Everyone should be starting to feel like Old 97s fans since this is the 3rd time Connor McDavid & the Edmonton Oilers & Kirill Kaprizov & the Minnesota Wild have faced each other in the last 12 days. And, after tonight, they won’t play each other until next season. How weird is that?
Alright. Enough words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Scratched: Andrej Sustr, Alex Goligoski*, Nic Petan
Injured: Ryan Hartman (upper body), Brandon Duhaime (upper body)
*2nd consecutive healthy scratch for Alex Goligoski*
*Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.
Status report
Hartman skated with the team for the first time since being injured Oct. 30. There is still no timeline for return. … Edmonton plays its first of a back to back. … Campbell will start in Nashville on Tuesday.
Edmonton Oilers
Scratched: Ryan Murray, Tyler Benson, Brad Malone
Injured: Evander Kane (wrist), Warren Foegele (undisclosed), Ryan McLeod (undisclosed)
Game Recap
Let’s see if the Minnesota Wild can repeat the dominant game they had the 1st time they played 12 days ago.
1st Period
Edmonton tried to get Connor McDavid & Leon Draisaitl away from the Wild’s identity (or GREEF) line since they shut them down in the Wild’s 5-3 win back on December 1st by splitting them up to start the game but went back to their original lines pretty quickly.
Spurgeon went for a hook of Draisaitl after he put the puck around him so Jared had hooked him to stop a scoring chance. Unfortunately, it looked like Draisaitl wasn’t going to be able to keep the puck on his stick but Spurgeon thought he was going in alone on his goaltender so he did what he had to do to stop that from being a problem. Will the Oilers make them pay for that on the Power Play?
No! The Minnesota Wild’s Penalty Kill was aggressive and gave the Oilers very little in that 2 minutes.
The Wild got back to work and had a great scoring chance but then gave up a great scoring chance to Edmonton but Marc-Andre Fleury was there to make a big save…
Kirill Kaprizov was taken down as he took the puck back and spun around to protect is and Ty Barrie was pinching in from the point but didn’t get there fast enough and tried to defend Kaprizov with his stick and put it between his legs or in his skates for a tripping penalty.
Tic-Tac-GOAL on the Power Play & it only took 7 seconds!
1-0 Wild
6:48 – Penalty – Minnesota Wild – F Mason Shaw for Cross-Checking F Klim Kostin – very questionable call there as Shaw hit Kostin with his right (top) hand on his hip and he went down very easily for some reason.
Goal – Edmonton Oilers – PPG – Zach Hyman(10) from Ty Barrie(15) & Connor McDavid(30)
Hyman scores on the power play on a loose puck after he tipped the shot from the middle of the blue line from Oilers D Ty Barrie.
1-1 Tie
The Wild challenged for Goaltender Interference
Coach’s Challenge: EDM @ MIN – 14:01 of the First Period
and…
Goaltender Interference?
The officials said there was No Goaltender Interference so…
The Oilers went right back on the Power Play.
Wouldn’t it be really nice to know what Goaltender Interference is or isn’t? Does the league or the officials even know?
The Wild killed it off.
Sammy Walker impressed with his speed then his hands and made Oilers D Philip Broberg look slow & bad.
1st period shots
| Edmonton | Minnesota |
| 9 | 6 |
2nd Period
Ty Barrie once again tripped Kirill Kaprizov by trying to defend him by getting his stick through him to the puck. This time it was in the corner and he tried to put his stick in front of him* then get physical with him & maybe pin him to the boards but he’s quickly finding out that Kaprizov is very strong on his skates and will win a ton of puck battles.
*Defend with your feet, not your stick! – Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.
No dice on that power play but the Wild went back on the power play just a couple of minutes later because Oilers D Philip Broberg held Jonas Brodin.
Wild F Marcus Foligno had the puck at the left half-wall at the end of the power play so he just took a shot to try to create something and it was blocked/deflected by Nurse and came back to Matt Dumba who shot it quickly to beat Oilers G Stuart Skinner.
Coach’s Challenge: EDM @ MIN – 7:46 of the Second Period
Dumba’s pass entering the zone to Foligno went parallel on the blue line which put Freddy Gaudreau offsides so…
NO GOAL!!!
Boldy makes a great play/move/pass to Freddy Gaudreau who went upstairs to beat Skinner and put the Wild up 2-1
GOAL – Minnesota Wild – Freddy Gaudreau(5) from Matt Boldy(10)
What a play with some slick hands to make that play from Matt Boldy!
2-1 Wild
Sammy Walker showed some quickness in the o-zone!
