The Minnesota Wild had 8 days between games after beating Buffalo in a Shootout on Hockey Day Minnesota. They did practice on Sunday but hey, a week off isn’t something that happens often in a professional hockey season so hopefully they got some good rest & relaxation and watched their teammate, F Kirill Kaprizov, at the All-Star Game.
Now, it’s back to work and time to get back to playing their game on a consistent basis for the rest of the season so they can make the playoffs and see what happens with another kick at The Cup. They are currently in 3rd place in the Central Division but just 1 point ahead of the reigning champion Colorado Avalanche who are in the last Wild Card spot as the season gets back underway. The Wild do have games in hand on both Dallas (3) & Winnipeg (4) along with Edmonton (2) & Calgary (2).
Alright. Enough words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Wild projected lineup
Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov — Sam Steel — Mats Zuccarello
Jordan Greenway — Joel Eriksson Ek — Ryan Hartman
Marcus Foligno — Frederick Gaudreau — Matt Boldy
Brandon Duhaime — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
Defensemen
Jake Middleton — Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin — Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill — Calen Addison
Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Alex Goligoski, Mason Shaw
Injured: None
Status report
Fleury is expected to make his fourth consecutive start.
Arizona Coyotes
Coyotes projected lineup
Forwards
Clayton Keller — Barrett Hayton — Nick Schmaltz
Lawson Crouse — Nick Bjugstad — Christian Fischer
Matias Maccelli — Jack McBain — Zack Kassian
Nick Ritchie — Travis Boyd — Jean-Sebastien Dea
Defensemen
Jakob Chychrun — Juuso Valimaki
Patrik Nemeth — J.J. Moser
Troy Stecher — Josh Brown
Goalies
Karel Vejmelka
Connor Ingram
Scratched: None
Injured: Shayne Gostisbehere (upper body), Liam O’Brien (upper body)
Status report
O’Brien, a forward who has been out since Dec. 16 (22 games), is practicing but isn’t expected to play. … The Coyotes assigned Dylan Guenther, a forward, to the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League. Guenther had six goals and nine assists in 33 games. … Dea was recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League. He has played in 33 NHL games, last playing one game with the Buffalo Sabres in 2020-21.
Game Recap
1st Period
The Wild looked like themselves early, somewhat dominating the play with some sustained time in the offensive zone with some good chances to go along with it. Brandon Duhaime drew a penalty to give the Wild the first power play.
13:57 – Penalty – Arizona – Jakob Chychrun for Holding Brandon Duhaime
Is this where the rust starts to show? The first unit had trouble getting set up in the offensive zone with a lack of accuracy on passes that allowed the Coyotes to clear the zone.. The second unit did a little better but just 1 shot total on that powerless play.
10:24 – Penalty – Minnesota – Joel Eriksson Ek for Tripping
After Wild F Jordan Greenway somehow got a shot to squeak through Arizona G Karel Vejmelka, Ek was right there to knock it in the net but Jakob Chychrun swept it away before he could get his stick on it.
Then Ek was battling behind the net. He was trying to get to the puck and he backed into Chychrun’s leg to trip him with his own leg. For some reason the official in the zone didn’t see it as the official at center ice made the call.
Another good penalty kill for the Wild.
33 seconds after that kill, the Coyotes went right back on the Power Play when Jon Merrill slashed former Wild F Nick Bjugstad who got a mini-breakaway but it was a short-lived power play as Arizona F Clayton Keller as he ran into Jared Spurgeon on the way into the zone 34 seconds into the power play.
The Wild got some momentum off of 4-on-4 play and got a great scoring chance when Mats Zuccarello made a crazy turnaround backhand pass right to the tape of Kirill Kaprizov for a shot in alone but Coyotes G Karel Vejmelka made to the stop to keep the game scoreless.
Then the Wild took another penalty when Matt Boldy took a slashing penalty in the neutral zone.
On the power play, Arizona F Matias Maccelli had the puck at the left point after a faceoff win and for some reason he decided it didn’t look good and he skated the puck out of the zone to regroup. They were on the power play. How weird is that? Wild analyst Ryan Carter made a comment about it saying, “That’s a really bizarre sequence. Maccelli leaves the zone with full possession for no reason like it’s 3-on-3 hockey but maybe they like the attack off the rush ‘cause they get a great chance.”
Good period for the Wild but it should’ve been better as too many penalties broke their momentum multiple times.
Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury had to make 14 saves to keep the game scoreless through the 1st period. The Wild only had 5 shots but most of that is the result of taking 3 penalties.
2nd Period
The Wild came out with a purpose to begin the 2nd, killed off the remainder of the penalty then had an almost 3-minute sequence in the offensive zone and were rewarded for it with a beautiful play that set up Kirill Kaprizov for a one-timer and their first lead of the game.
16:21 – Goal – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov from Zuccarello & Addison
A turnover in the neutral zone allowed Kaprizov to carry the puck into the right side of the Coyotes zone. He dropped the puck to D Calen Addison as Arizona D Patrik Nemeth got within reach of him. Addison then found Mats Zuccarello at the left slot. Nemeth left Kirill because F Sam Steel went to the net and was open at the right of the goal crease. That left Kaprizov open for the one-timer and he’s going to score more often than not on that kind of a scoring chance.
1-0 Wild
11:01 – Penalty – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman for Tripping Patrik Nemeth
Hartman reached and he was going for the puck as Arizona D Patrik Nemeth was leaving his own zone. Just control your stick. Know where it is and where it’s going to go whenever you do anything with it. Put an Airtag on it so you can track it!
