The Minnesota Wild made the most of their road trip by beating the New Jersey Devils in a shootout for 2 points. Add those 2 points to the 1 point they battled to get by tying the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning with 38.7 seconds remaining in regulation & that’s 3 out of 6 available points.
After losing to a very good Florida Panthers team but showing they can play with them by doing what they’ve done all season in competing as hard as they can until the final buzzer, they had to battle back against Tampa Bay as well! Even though they lost in a shootout, every point is important.
Do they always play great? No…but the compete level is always there and they respond to adversity. So far this season, those responses have turned into results more often than not.
That’s been the case really since Dean Evason took over as Head Coach on Valentine’s Day of 2020 when he was named interim coach after General Manager Bill Guerin decided to relieve Bruce Boudreau of his duties with just 12 games remaining in the 2019-20 season.
A lot of fans questioned the move but we question why you wouldn’t make the move. If Billy G decided he wasn’t going to keep Boudreau as the coach of the Minnesota Wild, there was no point to keep him no matter how many games were left in the season. He decided to give Dean a chance so he could see how he would do as the man in charge on the bench. He liked what he saw after those 12 games as his team went 8-4 then the pandemic hit & the Wild waited until August to begin the qualifying round of the 2019-20 playoffs.
By that time, the interim label had been removed as Dean Evason was named the full-time head coach on July 13th, 2020.
Since then, the Wild are 47-22-6 in 75 games in the regular season. That would be 100 points. He’s also 53-24-5 (111 points) if you go back 5 games to make it 82 games which would mark a full regular NHL season. Overall, he’s 55-26-6 (116 points) in 87 games. It’s safe to say Dean has done a Great Job here in Minnesota and don’t forget, he’s yet to have a normal season due to the Covid-19 pandemic interrupting his first season and completely changing his 2nd season. This 3rd season is the most normal but even this season shouldn’t be considered “normal” as teams are still dealing with Covid-19 problems.
Ok. Sorry. I ranted there. (Robb’s Rants? 🤔)
On to the Winnipeg Jets, who’ve been struggling over their last 4 games after doing pretty well when they were actually a point ahead of the Wild in the standings with a 9-3-3 record with 21 points compared to the Wild’s 10-5 record with 20 points. 4 games later, it’s the Wild with 25 points (12-6-1) & the Jets with 22 points due to that 4-game losing streak (1 shootout loss).
That does bring up another stat for the Wild & their coach. Since Dean Evason has been the head coach, interim of full-time, the Minnesota Wild have not lost more than 2 consecutive games in the regular season.
We all remember the first meeting between these teams in the 3rd game of the season that featured a heckuva comeback from the Wild. Reminisce here if you want. Or here!
Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
A little shuffling of the Wild’s defensive pairings as Jon Merrill took the place next to Alex Goligoski & Jordie Benn moved down to the bottom pairing opposite Dmitry Kulikov.
Winnipeg Jets
Game Recap
Well, it didn’t take long for the Wild to get on the board. 52 seconds in and Alex Goligoski received the puck at the left point and took a shot that deflected off of Nikolaj Ehlers stick into the ice and takes a predictably wicked bounce and goes through at least 2 players and past Winnipeg G Connor Hellebuyck to put the Wild up 1-0 early. One shot, one goal. 1-0 Wild
There is a lot to talk about with this goal.*
*Check our Game Notes at the bottom of this article.
The Jets had 3 players in the corner battling 2 Wild players and the Wild still came up with the puck as Nico Sturm chipped it up the left boards as he was falling down. Wild F Brandon Duhaime got to the puck first & sent it back to the point for Alex Goligoski.
Jets F Nikolaj Ehlers, even though 3 of his teammates were already in the corner, didn’t stay high in the zone. He instead crept down closer to the corner then when the puck came out, he let it get past him to the point, who he was supposed to be covering. Then…to give Ehlers a hat trick of errors, he shied away from blocking the shot instead of making a winning play and setting a tone for the game for his team.
The Wild won 2 puck battles. One of them allowed them to get the puck back to the point to Goligoski. Then the Wild players, Fs Nico Sturm & Nick Bjugstad, went to the net to screen the goaltender & be available to tip the shot and F Brandon Duhaime was heading to the net as well.
