The Minnesota Wild likely watched quite a bit of film of their season opener so they could hopefully get to their game for Game 2 and not allow 7 goals against.

Alright. Enough words. Let’s…

Drop the ClutterPuck!!!

––––– CP –––––

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Might want to change that font, Minnesota Wild PR. This might be in response to the team’s defense in Game 1. No more time & space in the defensive end & hopefully a lot less puckwatching! Is that why the top pair has been changed for the Minnesota Wild? Jake Middleton instead of Alex Goligoski.

Los Angeles Kings

Game Recap

1st Period

Kirill Kaprizov took an irresponsible tripping penalty in the offensive zone 1:48 into the game. The Minnesota Wild’s Penalty Kill got better as the season opener went along but they know they’re better off being 5-on-5 and no coach is ever happy with offensive zone penalties.

Minnesota Wild F Marcus Foligno was trying to get better position in the neutral zone and he and Los Angeles Kings D Drew Doughty collided and Doughty ended up knocking/grabbing Foligno’s stick out of his hands. Foligno was asking (yelling) the officials why that’s not interference.

The Wild didn’t give the Kings much on the Power Play but a minute later the Los Angeles Kings took advantage of the Wild and their defensive woes as everyone is still puckwatching instead of doing their own job…

4:28 – GOAL – Los Angeles – Adrian Kempe from Kevin Fiala & Mikey Anderson

1-0 Los Angeles Kings

Kevin Fiala knew Adrian Kempe was on the far side before he got the short pass from Mikey Anderson. The puckwatching began almost immediately when LA got the puck. Minnesota Wild D Alex Goligoski was covering Adrian Kempe on the weak side of the ice and he started moving to the center of the ice and even further towards the puck even though he had to know Kempe was over there and that he’s a goal-scorer (35 goals in a breakout 2021-22 season). Unfortunately the rest of the Wild were also in puck pursuit as both D Calen Addison & F Ryan Hartman went to Kevin Fiala who made sure Kempe was still open then made a quick move to create some more space and sent a pass across to a wide open sniper. Even Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury looked like he was too deep in the net so he’s not out far enough to make a save.

8:55 – GOAL – Los Angeles – Gabriel Vilardi from Alex Iafallo & Quinton Byfield

2-0 Los Angeles Kings

Minnesota Wild F Ryan Hartman tried to make a pass from the right boards in his own zone but he waited too long which allowed Kings F Quinton Byfield to get a stick on his pass attempt to create a loose puck that he got to right away. The key to this play is Ryan Hartman giving up on it. Was he hurt? It doesn’t look it so he should be getting on his horse to disrupt the play. Matt Dumba was coming back and he had a chance to take the puck away from Byfield but he missed the puck and kept skating to take a swinging poke-check and missed. Byfield then passed it to Iafallo who decided to pass instead of shooting but Fleury played it more like a shot and missed so Gabe Vilardi had an easy goal in a mostly wide open net to put the Kings up 2-0.

Defensive zone turnovers are tough because you’re thinking offense and moving away from your opponent rather than thinking defensively & covering the opponent so when the turnover happens, everyone is out of position. It was a bad turnover but the response to it from Hartman was worse. It showed how much the Wild are struggling with confidence. It’s the woe-is-me reaction where the immediate reaction should be to try to make up for it by getting back to make a difference the other way.

Wild F Marco Rossi was called for a hooking penalty because his stick was in the midsection of the Kings player. Was it a good call? It’s debatable but it definitely wouldn’t be called if his stick isn’t there.

11:13 – GOAL (PPG) – Los Angeles – Drew Doughty from Anze Kopitar & Kevin Fiala

3-0 Los Angeles Kings

This goal happens because 2 Wild players pursued the rebound/loose puck in the right corner. Kings F Kevin Fiala got to it first. Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek pursued him but let the pass get through to the point. That was the 2nd assist. Should Wild D Matt Dumba be more aware/concerned about Doughty? It’s easy to say that but he also is kind of covering Kings F Gabe Vilardi (#13) in front of the net who would be open if Dumba were more aggressive to defend Doughty.

Loud boos came down on the home team as the Minnesota Wild crowd wasn’t happy!

The Minnesota Wild took their timeout!

1:44 later the Minnesota Wild got on the board with a goal from D Jake Middleton.

