Minnesota Wild Recap vs the New Jersey Devils – December 2nd, 2021

Posted on December 4, 2021 by

Minnesota Wild Recap vs the New Jersey Devils - December 2nd, 2021

The Minnesota Wild beat the New Jersey Devils in a shootout 8 days ago on the eve of Thanksgiving and we’re thankful for those 2 points. The Devils tied the game at 2 with 1:07 remaining in regulation to secure a point & send the game into Overtime. The game required a shootout to decide a victor and Kevin Fiala provided the only goal to help the Wild get the extra point and start what is now a 4-game winning streak as they beat Winnipeg Jets, 7-1, the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2 & the Arizona Coyotes 5-2.

In the game against the Coyotes, F Jordan Greenway scored his 1st goal of the season off a tip in front of the net as he continues his resurgence to being an impact player for this team both physically & putting up points. He added 2 assists on Tuesday, too.

The Wild got F Mats Zuccarello back for the game but captain D Jared Spurgeon remains out but the Devils also had C Jack Hughes back after missing 17 games with a shoulder injury. He returned Tuesday in a 5-2 loss against the San Jose Sharks where he didn’t have a point for the first time this season (2 goals, 1 assist in 2 games to start the season).

You Don’t Know Jack

Jack Hughes also signed a new contract extension for 8 years & $64M. After only 2 shortened seasons and just 52 points (18 goals, 34 assists) in 117 games, some might wonder why the Devils would sign him to such a lucrative deal.

Well, he had 21 points (7G, 14A) in 61 games in 2019-20 with a -26 plus/minus stat. He improved to 31 points (11G, 20A) & a -3 plus/minus in 56 games last season. He was the 1st overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft & went right to the NHL and there wasn’t much of a question if he’d go number 1, either.

Our take is he’s already looked like a supreme talent so Jersey thought why mess with a shorter contract or a bridge deal to get him to restricted free agency. The biggest question of that thinking is the salary cap consequences of jumping the gun on such a lucrative deal. The Devils have plenty of salary cap room and the Edmonton Oilers did the same thing with F Connor McDavid in 2017 although the contracts are a tad different with McDavid signing for $36M more when he was extended for 8-years & $100M.

The bottom line appears to be, take care of your superstars.

We were very excited to watch Mr. Hughes play tonight to see if he’s worth the price of admission.

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild Lineup vs the New Jersey Devils - December 2nd, 2021

Wild F Frédérick Gaudreau remains out due to Covid-19 protocols.

New Jersey Devils

New Jersey Devils Lineup vs the Minnesota Wild - December 2nd, 2021

Game Recap

The Wild almost got an early goal off the stick of Kevin Fiala* as he went in with speed and threw a backhand off the crossbar.
*See the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article.

The Minnesota Wild did get on the board first courtesy of a Lil’ Russian which has a double meaning as Kirill Kaprizov may have put a little Russian on the move to get past defenseman Ryan Graves then went backhand to forehand & quickly shot it past Devils G Mackenzie Blackwood.

We can’t see it on the replay. We didn’t see the actual play live, either,** but this play started after a change and a bad forecheck.
**Check the Game Notes at the bottom of the article.

Kirill Kaprizov goal vs Devils Breakdown 1 - 12-2-2021

New Jersey changed all forwards with D Mason Geertsen getting the puck at center ice. He was the 7th defenseman so he was probably playing forward. The Wild are in the midst of changing their forwards as well as you can see #16 Rem Pitlick at the bench.

Kirill Kaprizov goal vs Devils Breakdown 2 - 12-2-2021

Now you can see both Devils forwards are about parallel to each other and the puck was dumped down the right boards where Minnesota Wild G Kaapo Kähkönen came out to get it. You can also see Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek (#14) going for a change & he was replaced by goal-scorer, Kirill Kaprizov.

