The Minnesota Wild were leading the Central Division for the first time this season as they were a point ahead of both the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars with 9 games to play (10 for Colorado.) They were seeing the Seattle Kraken for the first time in 136 days as they played 2 games in 8 days back in November when they were shut out 4-0 on November 3rd & then shut out the Kraken in a 1-0 win on November 11th.
The Seattle Kraken are holding strong in the 1st Wild Card spot, 7 points ahead of the Calgary Flames and 8 points ahead of the Nashville Predators. The Kraken have 2 games in hand on the Flames as well.
The Predators, at 8 points behind with 10 to play and a negative goal differential, have a pretty impossible task as 8 of their last 10 games are against teams currently in a playoff spot. The Preds are just 5 points behind Winnipeg for the final playoff spot with 2 games in hand & 1 of those final 10 games is in Winnipeg, their 4th to last game of the season. They will face the Minnesota Wild in their 2nd to last game of the regular season so it’ll be interesting to see what the standings look like then.
Seattle is a hard-working team in year 2 of their existence so they’re still building and need more talent but they are building a winning culture as was shown by the way they began the season and that 24-9-4 record on the road so far this season which ranks 4th in the NHL and 2nd in the Western Conference but the Wild were 23-11-3 at home which ranks 6th in the NHL and 2nd in the Western Conference so something had to give in this game.
Alright. That’s way too many words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Scratched: Sam Steel, Calen Addison
Injured: Kirill Kaprizov (lower body), Gustav Nyquist (shoulder), John Klingberg (upper body)
Status Report
Klingberg skated but the defenseman will miss his third straight game.
Seattle Kraken
Scratched: Cale Fleury, Jaycob Megna
Injured: Joonas Donskoi (upper body), Andre Burakovsky (lower body), John Hayden (lower body)
Game Recap
1st Period
Seattle was showing that hard work and great road game early but the Wild’s defense & G Marc-Andre Fleury were up to the task every time.
4:43 – Goal – Minnesota – Jake Middleton from Jared Spurgeon & Marcus Johansson
The Wild’s confidence and awareness on the defensive end allowed them to keep the game tied so they could eventually get some offense going and Marcus Johansson was a huge part of it as he retrieved a puck that was sent deep by Matt Boldy.
Johansson came around the right corner, skated up the boards and passed it to Jared Spurgeon. The Captain looked like he was going to take a slapshot but as he saw 2 Kraken in front of him he faked the shot and passed it over to his defensive partner Jake Middleton who had all kinds of time & space so he skated in and took a shot and beat Kraken G Philipp Grubauer just over his outstretched left pad & under his catcher glove.
There was a lot of puck-chasing on that goal including Kraken F Matty Beniers literally following the puck as it moved from Johansson to Spurgeon to Middleton to the back of the net! Will that be in the next Seattle Kraken Film Session?
1-0 Wild
Kraken D Vince Dunn took a hooking penalty on Wild F Ryan Hartman so the Wild went on the Power Play for the second time and it took 29 seconds for the Wild to double their lead.
14:22 – Goal (PPG) – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from Marcus Johansson & Jared Spurgeon
The Kraken’s penalty kill may have shown why they’re ranked 26th in the league as F Brandon Tanev goes to defend Joel Eriksson Ek in the left slot but forgets about that Matt Boldy guy who has scored 6 goals in his last 4 games and now 7 in his last 5. Oops!
No. You can’t just defend a hot player while killing a penalty but you should know where he is, especially if you just vacated the area where he was, and get your stick in the passing lane. Also, is this said in almost every article we write/publish? Don’t puck-watch or chase the puck, especially on the Penalty Kill. Why? Who wants to answer it?
Because you will watch the puck go into your own net!
You’re not a spectator on the ice. You need to “learn to read” the play!
Don’t be Wayne Campbell (or Garth Algar):
But do “Party On!”
Wayne Campbell:
“Am I supposed to be a man? Am I supposed to say, “It’s OK, I don’t mind, I don’t mind”? Well, I mind! I mind big time! And you know what the worst part is? I NEVER LEARNED TO READ.”
Cassandra:
“Is that true?”
Wayne Campbell:
“Yes, everything except the reading part.”
2-0 Wild
Boldy was at it again about 9 minutes later…
5:01 – Goal – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from Joel Eriksson Ek
On a faceoff at the right dot (to the goalie’s left), Matt Boldy was on the boards. Joel Eriksson Ek won the draw back toward the right defenseman but Boldy skated back that way then curled to his left back towards the boards. He had Seattle F Jared McCann chasing him then Seattle F Matty Beniers left his man to go to Boldy but he did nothing with his stick except defend a pass to nobody beneath the goal line so Boldy made a move to make a quick shot at the net. That shot went through Beniers legs then hit the far post and went in. Was Boldy aiming for that? Who knows but either way, it’s a helluva shot and his 2nd goal of the game. Everything he touches turns to…
BOLD!
3-0 Wild
3rd Period
50 seconds into the 3rd period, Wild fans were throwing their hats on the ice because that tricky Wild F Matt Boldy lit the lamp yet again for his 9th goal in the last 5 games.
19:10 – Goal – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from Joel Eriksson Ek
4-0 Wild
Ahh… a forecheck (or forechEk because it’s Joel Eriksson “Ek”) forces a loose puck and Ek feeds Boldy for a one-timer and the hats start flying onto the ice for the Matt Boldy Pure Hat Trick!* So Pure!
*Who started the hat trick tradition of throwing hats on the ice after 3 goals by one player?
Yeah. Maybe get rid of the puck quicker there, Mr. Schultz. Minus 1 for you but NO SOUP!