Wider angle
2nd period shots (total)
| Edmonton | Minnesota |
| 6(15) | 16(22) |
3rd period
Marc-Andre Fleury denies Darnell Nurse on a 2-on-1!
“you make $9m and don’t do shit” – Minnesota Wild F Jordan Greenway chirping Oilers D Darnell Nurse.
Minnesota Wild captain D Jared Spurgeon with some great stick work late.
A Wild ending to the game!
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Final
Edmonton Oilers 1 | 2 Minnesota Wild
Goals
MN:
1. Matt Boldy(11)-PPG, 2. Freddy Gaudreau(5)
EDM:
1. Zach Hyman(10)-PPG
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal
Assists
MN:
1. Kirill Kaprizov(18), Mats Zuccarello(20), 2. Matt Boldy(10), not Sammy Walker*
*It would’ve been his 1st NHL point & it was announced but the league took it away. It was the right call. Walker stopped the puck with his skate and Connor McDavid sent the puck into the neutral zone to Matt Boldy.
EDM:
1. Ty Barrie(15), Connor McDavid(30)
Goalies
MN:
Marc-Andre Fleury – 20 Saves on 21 Shots, .952 Save%, 10th Win*
*
EDM:
Stuart Skinner – 28 Saves on 30 Shots, .933 Save%, 7th Loss
Game Notes
*
Defend with your feet, not your stick!
Edmonton Oilers D Ty Barrie tried to defend Kirill Kaprizov with his stick twice and failed and then took Kaprizov down for 2 penalties.
On the first penalty, he tried to pinch on a puck coming up the side boards but Kirill got to it first and saw Ty there so he moved his body to protect the puck while he spun around to go to the open ice. Barrie put his stick along the boards then when he realized he wasn’t going to get to the puck, he moved it towards the puck and it went between Kirill’s skates, tripping him. The Wild scored 7 seconds of game time later!
On the second penalty, Kirill was in the right corner and Barrie was behind him so he tried to put his stick around him to either reach the puck or to maybe get some leverage on Kirill but he found out that Kirill knows how to win battles and when he went to escape and go behind the net, yep, Barrie’s stick was in Kirill’s skates/legs and he tripped him again. If he doesn’t put his stick there to begin with, he can use it later and he can still skate with Kirill instead of being in an awkward position with his stick wrapped around the player.
It’s not hard to believe Kirill saw &/or felt the opponent’s stick there and went that way to draw the penalty, too.
Defending with your feet means to move your feet and skate to stay with the player you’re defending if they have or don’t have the puck. Too often players think they’re okay if they’re within reach of the player they’re covering until it’s too late and being within reach isn’t enough so they either have to take a penalty or pray their goalie makes a huge play. Praying* is never a good way to play defense. It is a God way, though! HA!
*Pray before & after the game or maybe even on the bench!
Just shadow your stick with the puck or the player’s stick but be close enough to take their stick away or to get the puck first.
Of course this isn’t easy but if you keep in mind to keep skating all the time, you will be able to defend better.
Why do you think coaches are always saying, “Move Your Feet!”?
**
Alex Goligoski or Calen Addison?
It seems the Wild like Calen Addison more than Alex Goligoski.
Is that because of what Calen Addison provides on the power play? Calen Addison quarterbacks the Minnesota Wild’s 1st power play unit and he has 11 power play assists (& power play points) while Alex Goligoski has zero.
Their power play time on ice & power play time on ice per game played are equally lopsided…
100 minutes & 22 seconds total Power Play Time on Ice & 3:43/game for Calen compared to 6 minutes & 26 seconds/game for Goose.
Calen Addison was just a healthy scratch 2 games before because the Wild coaches wanted him to know that he has to play better defense so he can help his team by staying in the lineup. Alex Goligoski is capable of playing decent defense. He’s also been a power play quarterback before so do the Wild just not see that in him anymore or do they just like Addison & Spurgeon better?
Maybe a bit of both with the majority of it being the latter.
***
Sammy Walker showing well…
A lot of people didn’t think Sammy Walker was going to do well in professional hockey and they sure didn’t expect him to make his NHL Debut in December of his first professional season but give Sammy credit as he has obviously worked very hard and played very well to earn his opportunities so far this season.
He scored double-digit goals & assists in every one of his 4 seasons with the Minnesota Gophers and it took him just 20 games to do that in The AHL (6 PPGs, too) as he was opening the eyes of everyone.
Postgame
Sammy Walker on being on the ice with Connor McDavid…
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Next up:
The Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday at 6:30pm at The X on Bally Sports North.
Thanks for Reading!!!
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