12:57 – GOAL – Minnesota – Jake Middleton from Jared Spurgeon & Matt Boldy

3-1 Los Angeles Kings

Jake Middleton took a shot from the middle left of the blue line and it deflected off the left leg of Los Angeles Kings D Brandt Clarke. This is why you shoot the puck. You never know what it can hit in front of the net. It’s also another reason why it’s tough to be a goalie. Some people will call that a soft goal but Seattle Kraken goalie coach Steve Briere would ask how exactly is Kings G Cal Peterson supposed to stop that?*
*Sheldon Keefe would expect that to be saved somehow. Watch All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs, a docuseries from Amazon Prime chronicling their 2020-21 season. It’s definitely worth a watch, especially if you’re a hockey or sports fan. Or our Game Notes section from this recap from last season.

Just under 4 minutes later, the Wild got it back to a 1-goal game off a great effort from Marcus Foligno.

16:43 – GOAL – Minnesota – Marcus Foligno from Joel Eriksson Ek & Matt Dumba

3-2 Los Angeles Kings

2/3rds of the Minnesota Wild’s Identity Line and Wild F Tyson Jost were true to that Hard Work identity on this play. Jost got to the rebound of a Matt Dumba shot* that deflected to the left boards and sent it around the left corner to Ek who quickly sent it to Foligno who he went to his backhand as he went to the net with the puck and he shot a backhand past Kings G Cal Peterson as he wasfalling down,
*Jost must not have touched the puck as the 2nd assist went to Dumba.

The Kings were guilty of puck-watching on this play and D Drew Doughty should maybe think about using his stick to get the puck instead of going for the hit.

Unfortunately, the Kings got their 2-goal lead back on an Alex Iafallo slap shot from the point that somehow fooled Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury. He wasn’t happy with himself as he knows that’s a soft goal and that’s just a huge letdown after his team battled back to make it a 1-goal game.

8:55 – GOAL – Los Angeles – Alex Iafallo from Gabriel Vilardi & Matt Roy

4-2 Los Angeles Kings

Better 1st period than game 1 but still not even close to good enough.

2nd Period

You know this Wild team won’t stop battling but they also just need to play better and you can see their confidence withering which of course causes more problems.

The Wild made a goalie change to begin the 2nd period from Marc-Andre Fleury to Jonas Gustavsson.

33 seconds into the period, Los Angeles Kings D Drew Doughty took a high-sticking penalty but also almost impaled himself when the blade of his stick got stuck in the net:

Instant karma’s gonna get Drew!
Immediately after high-sticking Joel Eriksson Ek in the face, Drew Doughty impales himself hara-kiri style as his stick gets caught in his own net. #mnwild #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/rs6rXpSAdU
— Nick Wosika (@Nick_Wosika) October 17, 2022

The Wild didn’t score on that power play but they got another one when an after-the-whistle scrum broke out when Marcus Foligno didn’t like how Kings D Brandt Clarke swung his stick near his head so Marcus wanted to discuss it face-to-face. Clarke wasn’t very interested in doing that and his teammates Blake Lizotte & Brendan Lemieux jumped on him for 3 roughing penalties, 1 on Foligno & 1 each to Lizotte & Lemieux.

hartman rifles one, but can’t beat petersen aaaaaand we’ve got some pushing and shoving pic.twitter.com/bXmkWCfxK2
— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) October 16, 2022

This time the Wild did score on the power play on a couple of cross-ice passes from Boldy to Kaprizov & Kaprizov to Eriksson Ek who was waiting at the back door for a pretty easy tap-in to make it a one-goal game.

5:25 – GOAL (PPG) – Minnesota – Joel Eriksson Ek from Kirill Kaprizov & Mats Zuccarello

4-3 Los Angeles Kings

Wild F Mats Zuccarello took a tripping penalty. He thought the trip happened because the Kings player pushed him from behind but his stick got between his skates so it was the right call so back to the Penalty Kill for the Wild.

9:11 – GOAL (PPG) – Los Angeles – Kevin Fiala from Adrian Kempe & Anze Kopitar

Wild D Jake Middleton was in a battle behind his own net and the puck deflected up into his face. It looked like a high-stick but a closer look revealed that it was indeed the puck just being mean. Middleton reacted by bringing both hands to his face so he lost his stick. That was impactful in Los Angeles eventually getting the puck over to Kevin Fiala for the perfect one-timer to the only place the puck to go in the net for his 1st goal as a Los Angeles King and another 2-goal lead for his team.

