usually confess to that when someone asks a question like: What’s something people don’t know? And I’ll say: I usually save this one, but I guess I’ll use it now.” Pretty cool story, but as you’ll see, Wayne Gretzky actually created an even more seminal moment in Alyssa’s career.

Alyssa mentioned Irvine, California, and she is one of our California Girls, and hails from Saugus, California. Saugus, which is named after Saugus, Massachusetts is about 45 minutes northwest of Los Angeles on Interstate 5. Ironically, as you will see, Alyssa spent many years near Saugus MA, which is about 20 minutes NE of Boston. So Cetacean Nation wondered if Alyssa was happy the Dodgers had won the Series or still sad because Mookie Betts left Boston?

 “Honestly, I didn’t even realize the World Series was happening " she replied "My Mom was like: The Dodgers won! And I was like: Well what did they win? And she said: The World Seies! And I didn’t even realize that was happening. It’s funny, I used to be a huge, huge, sports fan, where I knew everything about every sport. But it’s just kind of waned down the last few years. And I really only care about hockey, so..she laughed. "I really don’t care that they won. I don’t care that the Lakers won, it’s whatever to me. I’ve never been a big Dodgers fan to begin with, so if anything, I’ve adopted the Red Sox, because they are such a big thing in Boston and New England. So I was excited when the Sox won. They won my freshman year of college, and that was cool, but as of now I didn’t really care."

So Cetacean Nation thought maybe Alyssa would be more interested in a Bruins vs Kings match-up. But she quickly corrected that misconception.

“No, no! I hate the Kings, I’m a Ducks fan! Oh man, I hate the Kings, hate ‘em! I live closer to LA, but I don’t know. I just kind of grew up a Ducks fan, when I first started hockey. Basically, I started hockey because Gretzky got traded to the Kings, and  everyone started playing hockey. (There is the Gretzky connection again) All the kids, we were all playing street hockey and everything because Gretzky was so big. So I guess when I was young, maybe five or six, I was maybe a Kings fan. But when I got older and could kind of think pretty much for myself, I became a Ducks fan.”

Alyssa continued “Neither of my parents played hockey, or had any interest in hockey. It’s funny, the only hockey game my Mom had ever watched before I started playing was the 1980 Miracle Game. It shows the impact of that game. They were never into hockey. I have older male cousins, and they started getting into hockey, And you know, when you are five, six, or seven. you kind of just try every sport.They got into hockey, and I just did everything they did. And immediately, I was hooked. I didn’t want to do anything else and that was it. I played other sports as I got a little bit older, but all I wanted to do was play hockey. So I kind of specialized pretty early, but it was 100% my choice, it wasn’t my parents pushing me or anything. If anything they wanted me to play other sports too. But if I was playing other sports, I was thinking about hockey.” 

We knew that Alyssa had spent some significant time in the Cal Selects program, serving as a captain on a couple of their teams and had averaged better than a point a game. We asked her about those years and she told us

"I played there for eight years. When I was growing up there weren’t many girls teams. There were three in the whole state of California. So my first girls team on ice was called Team LA, where I played with Jess Koizumi (future Whale teammate) . I’ve actually known Jess Koizumi since I was about eight. And after that team folded, I jumped over to Cal Selects when I was eleven and played with that organization until I graduated from high school and went off to college. I would say with Cal Selects, we were more skilled than with my high school team. And, we played against boys teams too during the season, if we weren’t playing in an all girls tournament. So we played against boys teams, but there was no hitting, so those games were more skilled. So when I would transition over to my high school (boys) team once a week, those games were obviously a lot more physical. More testosterone flowing in those games" she laughed. "In California the girls teams were few and far between. They’re all over the place here on the East. I loved it. It made me a better player, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I think more girls should do it, play boys as long as they can. Women’s hockey is a lot more physical than people expect or give credit for. At Saugus High, it wasn’t technically school sanctioned. It was a coed team, but I was the only girl in the league. It was officially like an outside entity, outside league. All the high schools had it, and we played at our local rink. And the stands would be packed, there would be over a thousand people there. That was like the big thing in high school, the Monday night hockey games. That was the popular thing to do. I loved the hitting, it’s really a shame we can’t do it in women’s hockey. I would have a lot less penalties, that’s for sure. But I loved playing with the guys, I loved the physical game. I never shied away from it, it never bothered. “

