The Minnesota Wild took on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night. The Wild were looking for their 2nd straight win while the Lightning were looking for their 5th straight win. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, G Andrei Vasilevskiy, their stalwart in the crease, was out due to illness so backup G Brian Elliot made his 2nd consecutive start. The Wild players and coaching staff know the Tampa Bay Lightning are still one of the elite teams in the National Hockey League.
The Wild, of course, are looking to become one of the elite teams in the NHL and it appears they are on their way. A pretty convincing 5-2 win at the St. Louis Blues on New Year’s Eve made the Wild 14-5-0 (W-L-OTL) over their last 19 games, the same exact record over that span as the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Alright. Enough words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Status report
Eriksson Ek missed practice on Tuesday with a maintenance day but is expected to play.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Status report
The Lightning did not skate. They are on the second half of a back to back, coming off a 4-1 win at the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.
Game Recap
1st Period
Former St. Cloud State Huskie F Nick Perbix played his 1st game as an NHLer in Minnesota for Tampa Bay and they had him in the starting lineup.
Lightning F Brayden Point had speed thru the neutral zone and received a great pass in stride from Nikita Kucherov to create a breakaway but Filip Gustavsson stopped him!
Wild F Sam Steel got a great chance off of a Mats Zuccarello pass for a deflection attempt in front of the net but he didn’t get a lot on it so it went right into the goalie’s chest.
Mats Zuccarello had trouble controlling the puck to keep it in the offensive zone but he still somehow kept control of it (keeping 3 Bolts from taking it from him) then he found Kaprizov in the slot but Kirill tried to get around a defender then fanned on the shot before shooting it off Elliot. The Wild retrieved it and Dumba had a chance to shoot but he chose to try to pass it and it ended up being a turnover.
Kaprizov had the puck by his own bench and Brandon Hagel hit him with a pretty good body check. The puck then got to Hagel so Kaprizov threw a body check on him. Hagel then tapped him with his stick so Mats Zuccarello pushed him and Hagel pushed him back. Haha Don’t touch Kap unless you’re ready to have Zuccy in your face!
Wild F Jordan Greenway got a minor for an after the whistle scrum! Ughh! Why just take one in an after the whistle scrum? Is/are the official/s trying to set a tone for the after the whistle scrums to try to stop them from happening. Good luck. Take both! They’d likely say that Greenway continued or restarted the scrum with a face wash but it looked like someone was still messing with one of his teammates so he went back at them then was pushed from another player, too.
The Minnesota Wild scored when D Calen Addison purposely shot the puck wide of the net so it came back in front of the net/goal line so Joel Eriksson Ek could get to it. He tried to make a backhand to forehand move but missed it so it went in front of the net and off of Nick Perbix’ skate and in! OUCH! (One of us playing for the 1st time against his hometown team.)
1-0 Wild
Tampa Bay F Steven Stamkos got his stick in Jake Middleton’s skates and was called for tripping.
Matt Boldy had the puck in the left slot and faked a shot then passed to Kirill Kaprizov for a tip-in/deflection that went in on the ice to the right corner.
2-0 Wild
2 minutes & 18 seconds later the Wild scored again when D Calen Addison created some space by himself and blasted a slapper to the upper left corner with Boldy in front to screen G Brian Elliot.
3-0 Wild
Zuccarello hit the left post, the crossbar and the right post on the power play! That’s hard to do!
A Ryan Hartman hook took away a scoring chance then he pushed Tampa Bay F Brandon Hagel to send him awkwardly towards the boards but he turned and avoided any terrible contact but that didn’t stop his teammate Anthony Cirelli from going after Hartman and he drilled him after the whistle was blown. The officials gave them both 2 minutes but an extra 2 to Hartman for Roughing for punching Cirelli while he’s laying on top of him.
And they scored on the power play to make it 3-1 Wild as Nikita Kucherov made a zone entry look as easy as possible then got the puck back at the right half wall when Wild F Marcus Foligno pressured Victor Hedman at the blue line. Kucherov was being pressured so he passed it to Brandon Hagel under Middleton’s stick in the right slot. Hagel was skating forward so Steel left Brayden Point to pressure him which left Point open for a one-timer that beat Gustavsson to the upper right corner. That all took about 7 seconds.