2 minutes later, Wild F Connor Dewar was carrying the puck in the offensive zone & Brandon Tanev bodied him off the puck but Dewar grabbed his glove/arm which made Tanev fall awkwardly into the boards. Dewar was then checked into the boards by Seattle & former Wild D Carson Soucy. Then Seattle & former Wild F Ryan Donato skated up to Dewar and they ended up dropping their mitts and throwing down:
You can hear Wild Captain Jared Spurgeon say “Instigator” to the official wondering why that’s not instigating by Ryan Donato. We wonder that, too, so…
Here’s the rule right from the 2022-23 NHL Rulebook:
You can get a PDF of the 2022-23 NHL Rulebook here.
“…a player who by his actions or demeanor demonstrates any/some of the following criteria: distance traveled; gloves off first; first punch thrown; menacing attitude or posture; verbal instigation or threats; conduct in retaliation to a prior game (or season) incident; obvious retribution for a previous incident in the game or season.”
It’s hard to tell who dropped the gloves first or who threw the first punch but Ryan Donato went in there to do one thing & one thing alone and that was to retaliate for the incident that just happened. It’s not called an instigator* and the Kraken get a power play out of it.
*Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.
1:15 into the Seattle power play, the Wild were able to make a rush and Seattle F Oliver Bjorkstrand took a slashing penalty to take a scoring chance away from Marcus Foligno.
The Wild scored again about 6 minutes later.
9:39 – Goal – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman from Mats Zuccarello & Jon Merrill
Seattle kept working on the offensive end and got a tip of a Vince Dunn point shot off the stick of F Morgan Geekie that went off the left post and wide right where Jaden Schwartz got to it as fast as he could just to throw the puck back towards the net. He did and it was heading through the crease but Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury pushed and extended his left leg but the puck ended up going under that leg and off of his right leg and into the net to take away his shutout.
9:00 – Goal – Seattle – Jaden Schwartz from Morgan Geekie & Vince Dunn
5-1 Wild
Matt Boldy tried to go between his legs to his backhand to score a 4th goal. Geez!
Wild F Mason Shaw threw a body check on Carson Soucy in open ice as he was trying to catch a puck in the air knocking him down. Soucy didn’t like it so he got up and cross-checked him and chopped down at the back of his legs. Then Yanni Gourde and Mason Shaw dropped the gloves and fought:
It was a dominant 5-1 win by the Wild and we’ll assume the Kraken just had a bad night but their home record is only 16-15-4 so we’ll see how they do in their last 9 games. 6 of them are home games & 3 are road games remaining and it doesn’t seem to matter if the opponents are in or out of the playoffs. Wild fans saw how hard the Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks played against their team. The Vancouver Canucks and the Vegas Golden Knights are 8-2 in their last 10 games and the Los Angeles Kings are on a 12-game point streak.
It’s always fun to watch the end of the regular season as teams are battling for playoff position and to stay in the mix.
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Final
Seattle Kraken 1 | 5 Minnesota Wild
Goals
MN: 1. Jake Middleton(3), 2. Matt Boldy(26)-PPG, 3. Matt Boldy(27), 4. Matt Boldy(28), Ryan Hartman(14)
SEA: 1. Jaden Schwartz(18)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal
Assists
MN: 1. Jared Spurgeon(22), Marcus Johansson(23), 2. Marcus Johansson(24), Jared Spurgeon(23)-PPG, 3. Joel Eriksson Ek(33), 4. Joel Eriksson Ek(34), 5. Mats Zuccarello(43), Jon Merrill(9)
SEA: 1. Morgan Geekie(17), Vince Dunn(48)
Goalies
MN:
Marc-Andre Fleury
35 Saves on 36 Shots, .972 Save% – 24th Win
SEA:
Philipp Grubauer
9 Saves on 13 Shots, .692 Save% – 13th Loss
Martin Jones
6 Saves on 7 Shots, .857 Save%
Game Notes
*
Was Boldy snubbed for an NHL Star of the Week?
(Well, he started the new week with a hatty.)
As if to say, maybe they’ll see this.
Here’s who they had for the 3 Stars for last week:
Will he make it next week? Or maybe be player of the month?
The week? We’ll see. The month? Ughh… Probably not! Some McDavid guy seems to be playing very well.
**
Flower voted Best Guy in the Locker Room by NHL players
Are any Wild fans surprised by this?
***
What is Instigating & why isn’t it called?
If you didn’t see the Instigator rule above, here it is again:
Basically, it’s a player initiating a fight after a body check or some kind of incident against their team. There is a lot more to the rule and that’s likely why it’s not called more often. This isn’t one of the rules where the league leaves the call up to the discretion of the referee so if they call it, the player is out for 17 minutes with a 2-minute minor, a 5-minute fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct.
This was one of the topics at the recent GM Meetings. The Athletic wrote a whole column about it and here’s a quote from that article:
“It’s a way to avoid handing out 17 minutes of penalties, and Walkom admits there’s probably a reluctance by his officials to go that route.”
That quote right there is a big problem in our opinion. Officials should call the game the way they see it, not worry about a player getting a lot of penalty minutes.
Most players and fans are not fans of the officials but you have to appreciate the job they do and acknowledge how difficult it is to do. If you don’t then you should go out and officiate a game so you can get a little taste of how difficult it is to do.
*From The Athletic so you’ll likely need a subscription but it’s only $1/month right now & it’s well worth the normal price!
––––– CP –––––
Next up:
Off to Colorado to face the reigning Stanley Cup champs who the Minnesota Wild have lost to twice this season so this is their last chance to beat them during the regular season:
🗓️
Wednesday, March 29th, 20223
🕘
9pm
📺
Thanks for Reading!!!
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AND…as always…