5-3 Los Angeles Kings

Kings F Adrian Kempe got a penalty for holding Joel Eriksson Ek and the Wild’s Power Play made them pay for it.

12:12 – GOAL (PPG) – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov from Mats Zuccarello & Jonas Gustavsson

The Kings cleared the zone on the penalty kill and 3 of their players tried to make the long change. Wild G Jonas Gustavsson saw that and quickly sent the puck up to Mats Zuccarello just over the red line on the right boards. With the Kings scrambling to get in position, Kirill Kaprizov weaved through them to find open ice on the far side and his buddy Mats Zuccarello found him for a shot to the upper left to get the Wild back within a goal.

5-4 Los Angeles Kings

But… the Kings needed just 58 seconds to get their 2-goal lead back once again.

13:10 – GOAL – Los Angeles – Matt Roy from Brendan Lemieux & Arthur Kaliyev

Solid hit from Marcus Foligno at the beginning of the video. Matt Roy gets the puck at the middle right of the point and he took the shot and got it just high enough to get over Gustavsson’s pad. The mass of humanity (Jared Spurgeon, Alex Goligoski & Blake Lizotte) provided a tough view for the Wild goalie to see the shot until it was too late.

6-4 Los Angeles Kings

2-2 score in the 2nd period but the Wild can’t be happy with that, either.

3rd Period

They got another Power Play on a tripping penalty from D Drew Doughty and Mats Zuccarello made it a 1-goal game yet again with a shot from the top of the left circle to the upper right corner.

5:56 – GOAL (PPG) – Minnesota – Mats Zuccarello from Calen Addison & Matt Boldy

Zuccarello waited for Kings G Cal Peterson to have to look around the screen of Joel Eriksson Ek to shoot the puck and he shot it high assuming every goalie in the NHL is going to go down to make any save. It really makes you wonder if the butterfly-style of goaltending needs some tweaks, huh?

6-5 Los Angeles Kings

The Wild were within 1 and you figured their battle-level would be at a season-high with a tie game within their grasp.

Wild D Matt Dumba dumped (Dumpa?) a puck in around the right corner. Kings G Cal Peterson went behind his net to try to stop it but only got a piece of it so the first player to it was Wild F Matt Boldy. Knowing that Peterson had yet to get around the front of the net, Boldy quickly moved the puck to his backhand in front of the goal line to try to get it in the net or at least get a deflection of some kind.

Kings D Drew Doughty got the shaft of his stick on the shot to deflect it away from the goal but he slid into teammate F Victor Arvidsson knocking him down. Wild F Sam Steel was right there, too, and the puck came out to the left faceoff dot where Wild D Jonas Brodin threw it at the net but there were 6 players in/around the goal crease* and Kings F Trevor Moore (#12) slid to block the shot but it somehow got through so Kings G Cal Peterson lunged to his right on top of teammates Doughty & Arvidsson. The puck trickled out just past the front of the crease and Wild F Ryan Hartman quickly got to it to try a quick backhand but he couldn’t get it up high enough so Peterson ended up saving it off his left pad but it rolled up & over his pad.

Sam Steel moved around the humanity of Kings in the crease to be ready for a chance at the puck when it finally reappeared. Kings D Mikey Anderson (#44) tried to flip the puck out with his left glove but missed so the puck finally came back down so he tried to stack the pads but Sam Steel was able to sweep it into the net and…
*Clowns would be very proud of all those people in such a confined space. 😂

This… Game… Was…

TIED at 6-6! WOW!

7:32 – GOAL – Minnesota – Sam Steel from Ryan Hartman & Jonas Brodin

That might be the craziest goal in NHL history. Drew Doughty feared for his life when he saw Brodin coming to the loose puck. When the puck finally went in the net, all but 1 of the Los Angeles Kings players were in/around the crease with only 1 of them actually on his skates. Victor Arvidsson had his goalie laying on top of him for most of it. Ahh… that was fun. Haha!

After all the work the Wild did to get the game tied, it took just 31 seconds for Los Angeles to get the lead back again as Adrian Kempe got a pass from Anze Kopitar as he was skating into the slot and he caught it & shot it immediately beating Wild G Jonas Gustavsson to the upper left corner.