Aggressiveness on the penalty kill can be a good thing. The Lightning were ready for it but it wasn’t done very well by the Wild. They let 3 passes go through them with each one creating a domino effect of another Wild player pursuing the puck. The pass to Kucherov went off the wall so maybe Middleton saw that and thought it’d be a tough play but Kuch made it look easy and Middleton should’ve backed off as there really isn’t a scoring threat at that point. Hagel was the only available option for a pass. Steel should notice that Hagel is a left-handed shot and not leave Point open in the slot for a one-timer. I’m sure any goalie would rather have a bad angle backhand shot that he’s set up for then a one-timer he has to move and adjust to.
You could add having better stick placement on the puck to defend the pass.
But… 1:58 later, Wild F Sam Steel scored off his shin to make it a 3-goal lead again!
4-1 Wild!
That’s a big goal for Sam Steel because it established a career-high in goals in a season for him with 7. He has scored 6 goals in all 4 of his previous seasons with the Anaheim Ducks.*
*Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.
Kaprizov tried to go between his legs for a shot and he hit the left corner post & crossbar! OHHHH!!!
Controversy-Mason Shaw cleared the zone and the puck went out of play but none of the officials saw if it went directly out so they couldn’t call it. They showed the replay and the puck actually hit the boards right after Shaw hit it. It’s really low off the boards and might even be off the kickplate (yellow part).
Dumba blocked a shot late off the top of his right foot then Gustavsson appeared to wince after catching a shot to get a whistle and he came out of the game after Kaprizov scored an empty net goal to make it 5-1.
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Final
Tampa Bay Lightning 1 | 5 Minnesota Wild
Goals
MN:
1. Joel Eriksson Ek(13), 2. Kirill Kaprizov(21)-PPG, 3. Calen Addison(3), 4. Sam Steel(7), 5. Kirill Kaprizov(22)-ENG
TBL:
1. Brayden Point(22)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal
Assists
MN:
1. Calen Addison(15), Marcus Folgino(9), 2. Matt Boldy(16), Calen Addison(16), 3. Ryan Hartman(6), Matt Boldy(17), 4. Jared Spurgeon(14), 5. Unassisted
TBL:
1. Brandon Hagel(16), Nikita Kucherov(41)
Goalies
MN:
Jonas Gustavsson – 34 Saves on 35 Shots, .971 Save%, 9th Win – 57:52 TOI*
Marc-Andre Fleury – 0 Saves on 0 Shots – 2:03 TOI
*Gus had left the ice late in the 3rd period. He caught a shot to get a whistle and cringed like he was in pain while bending over so Fleury came in for the remainder of the game. Turns out he had stomach issues and had to relieve that pain. Tampa didn’t register another shot on goal for the remaining 2:03 of the game.
TBL:
Brian Elliot – 28 Saves on 32 Shots, .875 Save%, 3rd Loss
Game Notes
*
Kirill Kaprizov vs Nikita Kucherov
Does the head coach think this, too? Or is he not a fan of this kind of a pass? Or is Kirill one of the few he’ll allow to do those “cute” plays?
We wonder how much Kirill Kaprizov talks to his fellow Russians. We assume he talks to Alex Ovechkin as much as possible since he’s said he is his idol but Nikita Kucherov is one of the best players of his generation, too.
What advice do they give him on his play and his career? What shortcuts can they help him with to become a Stanley Cup Champion as we would assume that is the only thing he cares about?
**
Flip Filip?
Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin traded backup G Kaapo Kahkonen (with a ‘22 5th-round pick) to San Jose 9+ months ago for D Jacob Middleton. Would he do the same thing with current backup G Jonas Gustavsson? He’s been on fire this season
Guerin also acquired Marc-Andre Fleury last season so he had 2 number 1 goalies. He wouldn’t necessarily have that this time but he could also acquire a backup at the deadline.
It would all come down to what Guerin thinks the Wild needs come the March 3rd NHL Trade Deadline and if he thinks Filip can be a number 1 goalie and/or how much time he feels G Jesper Wallstedt needs to develop into their number 1 goalie.
We’ll have to revisit this topic as the Trade Deadline gets closer.
Next up:
Saturday, January 7th at the Buffalo Sabres at 6pm on Bally Sports North.
The Sabres seem like a new team with on fire-forward Tage Thompson who, at the time this is being written, has 30 goals and 55 points in 36 games. He had 38 goals & 68 points in 78 games last season. He’s also on the last year of a 3-year/$4.2M bridge contract* which could’ve had him looking for a huge payday. We’ll talk about that come Saturday, though.
*A Bridge Contract is often signed to get a player to the end of Restricted Free Agency as kind of a “prove it” deal to see what a player can do after his 3-year entry-level contract ends.
He was traded by the St. Louis Blues on July 1st, 2018.
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