10:34 – Goal – Arizona – Power Play – Jakob Chychrun from Barrett Hayton & Clayton Keller
Clayton Keller carried the puck to the blue line and Wild D Jared Spurgeon made a sweeping poke check attempt so Keller just passed it to Barrett Hayton going up the left side. He carried it down to the bottom of the left circle and Wild F Freddy Gaudreau was puck-watching instead of looking for someone to cover so Jakob Chychrun was wide open in the slot and he roofed it to tie the game.
1-1 Tie
14 seconds later, Wild D Calen Addison accidentally sent the puck into the stands to put the Coyotes back on the power play.
10:20 – Penalty – Minnesota – Calen Addison- Delay of Game
This one was killed off and the Wild could’ve had a Boldy breakaway but Middleton didn’t know if he could make the pass so he waited until he got out of his own zone.
The Wild then responded well with some great pressure but couldn’t regain the lead.
3rd Period
18:20 – Goal – Minnesota – Jonas Brodin from Joel Eriksson Ek & Ryan Hartman
The forecheck created a turnover as Chychrun passed to Velimaki in front of his own net and Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek was there to force a turnover. The loose puck went to Ryan Hartman who passed it right away to Ek in the right slot for a one-timer that went high off the right post and Arizona G Karel Vejmelka may not have known where it went. The puck ended up at the left half-wall where Jonas Brodin shot immediately and it got through both the Arizona player in front of Vejmelka and Vejmelka to put the Wild back in front…
2-1 Wild
10:25 – Goal – Arizona – Jakob Chychrun from Matias Maccelli & Juuso Valimaki
Off a faceoff win, the Coyotes executed a play and the Wild were just watching the puck so Matias Maccelli was open on the right boards. Chychrun went way to the left point and was wide open and Mats Zuccarello didn’t have enough time to react to get to him to try to block the shot and he beat him under the glove arm, or the 7-hole, to tie the game. That’s called puck-watching or puck-focused and it’s not good!
2-2 Tie
10:03 – Penalty – Minnesota – Mats Zuccarello – High-Sticking Jakob Chychrun
9:08 – Penalty – Arizona – Jakob Chychrun for High-Sticking Joel Eriksson Ek
The WIld ended up with a 1:03 power play but at the end of it, Zuccarello was the last one back on the offensive blue line and he went for the loose puck instead of playing defense which allowed former Wild 2018 3rd-round draft pick to get a breakaway and he beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a high backhand to put the Coyotes in front for the first time.
6:47 – Goal – Arizona – Jack McBain from Christian Fischer & Patrik Nemeth
The Wild got a power play with 2:34 left in regulation when Nick Ritchie took a holding penalty on Jonas Brodin.
The Wild had their chances but just couldn’t capitalize on any of them to tie the game and this ended up being a pretty costly loss of 2 points as they head to Dallas to face the division-leading Stars on Wednesday night on national TV.
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Final
Minnesota Wild 2 | 3 Arizona Coyotes
Goals
MN: 1. Kirill Kaprizov(28), 2. Jonas Brodin(2)
ARI: 1. Jakob Chychrun(6)-PPG, 2. Jakob Chychrun(7), 3. Jack McBain(7)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal
Assists
MN: 1. Mats Zuccarello(30), Calen Addison(22), 2. Joel Eriksson Ek(23), Ryan Hartman(10)
ARI: 1. Barrett Hayton(11), Clayton Keller(24), 2. Matias Maccelli(20), Juuso Valimaki(11), 3. Christian Fischer(10), Patrik Nemeth(4)
Goalies
MN:
Marc-Andre Fleury – 33 Saves on 36 Shots, .917 Save%, 11th Loss
ARI:
Karel Vejmelka – 33 Saves on 35 Shots, .943 Save%, 14th Win
Game Notes
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Penalties
Players can’t stop taking that little hack &/or reaching when they get close to an opponent with the puck.
NHL players are just so used to giving that little hack and reaching. The only way that makes sense to fix it is to practice not doing it. The Ryan Hartman penalty was a hack at the puck while he was basically standing still that ended up hitting Nemeth in the skates but he was also reaching and it was as Nemeth was coming out of the defensive zone so not a place where you want to reach and be a little out of control with your stick.
Just skate and keep skating to defend. Don’t Reach! Don’t make a long, sweeping prayer of a poke-check to see if you get a piece of the puck.
Be in control of your stick!
Jakob Chychrun Traded?
Most likely and you’d expect sooner rather than later but he is still just 24-years-old and he won’t be a free agent until after the 2024-25 season with a $4.6M cap hit so some team looking for a top-pair defenseman is going to go get him, right?
The question is what will they have to give up to get him? Matt Dumba, a prospect and at least a 1st-rounder, right? Yeah. We can’t imagine Billy G doing that but we’d assume he asked about the price. They are No. 1 in 2023 NHL prospect pool rankings according to The Athletic so maybe it’s not that crazy of a thought.
So… who will it be? Toronto in their annual trade deadline giveaway? New York Rangers? Our sleeper is Buffalo.
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Next up:
At the Central Division-leading Dallas Stars:
The Wild still have 3 games in hand but they are now 10 points back so this was a costly loss against a very beatable team and it just makes Wednesday night’s game a lot bigger.
Thankfully, this team has responded well to losses and bad losses but they’ve had too many bad losses for a team that’s in the thick of the playoff race.
Thanks for Reading!!!
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