8:03 – GOAL – Los Angeles – Adrian Kempe from Anze Kopitar & Mikey Anderson

7-6 Los Angeles Kings

Kempe made the pass to Kopitar at center ice to start the scoring threat. Wild F Tyson Jost was the 4th man back but it’s a tough situation because Jonas Brodin went to Kempe at the right boards then tracked back to the net and Kevin Fiala was open on the far side so Jost was in no man’s land at that point. Once the puck was knocked away by Matt Dumba into the corner & it’s obvious Kopitar is going to get to it first, you can see Jost look at Kempe then look back at the puck and then break to get to Kempe but he’s was a split second too late to get to him at that point and that’s all it takes for a goal to happen in the NHL.

Other ways the play may have been able to be stopped is if Dumba is more aggressive getting to Kopitar and played a better angle to get his stick in front of the puck to take away that passing lane. Brodin could tell Jost to cover Kempe because Fiala had kept skating to the net. It’s easy to say this after the fact. Is it as easy to make those plays in real time? The most likely answer is no.

The Wild kept battling to get the game tied. They pulled the goalie and had some chances but the Kings stopped them all so that’s 2 straight losses to begin the season for the Wild with both of them disappointing because of questionable defense. Even more alarming is it’s really every part of the defensive side of the game, the defensemen, the goalies and the forwards.

––––– CP –––––

Final

Los Angeles Kings 7 | 6 Minnesota Wild

Goals

MN:
1. Jake Middleton(1) 2. Marcus Foligno(1) 3. Joel Eriksson Ek (1)(PPG) 4. Kirill Kaprizov(1)(PPG) 5. Mats Zuccarello(1)(PPG) 6. Sam Steel(1)

LAK:
1. Adrian Kempe(2) 2. Gabriel Vilardi(2) 3. Drew Doughty(1)(PPG) 4. Alex Iafallo(2) 5. Kevin Fiala(1)(PPG) 6. Matt Roy(1) 7. Adrian Kempe 2(3)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal

Assists

MN:
1. Jared Spurgeon(1), Matt Boldy(1) 2. Joel Eriksson Ek(1), Matt Dumba(2) 3. Kirill Kaprizov(2), Mats Zuccarello(1) 4. Mats Zuccarello 2(2), Jonas Gustavsson(1) 5. Calen Addison(1), Matt Boldy 2(2) 6. Ryan Hartman(1), Jonas Brodin(1)

LAK:
1. Kevin Fiala(1), Mikey Anderson(1) 2. Alex Iafallo(2), Quinton Byfield(2) 3. Anze Kopitar(2), Kevin Fiala 2(2) 4. Gabriel Vilardi(2), Matt Roy(1) 5. Adrian Kempe(1), Anze Kopitar 2(3) 6. Brendan Lemieux(1), Arthur Kaliyev(1) 7. Anze Kopitar 3(4), Mikey Anderson(2)

Goalies

MN:
Marc-Andre Fleury – 10 Saves on 14 Shots – .714 Save%
Jonas Gustavsson – 17 Saves on 20 Shots – .850 Save%

LAK:
Cal Peterson – 29 Saves on 35 Shots – .829 Save%

Game Notes

*
The Wild aren’t sneaking up on anyone this season…

In 2021-22, the league may have not thought this team would compete like they did or put up the points they did but that’s all history now. The league knows who the Minnesota Wild are and they’re ready for them.

They’re going to have to step up their game from here on out. They were better tonight if only because they had a chance to win but they’re still not close to where they need to be.

Maybe facing last season’s winner of The Cup will be just what they need. They know they’ll have to be on top of their game to play with the Colorado Avalanche.

Was preseason too easy for them? Their game seemed to be right where they needed it to be. The games don’t ever seem to be a normal regular season lineup for both teams, though, so it’s just not the same as when they count.

Minnesota Wild F Marco Rossi had 4:33 of Total Ice Time**

He took a hooking penalty early in the 1st period then 5 more shifts and 3:10 of time on the ice. The coach wasn’t just upset or sending a message to his young rookie. That whole line was limited for the majority of the rest of the game. Brandon Duhaime & Connor Dewar got some time on the penalty kill and were probably thrown out there to let the other lines/players get a rest.

The doghouse doesn’t make sense. Talk to them between periods and get ‘em back on the ice so they can improve and redeem themselves and possibly help your team win the game after they screw up but, hey, that’s just my opinion.