Game Notes are topics we feel need more Clutter from each game as they were either an important part of the game or brought up a topic that could use deeper explanation.
Here are the highlights from the Minnesota Wild’s game vs the Nashville Predators:
Here are the Game Notes from Tuesday night’s Wild game against the Nashville Predators from December 23rd, 2025:
Game Notes
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#OfficiallyBad Penalty Calls…
There was a tripping penalty called on Minnesota Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek but it was actually on Wild G Filip Gustavsson so it would’ve been any Wild player who was on the ice and you can guarantee coach John Hynes wouldn’t have chosen Ek.*
*…to “be served by another member of his team who was on the ice when play is stopped and the penalty assessed. This player is to be designated by the Coach of the offending team” from the 2025-26 NHL Rulebook
Should the officials make sure the penalty is called on the right player?
- Joel Eriksson Ek is a huge part of the Minnesota Wild’s Penalty Kill.
- How long would it take to get that right? Have off-ice officials look at it immediately when the official’s arm goes up.
Nashville scored & Ek said something to the official as he came out of the penalty box. If it’s Ek instead of Sturm killing that penalty, does he win a puck battle and change that outcome? We’ll never know.
- Can the Wild ask the officials to look at the play and change the call to Gus?
- Should they be able to?
Later, Minnesota Wild F Vladimir Tarasenko was called for a tripping penalty that happened because he was tripped and neither official saw it.
That’s #OfficiallyBad!
Nashville scored on that power play too. It usually sucks when officials become part of the game.
Later in the game, Nashville D Nicolas Hague ran over Joel Eriksson Ek in front of the Nashville net and no call was made!
Do the officials & the Director of Officiating go over every call and missed call after every game?
Disclaimer:
Officiating an NHL game, or any game for that matter, isn’t easy. If you think it is, you should go do it and then reassess your thoughts.
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Should a Coach be able to Challenge anything?
The above note about bad officiating always leads me to think the Challenge Rule should be open for the coaches to challenge anything whether it’s a penalty, a goal or any situation in the game. The response I usually get when I say this is it would take too long and there’d be way too many challenges. But coaches risk getting penalized if the challenge is unsuccessful. For example, coaches can challenge Delay of Game Puck Out of Play penalties but if they’re wrong, they risk being 2 men down so that rule/play has only been challenged 5 times (4 overturned, 1 confirmed)* since it was put into the NHL Rulebook in the 2024-25 season. They could put a limit on challenges too. There is no limit to how many times a coach can challenge right now. They just risk a delay of game penalty if the challenge is unsuccessful.
*according to AI – ChatGPT
There are the fans who think challenging offsides to overturn a goal wasn’t what the challenge system was designed for which is astounding. To me, it’s exactly what it was designed for… to make sure the rules are called correctly because too many were/are missed because it’s hard to see everything with how fast the game is and limits on how fast the officials & linesmen can get to where they need to be to make the call.
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ESPN Plus/Minus for Hockey Coverage?
What do you think? Good? Bad?
The ESPN hockey coverage has been terrible, in my opinion. What do you think? For this game, they didn’t show the whole replay of the Vladimir Tarasenko penalty and they never asked “Rules Analyst Dave Jackson” for his comments about calls and non-calls. His comments are normally stupid anyway so maybe that was a good thing. Is the NHL afraid to show up their officials by showing replays of penalties?
They asked him about a faceoff situation where Nashville Predators F Steven Stamkos was being tossed out of the faceoff but talked his way back in and Dave Jackson said, “I don’t know what happened there.” Wow! Very insightful. Thanks!
Do the broadcast networks or the NHL ever ask someone who knows or played hockey how to do a broadcast or what they’d like to see in a hockey broadcast?
The technology likely exists to improve an NHL broadcast astronomically.
- Give the viewer the option to change the angle or camera they can watch the game or a given play from at any time by just clicking the remote.
- Follow a player or position from their point-of-view or from a certain angle (behind, helmet cam (point-of-view), above, their teammates, etc..)
- Give the viewer the option of which broadcast to listen to (Home or Away, National) along with the option to listen to no play-by-play so we can simply here the sounds of the game.
- Include an option to listen to the players on the ice like NASCAR (?) does when fans can listen to their favorite driver talk to his crew during a race.
ESPN Plus is a streaming app. That means there might be more issues due to internet service, how you’re accessing the app and if the app has a different user interface depending on what device you’re using to watch a game on it.
- Fire TV Cube: If you pause the game for too long, you might have to start the game from the beginning again. You can adapt to that by looking at the time of the broadcast you paused it at so it’s easier to catch up again.
- For the first time, this game allowed me to just resume the game from where I paused it. That was refreshing.
- Apparently none of the streaming services have figured out how to allow slow motion or faster viewing so you can only skip ahead 10-15 seconds depending on the service.
- It’d be such a time-saver to be able to set how much time you can skip ahead with the skip button. Will we have to watch commercials eventually like most of the Entertainment streaming services? Or pay more to not have commercials.
I don’t know about everyone else but cable looks like the best way to watch TV/Movies/Sports now that we’ve all experienced how streaming works and how it’s divided into the 5-10+ services you need if you want to watch everything you like.
What else would you like to have as options in how you watch a game, ClutterPuckers?
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Where should Minnesota Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek play in the Lineup?
1st line? 2nd? 3rd?
It might not matter. Joel Eriksson Ek adapts to any situation &/or he’s so good at being a nuisance that he’s effective with anyone around him. That’s because he’s so good offensively and defensively. He’s the Minnesota Wild’s shutdown center so he’s matched up with the opponent’s best players every game
He’s arguably the most valuable player on the Minnesota Wild because you can move him up & down the lineup and not worry about him slumping while also allowing other centers to play in a better role for them and the team.
*****
The Nashville Predators are back in the Playoff Conversation
They’re just 3 points out of a Wild Card Playoff Spot and they have 3 games in hand on the Utah Mammoth.
They’d still have to leap the Seattle Kraken & the San Jose Sharks but after watching the game against the Wild, they look like they may have found their game. Will it last? Only time will tell.
This could be disappointing to a lot of fans of the Minnesota Wild and any other team looking to acquire F Ryan O’Reilly or any other player on the Predators roster.
🏒–– CP ––🏒
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