The Minnesota Wild had a day off and a day to practice and get ready for the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers after losing a tough one to Vegas on Sunday. The Wild were still without F Yakov Trenin due to an upper-body injury, adding to their extensive injured player list. F Brendan Gaunce made his Minnesota Wild debut. He’s played 11 professional seasons and 559 games, with most of them in the AHL ((364) w/116 goals & 131 assists). He has 177 games in the NHL with just 13 goals and 15 assists. He played last season with Columbus & had 2 goals & 2 assists in 24 games.

The Florida Panthers were ending a five-game road trip and had scored just 1 goal in the first three games before scoring 6 goals in a 6-5 overtime win in a rematch of last season’s Stanley Cup Finals, so they may have righted the ship before this game.

2024-25 Minnesota Wild Schedule and Results
20-7-4 (W-L-OTL) (44 points)
2nd in the NHL Central Division

2024-25 Florida Panthers Schedule and Results
19-11-2 (W-L-OTL) (40 points)
3rd in the NHL Atlantic Division

NHL Hockey Standings

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Alright. Enough words. Let’s…

Drop the ClutterPuck!!!

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Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Scratched:
Travis Dermott
Injured:
Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body), Jake Middleton (upper body), Jakub Lauko (upper body), Yakov Trenin (upper body), Filip Gustavsson (lower body)

Status Report
Trenin participated in the morning skate but the forward will miss a third straight game. … Brendan Gaunce, recalled from Iowa of the American Hockey League on Monday, will make his Wild debut. … G Filip Gustavsson will miss his second game.

Florida Panthers

Scratched: 
Adam Boqvist
Injured: 
Sam Bennett (illness)

Status Report
Barkov will be a game-time decision after missing the past two games because of illness.

Game Recap

1st Period

Florida came out with a purpose from the drop of the puck and scored 3:48 seconds into the game.

https://twitter.com/nhl_goal_bot/status/1869579375282208815

16:12 – Goal – Florida – Aaron Ekblad (2) from Jesper Boqvist (6) & Mackie Samoskevich (5)

The Minnesota Wild were chasing the puck and nobody had any sense of urgency to get out to Florida Panthers D Aaron Eklad to block his shot so it got through and went post & in off the left post. 

Florida Panthers 1 | 0 Minnesota Wild

The Wild scored on a tipped shot when Kirill Kaprizov got a piece of a Declan Chisholm shot from the middle left of the point. Florida challenged for Goaltender Interference because Wild F Marco Rossi skated into the crease and barely got a piece of Florida G Sergei Bobrovsky. He reacted like he was shot. The officials overturned the goal so the Minnesota Wild remained down 1-0.

https://twitter.com/JamesonCoop/status/1869582146484236373

That’s questionable. Marco Rossi gets a piece of Bobrovsky, but he still has time to make a save. His defenseman made it harder to make the save than Rossi did but here’s the rule with the key points bolded:

Rule 69 – Interference on the Goalkeeper

69.1 Interference on the Goalkeeper – This rule is based on the premise that an attacking player’s position, whether inside or outside the crease, should not, by itself, determine whether a goal should be allowed or disallowed. In other words, goals scored while attacking players are standing in the crease may, in appropriate circumstances be allowed (refer to Rule 69.7 for example). Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact. The rule will be enforced exclusively in accordance with the on-ice judgement of the Referee(s), but may be subject to a Coach’s Challenge (see Rule 38).

For purposes of this rule, “contact,” whether incidental or otherwise, shall mean any contact that is made between or among a goalkeeper and attacking player(s), whether by means of a stick or any part of the body.

The overriding rationale of this rule is that a goalkeeper should have the ability to move freely within his goal crease without being hindered by the actions of an attacking player. If an attacking player enters the goal crease and, by his actions, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be Disallowed.

If an attacking player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by a defending player so as to cause him to come into contact with the goalkeeper, such contact will not be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.

If a defending player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by an attacking player so as to cause the defending player to come into contact with his own goalkeeper, such contact shall be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, and if necessary a penalty assessed to the attacking player and if a goal is scored it would be disallowed.

The Wild got a power play then a 5-on-3 and they worked a quick play to get Marco Rossi the puck and he quickly shot it past the goalie with a backhand to tie the game on a good goal this time.

https://twitter.com/nhl_goal_bot/status/1869586830506479624

3:49 – Goal (PPG) – Minnesota – Marco Rossi (12) from Kirill Kaprizov (26) & Matt Boldy (17)

Watch Kirill Kaprizov work his way in front of the net then Boldy fed him a pass and he made a one-time pass right to the tape of Marco Rossi’s stick so he could take a quick backhand. Matt Boldy also made a one-time slap pass to Kaprizov. 

Florida Panthers 1 | 1 Minnesota Wild

With a little less than 2 minutes remaining in the 1st period, Minnesota Wild F Marcus Foligno sent a pass from beneath his goal line to the Florida Georgia Line… oops… the Florida blue line to F Ben Jones and all he had to do was tip it in but he tried to catch the pass by extending for it and he somehow made the puck come back towards him then stepped on it and fell to the ice. Florida D Aaron Ekblad picked up the loose puck and passed it to F Mackie Samoskevich and he was able to go up the right side and get a wide-open shot because the Wild were making a line change. D Jon Merrill just gave him the shot and it beat G Marc-Andre Fleury to give Florida their one-goal lead back.

https://twitter.com/nhl_goal_bot/status/1869587872686178617

1:46 – Goal – Florida – Mackie Samoskevich (6) from Aaron Ekblad (15)

Why give a player a free shot if you don’t have to? He has no other options! Jon Merrill should be skating hard to end the play and force Samoskevich to do something different than shoot or make him shoot quicker so he doesn’t get as much on it. He’s known for scoring and he should be familiar to Minnesotans since he attended Shattuck St. Mary’s for 3 seasons and then played 2 seasons in the Big Ten for Michigan. That’s a bad goal to give up to a team that knows how to win.

