The normally private Wild captain is laughing and telling stories. He’s blushing as he admits just how hard he had to work to woo his wife. He’s talking about how relieved he is that having two children has calmed him down from the exhaustion of being a high-strung, no-nonsense guy.

Now, he lives in suburbia and keeps an eye on the clock because he wants to make sure he’s there when 2-year-old Sofie and 4 ½-month-old Kasper wake up from afternoon naps.

“I left the rink yesterday, and usually you’d go somewhere like get lunch or maybe go shopping,” Koivu said. “Now, you want to rush home because you can’t wait to see the kid’s faces when they see you. You always heard about it. The other guys tell you how it’s going to change you and how it’s going to change life around the game, and now I know.

“I mean, I just love it.”

How he met his wife:

Koivu could not have imagined those feelings when his future wife, Helena, had no clue who he was. Koivu, who captained Team Finland to the gold medal at the 2011 world championships, had an event in Helsinki before the 2012 NHL lockout. Checking into the hotel with teammates, Koivu stepped to the front of the line and was captivated by the front-desk clerk.

“I was probably a little cocky. I expected her to recognize me,” said Koivu, who a year before was dancing on stage with Finnish President Tarja Halonen in front of a grateful nation. “But she asks for my name. I said, ‘Koivu,’ and she got it totally wrong.

“In my mind, I’m like, ‘You don’t know me?’ ”

Helena, who is from Estonia, mistook Koivu’s first name as the last name “Mikkonen.”

“I never watched hockey, so I had no idea who he was,” Helena said. “He looked at his friend and smiled and said his name again in a stronger voice, ‘MIKKO KOIVU!’ I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is one of our regular customers and he’s upset I don’t know him.’ ”

Koivu said, “I loved it that she didn’t know me.”

Koivu couldn’t get Helena out of his mind. He sent her flowers, asked her to go for coffee, for dinner, desperate to get her to go on a date with him. “Finally she did, and now we’re here,” Koivu said, proudly.

“My first reaction was, ‘No, I’m not going out with a hockey player!’ ” Helena said. “But, after three or four weeks, he tried so hard to get me to go out with him, I finally thought I’ll give him a chance. After meeting him, I was like, ‘Where have you been all these years?’ I felt like I knew him forever.”

Things happened fast. Helena moved to Minnesota with Koivu after the lockout. They had Sofie right before the 2013-14 season and got married the next offseason.

It was the first time Koivu had to navigate a family and hockey.

“For both of us, it was a big learning experience,” Koivu said. “I remember, I was nervous all the time with so much happening.

“Before I met her, I was always like, ‘Yes, let’s go on the road.’ I wanted to be with my teammates. Now you’re always worried things are good at home. ‘How’s she doing? Are the kids OK?’ Things are so much better now. I feel calm. She has a lot of friends, good friends. She is very happy here and loves Minnesota, like big time. It gives me that peace now that I can go on the road on a good note.”