The Minnesota Wild head to New Jersey, where, coincidentally, the New Jersey Devils just released the design for a “New Jersey!” It’s an alternate jersey and it just says “Jersey” on the front. It’s also mostly black with a lot of white stripes.*
*Is Jack White a Devils fan?
We’re not big fans of them because they’re relatively….blah!:
Yep. Jersey!
Do players ever look happy when modeling a new jersey?
Give the New Jersey Devils some credit, though, as they obviously see the humor in it because they tweeted this picture out recently with the caption of, “Coming soon… maybe.”:
The game was delayed as the Wild were not able to get to the arena on time as the Holland tunnel was closed down.
The New Jersey Devils are a difficult team to evaluate. They’re another one of these young teams on the cusp of taking the next step to contending for the playoffs so they are going to battle all game long so the Minnesota Wild had to match or maybe exceed their battle level to win this game.
Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
97 Kirill Kaprizov – 38 Ryan Hartman – 36 Mats Zuccarello
18 Jordan Greenway – 14 Joel Eriksson Ek – 17 Marcus Foligno
22 Kevin Fiala – 89 Frédérick Gaudreau – 16 Rem Pitlick
27 Nick Bjugstad – 7 Nico Sturm – 21 Brandon Duhaime
47 Alex Goligoski – 8 Jordie Benn*
25 Jonas Brodin – 24 Matt Dumba
29 Dmitry Kulikov – 4 Jon Merrill
33 Cam Talbot
34 Kaapo Kähkönen
*See Game Notes at the bottom of the article!
New Jersey Devils
Game Recap
Kulikov showed patience as he entered the offensive zone as the Devils gave him space so he took a half-slapper, meaning he only wound up to about his hips. Ryan Hartman was in front of the net and he got his stick on the low shot to turn it into a high shot that went over Devils G MacKenzie Blackwood to put the Wild in front in the 1st period. 1-0 Wild
Matt Dumba got called for a high-sticking penalty and it looked like the Devils F ? grabbed his stick & threw it into his own face but it’s more likely that Dumba wasn’t aware he was there. It tested the Minnesota Wild’s Penalty Kill (PK) which has been very good for the past ? games (-for their last ),
The Devils had 4 players below the top of the faceoff circles and they lost the puck to the backboards where Wild D Jonas Brodin got to it and saw F Frédérick Gaudreau leave the zone so he wrapped it around the left corner and created a 2-on-1 with Gaudreau & F Nico Sturm (on Gaudreau’s right.) The defenseman was trying to take away the pass but was close enough to Gaudreau to make a play on him if needed but Gaudreau faked a pass then slowed down and sent a sauce pass over to Nico Sturm and he one-timed it & it just snuck past Blackwood. 2-0 Wild
That’s how the 1st period ended but the Devils brought more compete & energy in the 2nd and took it to the Wild but Wild G Cam Talbot (& his posts) stepped up to keep his team up 2-0. The Devils hit at least 4 posts during the 2nd period. Some might say there’s some puck luck there but those shots are as close to missing the net as they are to going in the net.
It was still 2-0 after the 2nd period.
The Devils came out very well to begin the 3rd period, too. They then cut the lead in half as Nico Hischier fed Pavel Zacha from beneath the goal line for a one-timer that he fired past Talbot. Fiala was near him but, unfortunately, he was watching the puck instead of defending a player so he wasn’t close enough to him to block or tip the shot. 2-1 Wild
Wild Coach Dean Evason put the Duhaime-Sturm-Bjugstad line out immediately after the goal and they got a great scoring chance on that shift & on their next shift, too. They didn’t score but it got the Wild back to their game.
The Wild got an unfortunate tripping penalty when Ryan Hartman’s stick got near P.K. Subban’s skates then Dumba took a cross-checking penalty but the Wild’s PK was up to the task and their best penalty-killer was G Cam Talbot who made a bunch of big saves to keep his team up 1 goal.
The Wild iced the puck with 1:47 remaining in regulation and the Devils pulled their goalie after they won the ensuing faceoff and eventually scored to tie the game off a rebound from a Jesper Bratt shot from the right half-wall that came out to Nico Hischier & he passed it out to Yegor Sharangovich for another shot & they tied the game with 1:07 remaining in the 3rd period.
Cam Talbot made the first save but wasn’t sure if the puck was under him and it was laying there for Nico Hischier to grab & pass to Sharangovich in the slot. Talbot got a lot of that shot, too, but not enough as the puck snuck through him and past the goal line. DOH!
And….OVERTIME it is but this time, it was the Wild that had the lead and allowed a 6-on-5 goal.