Now, watch the replay of the goal. Both Devils fore-checkers were going hard to the puck, skating past or not paying much attention to the defenseman. Kaapo sent the around the boards to a wide-open F Ryan Hartman at the right-half wall. The 3rd Devils, F Michael McLeod, was kind of covering Wild F Mats Zuccarello and decided to give Hartman time & space to find Kirill Kaprizov at the far boards by the New Jersey bench then…

Kirill just makes a magical all-around play. He takes the puck in the zone then turns to protect the puck and maybe makes Devils D Ryan Graves think he’s going to curl back around to find a teammate for a pass. Kirill expects Graves to try a physical play on him and as soon as he feels that, he turns back to go towards the corner again and now he has a step on him so he turns to go to the net.

He’s on his backhand but moves the puck to his forehand and has the option to try a quick shot or to try to make a move around the goalie as Devils D Dougie Hamilton (#7) is just watching the play. Kaprizov took the quick shot option and beat him just over the pad on the short side.

Ryan Graves found out how strong Kirill Kaprizov is on his skates. Kaprizov also did a great job protecting the puck from the Ryan Graves attempted pokecheck with his left leg.

What would have to change to stop this play?

  • The fore-checkers need to communicate &/or read the play to decide who the F1 (Fore-checker #1) is so F2 (& F3) can then anticipate the next play & cover the optional passes.
  • Put pressure on the puck. Don’t just let Hartman have all the time in the world to make a play.
  • Graves doesn’t have to be so aggressive on Kirill Kaprizov. It was 1-on-2 so just defend & keep the player & the puck in front of you.
  • Hamilton could protect his net, too. If he cuts off Kaprizov’s path, he takes away an option for Kaprizov and his goalie can just concentrate on a shot.

–––––

2:20 later, F Rem Pitlick was gifted a loose puck off the stick of Ryan Graves and he went right to the net, forced Blackwood to commit then showed the patience to wait for an easier shot & still roofed it for his 5th goal of the season.

Mr. Pitlick is making everyone wonder what Nashville was thinking trying to get him through waivers during training camp. #OOPS!!!

Assists went to Kaapo Kähkönen & Ryan Hartman on the Kaprizov goal and Victor Rask on the Pitlick G!

Oh, and there was this incredible save by Minnesota Wild G Kaapo Kähkônen:

The Wild outshot them 13-10.

The Wild took a 3-0 lead on Kaprizov’s 2nd of the night when his tough angle shot bounced off the toe of Devils G Blackwood’s right pad then went off D Damon Severson’s helmet & into the net.

The Devils responded with 2 goals in 5 minutes to make it a 1-goal game on a Ryan Graves blast from the left point and a Tomas Tatar mini-breakaway but…

the Minnesota Wild then responded just under 3 minutes later to go up by 2 again when Kaprizov fed Ryan Hartman for a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle that was saved but Dmitry Kulikov was right there to knock the rebound in immediately.

The Wild outshot them 13-10 again in the 2nd.

The 3rd period was relatively non-eventful other than a Ryan Hartman, Andreas Johnsson fight that turned into roughing penalties and an unsportsmanlike penalty to Johnsson for voluntarily taking his helmet off before they were going to tussle. He must not have known that rule because you could see him asking the official after he was put in the box.

Ryan Hartman did score his 13th goal of the season on a nice move and an even nicer shot that beat Mackenzie Blackwood far side and off the post and in.

And…there were also some more great scoring chances from Kevin Fiala. Sooner or later, those are going to start going in. There were also some more great chances and plays from Kirill Kaprizov.

 

Game Notes

*Kevin Fiala now has 3 goals & 12 assists in 23 games. That doesn’t sound that great but this is why you sometimes have to dig deeper to see how a player is doing. If you’ve been watching him play, he’s right there. He’s getting chances but just not capitalizing on them. If you haven’t been watching him, you can look at the stats but we think you always have to look at multiple stats and multiple groupings of stats, or split stats.

We like looking at monthly splits because it tells you whether or not a player is producing over a fewer number of games.