52 seconds in & the Wild already had a physical edge. How did the Jets respond? There were 59 minutes to make up for this goal against.
The Wild went ahead 2-0 when Mats Zuccarello scored from the middle of the blue line after Dmitry Kulikov went up the left side and took a shot on goal that is deflected in the air wide & behind the net by the goalie but Kulikov just kept skating, caught the puck, dropped it back on the ice then skated around to the other side of the zone. He then found Wild F Mats Zuccarello wide open at the center of the blue line so he took a wrist shot and it’s deflected 5 times by a stick, another stick, the goalie’s shoulder, the right post and then off the back of the goaltender and into the net! 2-0 Wild
There were a lot of Puck-Watchers** on this play!
**Check the Game Notes at the bottom of the article!
Ryan Hartman’s goal came off a rebound of a Kirill Kaprizov shot off of a blocked shot of his own initial shot just 2:04 into the 2nd period. 3-0 Wild
Mats Zuccarello’s goal was 45 seconds after Hartman’s goal and it came off a very weak Winnipeg forecheck made worse by a bad change that allowed Zuccarello to feed Kaprizov for a 2-on-1 and Kirill shot the puck but it was saved. Ryan Hartman then won a puck battle for the rebound by knocking it away from Dominic Toninato and back to the left point where Jonas Brodin sent the puck back towards the net with Kaprizov still there and he was able to stop it & quickly send a pass to Zuccarello who was wide open at the right side of the net! 4-0 Wild – Jets make a goalie change to Eric Comrie
Jon Merrill’s goal came after a failed 2-on-1 by Winnipeg that allowed the Wild to make a line rush with not much resistance. Kevin Fiala got the puck at the right half-wall in the Wild’s defensive zone after Pierre-Luc Dubois’ pass went past Jets F Evgeny Svechnikov. Fiala passed the puck to Rem Pitlick at the center of the zone just before Kyle Conner could intercept it so it’s a 3-on-2 odd-man rush. Pitlick got to the blue line & passed to Frédérick Gaudreau who slowed down when he reached the right point. Jets D Josh Morrissey, for some reason, slowed down to defend Gaudreau. Maybe it’s because he had Dubois back-checking but, again, every Jets player is Puck-Watching so nobody knows who to cover because they aren’t looking for anyone to cover.
Puck-Watchers – Episode 2
Dubois is in the middle, in front of Fiala and behind Pitlick, and, yes, he is watching the puck. Meanwhile, Wild D, & eventual goal-scorer, Jon Merrill is wide open on the far side, trailing the play. His shot must’ve hit Dubois’ stick as it turned into a FlutterPuck (Hey!) that fooled new Jets G Eric Comrie. 5-0 Wild
Kevin Fiala had some great plays throughout the game. He’s going to get on a crazy scoring streak here at some point. Mark this Clutter Take!* He’s just too good to not see some of these chances start to go in.
*8:57 pm on November 27th, 2021! Mark it down ClutterPuckers!
Matt Dumba scored his 3rd goal of the season on, at this point, a predictable Puck-Watching sequence where he was left wide open at the left side of the net for a one-timer he roofed to make it 6-0 Wild. This time, it was Jets D Logan Stanley who stared down the puck then tried the lunging pokecheck of the Marcus Foligno pass but missed.
The Jets finally got on the board with 4:52 remaining in the 3rd period when Pierre-Luc Dubois scored off a power-play line rush on a shot that went under Cam Talbot’s blocker arm to spoil the shutout but…
Kirill Kaprizov scored just 14 seconds later when Jets D Dylan Demelo thought he could turn back towards his own goal line to escape a Ryan Hartman forecheck. He was wrong as Hartman forced the turnover then pushed the puck to Kevin Fiala and he found Kaprizov waiting for a pass in the slot and he one-timed it home. 7-1 Wild
The Jets appear to have a lot of work to do to get their game right but maybe they just had an off night. It does happen.