Florida Panthers 2 | 1 Minnesota Wild

2nd Period

Late in the 2nd period, Wild F Ryan Hartman hit Florida F Aleksander Barkov behind the net and he didn’t like the hit so he responded by cross-checking Hartman high and getting him in the face. The official decided it wasn’t worth a call so Hartman made a bad decision to try to aggressively pursue the puck even though D Brock Faber had taken the puck into the offensive zone. This caused an odd-man rush and the Wild back-checkers coasted and reacted to the puck so they were too late when it got to Florida F Matthew Tkachuk and the Florida lead was doubled.

https://twitter.com/nhl_goal_bot/status/1869603202712146095

4:32 – Goal – Florida – Matthew Tkachuk (12) from Alexander Barkov (21) & Carter Verhaeghe (17)

Too many players only go for the puck when they’re defending. Getting the puck away from the offense is the goal but you have a choice of separating the puck from the player or the player for the puck. You can focus on the player’s body or their hands instead of the puck. Lead with the stick towards the puck but be in a position to play the body if/when you miss the puck.

Florida Panthers 3 | 1 Minnesota Wild

3 minutes later, Wild F Matt Boldy took a slashing penalty and with the Panthers on the power play, an Aaron Ekblad shot from the point caused a rebound and the Wild couldn’t clear the puck before Matthew Tkachuk buried another goal and it felt like this game was already over even though there was still more than 20 minutes to play.

https://twitter.com/nhl_goal_bot/status/1869603717827150156

1:06 – Goal (PPG) – Florida – Matthew Tkachuk (13) from Carter Verhaeghe (18) & Aaron Ekblad (16)

Florida Panthers 4 | 1 Minnesota Wild

3rd Period

The Wild had good energy to begin the final stanza but couldn’t get anything to break their way.

Florida F Jesper Boqvist was checked into the boards by Minnesota F Marat Khusnutdinov but he hit the partition where the bench ends and the glass begins and when he hit the glass, his helmet flew off and his head may have hit the ice when he fell. There was no penalty but play was stopped just to be safe. Boqvist’s helmet falls off because it’s barely strapped on because that’s how players wear them because they don’t want the strap to be tight. Is there a way to fix that? If the helmet comes off that easily, should there be a different way to tighten it?

The Minnesota Wild were losing too many puck battles and it’s not too different than a turnover because in their zone, they aren’t covering anyone so if the puck comes out to the opponent, everyone is scrambling to get in a better position. That usually means their allowing a good scoring chance like a wide-open shot.

https://twitter.com/nhl_goal_bot/status/1869613973244379331

8:50 – Goal – Florida – Niko Mikkola (4) from Anton Lundell (14) & Sam Reinhart (22)

Florida Panthers 5 | 1 Minnesota Wild

Wild D Brock Faber took a puck to the face that ended up going right to a Florida stick for a quick shot to make it 6-1 with 30 seconds left in the game.

https://twitter.com/nhl_goal_bot/status/1869619004886696029

0:30 – Goal – Florida – Eetu Luostarinen (4) from Evan Rodrigues (9)

Florida Panthers 6 | 1 Minnesota Wild

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Final
Florida Panthers 6 | 1 Minnesota Wild

Box Score

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Game Notes

How similar are the Minnesota Wild to the Florida Panthers?

The Florida Panthers are the team the Minnesota Wild want to be. They have taken on and beat every challenge to become the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Champions but it took a lot to get there. They had to get the right coach and the right player to lead them which took a big trade but it built the culture of that team and made them into a winner.

Like the Minnesota Wild, the Florida Panthers made the Playoffs in their 3rd season and it was their greatest playoff result when they reached the Stanley Cup Finals only to get swept by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996.. The Wild reached the Conference Finals only to get swept by the Anaheim Ducks. Since that 3rd season, both teams struggled to make it out of the 1st round of the playoffs. Florida didn’t get past the 1st round until 25 seasons (26 years) later and they only made the playoffs 6 out of those 25 seasons. The Wild didn’t make it past the 1st round until 10 seasons (11 years) later and lost in the 2nd round. They missed the playoffs 6 out of those 10 seasons. They got to the 2nd round again the following season but lost in the 2nd round again. Since then (2015), they have yet to make it past the 1st round in 7 tries.

The Minnesota Wild appear to have the culture and they may have the coach and the player to lead them as this season’s start has shown them to be a team to be reckoned with despite the last few games. It remains to be seen how this season will play out.

Will the 2024-25 Minnesota Wild be different when it comes to the postseason? Will they finally go on that run their fans have been waiting on for so long? We’ll see.

In the meantime, will they respond to losing their first back-to-back regular season games when they face the Utah Hockey Club on Friday night?

Next up: 

The Minnesota Wild will try to right the ship when they face the Utah Hockey Club for the first time at home on Friday night at 7:00 pm on FanDuel Sports Network North before heading out on a 2-game road trip before the Christmas break.

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