Kevin Fiala 2021-22 Split Stats thru 23 games

As you can see, he struggled in the season’s opening month with just 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) in 8 games. He had 24 shots over those 8 games including one game with no shots on goal. That’s 3 shots per game. That’s alright but it also makes you wonder if he’s losing the aggressiveness goal-scorers need to have to stay out of slumps. A lot of players stop shooting when they get in a slump because they start to let the lizard brain affect their confidence.

So…if you move on to November, you see Kevin Fiala was pretty darn good as he had 12 points (2 goals & 10 assists) in 14 games. He also had 50 shots on goal over those 14 games which comes out to 3.6 shots per game. That’s good to see because it shows he hasn’t lost much confidence in his shot or in his ability to score.

Kevin Fiala - Shots by Type Report thru 23 games - 12-2-2021

There’s another report on the NHL website that shows shots by type (above) and a miscellaneous report (below) that shows shots that missed the net, 34 total so he’s attempted 113 shots on goal (79 + 34) which comes to 4.9 shots attempted per game. You like that from your goal scorers because you can’t score if you don’t shoot the puck & the more you shoot, the more chances you have to score. Crazy, huh?

Kevin Fiala - Miscellanious Report thru 23 games - 12-2-2021

You can also look at a player’s game logs to see his whole season but it’s almost too much at once. The nice thing about it is you can see if they are producing consistently throughout any number of games. Kevin Fiala has 13 games where he hasn’t registered a point. That means his 15 points have come in just 10 games.

He also has 2 games where he hasn’t registered a shot on goal.

Trust in Kevin Fiala. He’s doing everything he can to score. He’s shooting. He’s playing on both ends of the ice and he’s not showing frustration. Expect the flood gates to open to see a bunch of pucks going in the net for #22.

**First off, one thing that’s wrong with replays is they rarely show the whole play. They show the play about 10 seconds before it begins and almost every goal starts way before that. Do they have different camera angles to catch how the play develops? Apparently not but the replays are also made very quickly for the TV analysts so they can be shown seconds later.

Do the teams get different camera angles when they go over the game film? They don’t really need it on this play as they saw it develop from the bench but if you’re trying to coach and develop your players, it’d be nice to have that available.

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Next up: 

The Minnesota Wild will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night at 6pm on Bally Sports North.

This is another one of those measuring-stick games. Can the Wild play with the Leafs? We’re going to find out and it’s going to be fun to watch!

Thanks for reading!!! Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

Posted in Hockey In Minnesota, Minnesota Wild, News/Transactions, NHL Hockey, Wild Game Recaps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Minnesota Wild Recap vs the Winnipeg Jets – November 26th, 2021

Posted on November 27, 2021 by

Minnesota Wild Recap vs the Winnipeg Jets - November 26th, 2021

The Minnesota Wild made the most of their road trip by beating the New Jersey Devils in a shootout for 2 points. Add those 2 points to the 1 point they battled to get by tying the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning with 38.7 seconds remaining in regulation & that’s 3 out of 6 available points. 

After losing to a very good Florida Panthers team but showing they can play with them by doing what they’ve done all season in competing as hard as they can until the final buzzer, they had to battle back against Tampa Bay as well! Even though they lost in a shootout, every point is important. 

Do they always play great? No…but the compete level is always there and they respond to adversity. So far this season, those responses have turned into results more often than not.

That’s been the case really since Dean Evason took over as Head Coach on Valentine’s Day of 2020 when he was named interim coach after General Manager Bill Guerin decided to relieve Bruce Boudreau of his duties with just 12 games remaining in the 2019-20 season. 

A lot of fans questioned the move but we question why you wouldn’t make the move. If Billy G decided he wasn’t going to keep Boudreau as the coach of the Minnesota Wild, there was no point to keep him no matter how many games were left in the season. He decided to give Dean a chance so he could see how he would do as the man in charge on the bench. He liked what he saw after those 12 games as his team went 8-4 then the pandemic hit & the Wild waited until August to begin the qualifying round of the 2019-20 playoffs.

By that time, the interim label had been removed as Dean Evason was named the full-time head coach on July 13th, 2020. 