Game Highlights
Final Score
Winnipeg Jets 1 | 7 Minnesota Wild
Goals:
MN: Goligoski(2), Zuccarello(5,6) Hartman(11), Merrill(2), Dumba(3), Kaprizov(6)
WPG: Dubois(11)
Assists
MN: Duhaime(5), Sturm(4); Kulikov(8), Kaprizov(14); Kaprizov(15); Kaprizov(16), Brodin(7); Fiala(10), Gaudreau(7); Foligno(6), Pitlick(4); Fiala(11)
WPG: Schmidt(11), Comrie(1)
4-Point Night for Kirill Kaprizov
2nd 4-point night in 5 games, joining only former Minnesota Wild players Mikael Granlund and Eric Staal
Kirill Kaprizov Making More Wild History
It was also Minnesota Wild F Nick Bjugstad’s 500th NHL game last night. Of course, that’s not counting the 15 playoff games he’s played because, for some reason, those don’t count as games played. I’ve never understood that.
Game Notes
*Are the Jets suffering from a soft tissue injury? That first goal was terrible. Nikolaj Ehlers shied away from blocking the point shot instead of trying to get in front of it as much as humanly possible to block it. The puck then went off his stick and deflected off the ice to make an almost impossible shot to save for his goalie.
I’d imagine most coaches & teammates would be furious with that kind of effort. That’s not how you win games in the NHL. This screamed as to a huge part of why the Jets might be losing right now & this was just 52 seconds into a divisional game against a team that’s ahead of them in the standings.
Where’s the compete-level? Do you want to win?
They only seemed to get into the game when they realized they were being blown out. This is supposed to be a physical team and it was hard to see any of that here.
WOW!
**Puck-Watching! It’s self-explanatory. It’s when the defending team is just watching the puck instead of covering an offensive player. This almost always leads to the defending team watching the puck go into their own net.
That’s because, with the speed of the NHL game, defenders don’t have time to react to what they see.
Part of the battle is learning how to read plays but also knowing what to do on the backcheck. We prefer a back-checking player to find the open man &/or the trailing player on the play but they can also listen or watch their defensemen as they might talk to them and tell them who to cover. We don’t know if some teams like having a back-checking player go for the puck-carrier but we don’t like that because the defensemen have the play in front of them so let them worry about the puck.
Don’t worry about going for a body check as that isn’t a priority when you’re trying to stop an offensive rush.
The bottom line is…they have to Learn to Read.
Read the play based on what the player/s you’re defending is doing.
Anticipate what they will do next by
Reacting to what you read then
Execute by disrupting the play with a poke check or intercepting the puck, etc…
That’s how you become a R.A.R.E. hockey player!
We’ve said it here A LOT! If you want to watch the puck, go buy a ticket. Enjoy the game, Puck-Watchers!!! Now, you can watch the puck for the whole game!
***I’ve never been fond of Kyle Connor but I could never really pinpoint what it was that bothered me about him. It came to me during last night’s game. He’s soft! He’s pretty. He’s also pretty soft. Who wants a pretty hockey player?
He’s a heckuva hockey player who scores (10 goals) & puts up points (22 points in 20 games) but he plays like he wants no physical contact whatsoever. He doesn’t want to receive a body check and he doesn’t want to throw a body check. How do you win with that mindset? Is he scared?
Our nickname for him will now be Fly-By. Ooh…maybe Top Gun is better because of the irony that it sounds like a compliment but it isn’t at all. Hockey coaches don’t like fly-bys!
Air Boss Johnson:
Two of your snot-nose jockeys did a fly-by on my tower at over 400 knots! I want somebody’s butt; I want it now; I’ve had it!
God Dammit! That’s Twice! I Wants Some Butts!!!”
Kyle Conner has played 325 regular-season NHL games and he is credited with just 75 hits in those games. He also has a career plus/minus of -2 to go with his 143 goals, 130 assists, 38 power-play goals, 2 short-handed goals & 25 game-winning goals.
He is currently in the 3rd year of a 7-year/$50M contract that carries a Cap Hit of $7,142,857.00. He will turn 25 on December 9th.
🏒–– CP ––🏒
Next up:
The Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Xcel Energy Center for the first time since January 16th, 2020 as the Wild will try to exact some revenge on the 2-time Stanley Cup Champs after losing in a shootout a week ago tomorrow.
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