She continued “But we actually won the National Championship twice with Cal Selects. We won it with the 12U in 2001 when I played, and we won with the 16U in 2005, that was our second title. In 200, we had played Assabet Valley in an earlier tournament, the Connecticut Polar Bear Tournament around Christmas. And they killed us. It was 6-0, and it should have been 20-0, but our goalie was unbelievable. I think the shots were like 62-3! Then a few months later we beat Assabet in the National Championship game 1-0 ! Our goalie was a stud, her name now is Jenny Scrivens, and she played with the Riveters the inaugural season. She didn’t face another 62 shots in the Championship Game, but she faced a lot. I’ve got to say, she’s the best goalie I’ve ever played with. We just had a really good group. The coach that year was one of my favorite coaches ever, and he’s actually the same coach we had when we won the second National Championship. He knew what he was doing. Hockey in California is way better than people give ir credit for. The programs they have out there now are awesome. A lot of guys make it to the NHL. But usually as Californians we start off with roller hockey. Roller hockey is more flashy I guess. There are more tricky moves and stick handling, a lot more creativity. You’re playing four on four, and there’s no offsides, and no icing. So there’s plenty of room, and it really lets you be creative and just do whatever you want. You can always tell the California guys on the ice because they have that creativity that they translate over to ice hockey. “

We wondered how the pandemic impacted things for Alyssa heading into Season Six, and here is what she told us.

“I guess now I could call it a blessing in disguise, or even a silver lining to it. Because the weight lifting, the strength training and the weight room part has always been a strength of mine and what I enjoy the most. What I don’t enjoy is the cardio, and the conditioning. When the gym shut down, it just forced me to focus on the cardio aspect and the conditioning and aerobic capacity, because all you have to do is go outside, i would just go outside and do different methods of cardio and aerobic training, and so it actually worked out pretty well. We have such a long offseason, that you don’t need to be weight training immediately after the season is over. So I just worked on the cardio aspect for a few months and then by the time I was ready to get back in the gym, they were open again, so it actually worked out pretty well. I was in Quincy, Massachusetts until August, finishing out my lease. And now I’m here in Danbury. My parents live in Idaho now, so in July I went home and stayed with them for about a month.”

We also took this opportunity to ask Alyssa a few fun questions. You saw her interesting answer to one of them in the beginning of this interview. Here are her responses to our other queries:

Favorite Dunkin’ order:
“Hot chocolate! I don’t drink coffee or tea, I’ve never been a coffee or tea person. They definitely have the best hot chocolate! Hot chocolate with whipped cream, that’s my order."

Favorite Rink:

"It’s funny that you ask that, because I have played in so many different rinks. But there is no way I could not give Matthews Arena as my answer. It’s the oldest indoor rink in the world, it’s special. My heart will always be in Matthews Arena. It’s only something that Northeastern alumni can really appreciate, I guess. I played in some pretty cool rinks around the world, but can’t beat Matthews Arena."

Favorite golf course:

Alyssa considered this for awhile, and replied: "Well, it wasn’t my home golf course. My high school played on a course called Vista Valencia. But I really enjoyed a course called Robinson Ranch. It was a higher end golf course, and it is where I got my lessons, it’s in the hills of where I'm from. It’s tough, but there are nice views, it’s scenic, so I’d have pick that one.

Pregame superstition or routine:

“I don’t have any superstitions, but you do kind of naturally develop a routine when you get to the rink. Nothing too strict, I don’t like to have too many rituals because I don’t want to be controlled by them. Like if for some reason I can’t do something, I don’t want to be in the mindset of: I’m not going to be able to play well because I didn’t do this one tiny little thing. So my big thing is I get to the rink pretty early. I like to make sure that I have time to do whatever I decide to do. Hockey players do some really weird things, and I don’t do anything like that. But I don’t want to be rushed. I always love to play soccer. Usually each team has a group that likes to warm up with a soccer ball. That’s one of my favorites. Soccer was actually one of the first sports I played growing up. I was four or five, and it only lasted one season. I don’t know why this league decided to do this, but in the middle of the game they would pull us out and put us on the field next to the one we were playing against, and practice. And I was like: No! I have no idea why they did that. They would be like, OK, it’s your turn to go practice, and I’m thinking: No, I’m four, I want to run around and play the game! I’m not trying to make the National Team at four years old. That really turned me off to soccer. I told my parents I wanted to play the game, they didn’t let me play the game, so no more! The groups are pretty good, we had a good one in Boston. There were times we would have crowds. There would be people leaving the rink from the previous ice time who would stop and watch. But yeah, the soccer warm-up is always my favorite. So it’s funny, I’m a walking contradiction. You asked  about if I had any pregame rituals, and I say no, but I am actually a very routine person in normal life. I eat the same type of foods every day, have the same schedule every day. My friends make fun of me all the time but I don’t care. It’s totally normal to me, but friends will say: Do you eat the same things every day? And I say: Yeah, I guess I do. I’m a pretty simple person, and kind of a minimalist, So it just makes it easy. You eat the same things every day, your body knows what it’s getting, you know what you are going to get at the grocery store, you know what it is going to cost. That’s how I do it.”

