For mom, 'Millionaire:' Wild analytics guru is accomplished trivia mind

Andrew Thomas has always been a bit of a trivia nerd.
A native of Scarborough, Ontario, Thomas, the Wild's lead hockey researcher was on the high school equivalent of the quiz bowl team. Once out of high school, Thomas honed his skills by playing bar trivia and Trivial Pursuit, but among his dreams would be to make it onto a pair of his favorite trivia-related game shows, 'Jeopardy!' and 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.'

"I probably wanted to be on that show ('Millionaire') as soon as it premiered 20 years ago with Regis [Philbin]," Thomas said. "I was addicted."
Finally, after a handful of tryouts for both shows, Thomas recently made it to 'Who Wants to Be a Millionare,' putting together an incredible run to the $250,000 question while creating plenty of memories -- and mockable moments -- for his friends in the Wild front office.
Among the favorites: Several different shots of Thomas dancing after answering questions right on stage.
It took about 10 minutes, by Thomas' estimation, for a handful of GIFs to make their way through the hockey operations department.
"Oh boy," Thomas said. "Those are everywhere now."

Just around the time the first round of GIFs stopped making appearances in various group chats, Thomas' episode aired on television again earlier this week, complete with several promos featuring his moves.
"It was all about shimmying and shaking," Thomas said. "I think when it came down to it, I wanted to celebrate, but I didn't want to be obnoxious. Plenty of people would celebrate vocally, so I thought the further along I would go, some dancing would be the easiest way to do it.
"And of course, it was the thing 'Millionaire' host
But getting on the show wasn't all that simple.
Thomas tried out for 'Millionaire' twice before finally receiving the call to be on. He's tried out for 'Jeopardy!' on several occasions and is still looking for his first appearance.
For his latest try at 'Millionaire,' Thomas went to Las Vegas in July to begin the tryout process. First, he took a 30-question, multiple choice quiz to test his knowledge.
A couple weeks after returning home, Thomas was contacted by phone for another round of interviews. Another week passed, and he was finally offered the chance to be on the show ... but he had just five days to get all of his arrangements in order and fly back to Las Vegas, where he'd likely shoot his episode on one of two days.
"Then I had to round up my posse, just to make sure they could come," Thomas said. "I called up my dad, and he said, 'Mom told me you got to the next round of auditions,' and I said, 'No, I'm actually going on the show. Are you free?'"
Once on the show, Thomas used his day job to help prepare.
While his exact duties can vary from day to day and his formulas are kept behind strict lock and key, the Layman's definition of what Thomas' job with the Wild is he looks at copious amounts of data and compiles it into a format General Manager Paul Fenton and his assistants can use when constructing a roster.
It's not the end-all, be-all ... but it is additional data, used in conjunction with the eye test, that can help.
Thomas approached 'Millionaire' the same way.
"If you've got a basic setup from watching other game shows, from talking to other people who have been on game shows, you get an idea of what you should be studying at least," Thomas said. "That said, there are some things that run in common with all trivia shows]. You should know who your presidents are and countries of the world, and capitals. There are lots of different things that come up in trivia that show up on a show like 'Millionaire' as well."
Yes, Thomas studies analytics at the rink. And he studies analytics for his game-show appearances.
"I put together quite a bit of data," Thomas said. "A lot of people put together quite a bit of data from previous shows on various different websites, so I got as many of those as I could before hand."
Beyond building his knowledge base, Thomas said he studied strategy.
What kinds of questions would he struggle with that the audience might know? For that, he attended a viewing of a show the previous year when he was in Vegas for his first tryout. He noticed the audience skewed older.
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He also had to decide who his "plus-1" would be.
Early in the show's run, 'Millionaire' had the "phone a friend" life line, where the contestant could make one phone call to get help on one question. That was eventually changed to the "plus-1," and for his, Thomas brought with him his friend, Tara Whittle, a 'Jeopardy!' veteran who would be on 'Millionaire' shortly after Thomas (who served as Whittle's "plus-1" for her episode).
"I was asking around among] my trivia friends looking for someone who I thought was smarter than I was," Thomas said.
In addition to his love of trivia, Thomas' trivial pursuits have taken on a much more personal cause. His mom, Carol Bruce, has been battling lung cancer and receiving immunotherapy treatments.
Immunotherapy is a cutting edge treatment in the cancer world, one that is making big advances every year. Two months ago, immunotherapy researchers Dr. James P. Allison of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Dr. Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University in Japan were awarded the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work.
Now, more money and more research is needed.
"I knew that if I had won some substantial money on the show, I was going to donate a part of it towards something good," Thomas said.
Earlier this week, Thomas hosted a trivia night at Herbie's on the Park in St. Paul, where the goal was to raise as much money as possible for immunotherapy research. Anyone interested in participating would donate money to play, an amount Thomas himself matched.
Even though the event is over, Thomas is still collecting donations -- and matching them -- through the end of the calendar year via a
[public Facebook page
.