🏒–– CP ––🏒
Which team got the 2nd point and was it in OVERTIME or in the Shootout. The Wild started Ek with Kaprizov & Brodin.
Dougie Hamilton hit the post in the first 30 seconds then with a little over 3 minutes remaining in OT, Talbot made a save but didn’t know where the puck was. He was looking behind him when it was in front of him but Golisgoski cleared it away from the net.
The Wild got a chance with a Kaprizov shot from the slot. The Devils then had the puck for a long time but didn’t really get much out of it then Foligno caused a turnover & he went in on a 2-on-1 and he ended up taking a slapshot that was saved with 8.1 seconds left in OT and this one went to a shootout.
Dougie Hamilton missed on a deke attempt – No Goal
Mats Zuccarello hit the post…PING but – No Goal
Jesper Bratt tried a move – No Goal
Kevin Fiala makes some moves then fired it past Blackwood – GOAL!!!
Sharangovich had to score to extend the game & he went for the shot….
NO GOAL!!!
That’s another WILD WIN!!!
Final Score
Minnesota Wild 3, New Jersey Devils 2 – F-SO
Goals:
MN: Hartman(10), Sturm(3)-SHG
NJ: Zacha(8), Sharangovich(3)
Assists:
MN: Kulikov(7), Zuccarello(10); Gaudreau(6), Brodin(6)
NJ: Hischier(9), Tatar(6); Hischier(10), Bratt(9)
Game Notes
*How many Minnesota Wild fans thought Jordie Benn would get another start when D Calen Addison is ready to go? And…how many of those same fans were angry because of it?
It’s a good thing when the team shows confidence in their NHL depth. That’s why they signed The coaching staff & player personnel know the team better than anyone so that should be enough for any fan. If fans think they know more or better than the coaches and personnel who are with them every day, they’d probably find out very quickly how wrong they are.
They’re also showing a lot of confidence & trust in Rem Pitlick as he’s now on a line with Kevin Fiala & Frédérick Gaudreau.
This is the culture the Wild are building, a team with depth at the NHL level and, as we saw earlier this season, in the minors, too. They’re getting to a place where it’s next man up and their players know the system so they can jump right in and keep the puck rolling, so to speak. Maybe sliding? Whatever. Every team will have to rely on the depth multiple times throughout every season.
Another thing the Wild appear to be doing is making sure their scratched players keep getting into the lineup every few games or so rather than sit for a long time. Tonight, Victor Rask was a healthy scratch & Nick Bjugstad was back in the lineup.
**We’re not up on the advanced stats of the National Hockey League or hockey in general but this tweet made us question the validity of Expected Goals or “goals more than expected.”
Through 18 games, Cam Talbot & Kaapo Kahkonen have allowed a combined 9.85 goals more than expected — the 3rd worst rank in the league behind the Kraken’s & Coyotes’ tandems
Meanwhile, the #mnwild have been top 5 defensively & good offensively
Wild desperately need goaltending
— Aaron Heckmann (@aaron_heckmann) November 22, 2021
We’ll have to do some research but it seems quite crazy to think the Minnesota Wild “desperately” needs goaltending this season. Our main research will be if the stat/s account for goals that are relatively impossible for a goalie to save. For example, a goal that’s deflected off a stick or a player on purpose or not. There are a lot of goals in the Minnesota Wild’s 19 games so far this season that come to mind when we think of that.
We haven’t had one problem with Wild goaltending this season. Cam Talbot may allow a goal that he should’ve saved but he tends (goaltends?) to get better as the game goes along if that happens.
We don’t believe you can evaluate off of stats or results alone. You have to pair the stats with the situations of how each shot or goal happened so if you truly want to evaluate any goalie, you’d have to isolate every shot against him.
Cam Talbot has shown throughout his short time in Minnesota that he is plenty capable of helping this team get where they want to go. He makes big saves every game, saves that help keep his team either within reach or ahead.
Kaapo Kähkönen has had very little time in net this season as the schedule has allowed the Wild to play Cam more often. He’s played (& started) in just 4 of their 19 games and, if you just look at the stats, he’s had 2 rough games & 2 very good games.
What we see in both goalies is they’re calm, read the play & track the puck well and also come out to challenge the shooter to cut down the angle so there’s very little opportunity to get a puck past them. Do you really want any more than that?
🏒–– CP ––🏒
Next up:
A Black Friday matinee will once again be a part of your Wild Holiday Weekend as they’ll take on the Winnipeg Jets on Friday at 2:30pm as the Minnesota Wild begin a 5-game homestand that will see them play every other day until they head out on a 4-game road trip in the 2nd week of December.
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AND…as always…