Where does your #8 come from?

"Number 8 comes from a Duck’s player Teemu Salanne, he’s been my favorite for a very long time. I have a necklace with the #8 on it that I wear pretty much every day. He’s been my favorite, but unfortunately it’s a popular number so sometimes I’ve got to change it up, that’s why I wore #88, because #8 had already been taken. Two years ago in Germany I wore #80, that was all they had, the only number with an 8 in it. So I’ve got #8 for next season."

Any nicknames?

"Everyone in hockey either calls me Wolf or Wolfie. I’ve gotten Wolfenhauser, Wolfmeister, Wolfeo! she laughed. "Some people will have fun and make up their own nicknames, but it’s funny because if somebody does call me Alyssa, other people are like: Who is that? They just don’t know that’s me. Everyone in hockey pretty much calls me Wolf ot Wolfie.”We mentioned that when we interviewed our former #10 Lindsay Berman, she referred to Alyssa as Wolfie. Alyssa replied “It’s funny you say that, because she’s actually one of the people who never calls me that! She won’t call me that to me. She calls me Alyssa, or actually Lyss, which is my parents nickname for me! But if she’s talking about me to someone else in hockey, she’ll call me Wolfie, because that’s how I’m known, that’s when she’ll say Wolfie. But to me, she never calls me that, so that’s funny you say that. Actually in Switzerland, they call me Lupa, which is Italian for Wolf. Lupa, or Loops. One of my teammates was like: I’m going to call you Lupa. And I asked why, and she explained that was Italian for Wolf. I was like, OK, but what’s the German for wolf, and she was like: Voolf! (guttural pronunciation of wolf, which is the German word for wolf as it turns out) And I was, OK, let’s stick to Lupa, that’s fine, You don’t need to be growling every time you call my name. I guess outside of hockey I do prefer to be called Alyssa if it’s not a teammate, just because I like the separation. I’m in the rink, I’m there for hockey, Wolfie’s fine. But when I’m outside the rink I like to just separate myself from it and prefer to be Alyssa. It’s almost like two different identities.”

 As we wrapped up our conversation with Alyssa, we noted she has literally no presence on social media, pretty unique these days. We suspected she was not a big fan of social media, and she offered this interesting rationale.

“ I’m not. Hate is a strong word, but it’s close to my feelings about social media. I definitely think there are some positive aspects to it. You can print this, I don’t really have a filter, so I have no problem putting my name behind something. Obviously there are positive aspects to it, the league wouldn’t be where it is without social media. I definitely don’t want to bash it too hard, But I definitely think that a large majority of individual social media accounts are pretty superficial. I don’t live my life for the approval,of other people, so I have no desire to post my life on social media, so people can “like” it or give it a thumbs up or whatever. Not to go into a huge rant, but you see so many people, and their life on social media is not the life they live. I have no desire to be a part of it, I think it’s a big black hole.” she laughed. “I think it’s not healthy for a lot of people. There’s definitely a positive aspect to it, and good hearted intentions behind different pages or whatever. But I think you could say even 80 or 90 percent of individual accounts are fake and superficial and I can’t stand it. I have no desire to be involved in that. And I think there’s a quote that goes “Comparison is the theif of happiness” or something like that. I’m unapologetically me, and I’m not going to go around on social media trying to be someone else, or comparing myself to someone else. If people don’t like it, that’s their problem"  she laughed. "Again, not to go off on a huge tangent, but how many people spend hours a day scrolling through social media. What are you actually getting out of that? You’re not actually getting anything out of it! I have a twelve year old niece, and it scares me to death that she’s on social media. Especially for young girls now, they’re comparing themselves. And they might see not so good “role models”, quote unquote, on social media. And think that’s real, that’s how I’m supposed to be, and follow that example. It’s a scary thought. It’s given some people a platform to feel important, to feel that their opinion is the best and that it matters the most and yours does not.”

Cetacean Nation greatly appreciates Alyssa’s insightful, sincere, and often humorous content that she supplied in her interview. Fins Up to our amazing #8, our OW, Once and Future Whale Alyssa “Wolfie” Wohlfeiler! We’ll see you in Lake Placid!