Since then, the Wild are 47-22-6 in 75 games in the regular season. That would be 100 points. He’s also 53-24-5 (111 points) if you go back 5 games to make it 82 games which would mark a full regular NHL season. Overall, he’s 55-26-6 (116 points) in 87 games. It’s safe to say Dean has done a Great Job here in Minnesota and don’t forget, he’s yet to have a normal season due to the Covid-19 pandemic interrupting his first season and completely changing his 2nd season. This 3rd season is the most normal but even this season shouldn’t be considered “normal” as teams are still dealing with Covid-19 problems.

Ok. Sorry. I ranted there. (Robb’s Rants? 🤔)

On to the Winnipeg Jets, who’ve been struggling over their last 4 games after doing pretty well when they were actually a point ahead of the Wild in the standings with a 9-3-3 record with 21 points compared to the Wild’s 10-5 record with 20 points. 4 games later, it’s the Wild with 25 points (12-6-1) & the Jets with 22 points due to that 4-game losing streak (1 shootout loss).

That does bring up another stat for the Wild & their coach. Since Dean Evason has been the head coach, interim of full-time, the Minnesota Wild have not lost more than 2 consecutive games in the regular season.

We all remember the first meeting between these teams in the 3rd game of the season that featured a heckuva comeback from the Wild. Reminisce here if you want. Or here!

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild Lineup vs the Winnipeg Jets - 11-26-2021

A little shuffling of the Wild’s defensive pairings as Jon Merrill took the place next to Alex Goligoski & Jordie Benn moved down to the bottom pairing opposite Dmitry Kulikov.

Winnipeg Jets

Winnipeg Jets Lineup at the Minnesota Wild - 11-26-2021

Game Recap

Well, it didn’t take long for the Wild to get on the board. 52 seconds in and Alex Goligoski received the puck at the left point and took a shot that deflected off of Nikolaj Ehlers stick into the ice and takes a predictably wicked bounce and goes through at least 2 players and past Winnipeg G Connor Hellebuyck to put the Wild up 1-0 early. One shot, one goal. 1-0 Wild

There is a lot to talk about with this goal.*
 *Check our Game Notes at the bottom of this article.

The Jets had 3 players in the corner battling 2 Wild players and the Wild still came up with the puck as Nico Sturm chipped it up the left boards as he was falling down. Wild F Brandon Duhaime got to the puck first & sent it back to the point for Alex Goligoski.

Jets F Nikolaj Ehlers, even though 3 of his teammates were already in the corner, didn’t stay high in the zone. He instead crept down closer to the corner then when the puck came out, he let it get past him to the point, who he was supposed to be covering. Then…to give Ehlers a hat trick of errors, he shied away from blocking the shot instead of making a winning play and setting a tone for the game for his team.

The Wild won 2 puck battles. One of them allowed them to get the puck back to the point to Goligoski. Then the Wild players, Fs Nico Sturm & Nick Bjugstad, went to the net to screen the goaltender & be available to tip the shot and F Brandon Duhaime was heading to the net as well.

52 seconds in & the Wild already had a physical edge. How did the Jets respond? There were 59 minutes to make up for this goal against.

The Wild went ahead 2-0 when Mats Zuccarello scored from the middle of the blue line after Dmitry Kulikov went up the left side and took a shot on goal that is deflected in the air wide & behind the net by the goalie but Kulikov just kept skating, caught the puck, dropped it back on the ice then skated around to the other side of the zone. He then found Wild F Mats Zuccarello wide open at the center of the blue line so he took a wrist shot and it’s deflected 5 times by a stick, another stick, the goalie’s shoulder, the right post and then off the back of the goaltender and into the net! 2-0 Wild

There were a lot of Puck-Watchers** on this play!
**Check the Game Notes at the bottom of the article!

Ryan Hartman’s goal came off a rebound of a Kirill Kaprizov shot off of a blocked shot of his own initial shot just 2:04 into the 2nd period. 3-0 Wild

Mats Zuccarello’s goal was 45 seconds after Hartman’s goal and it came off a very weak Winnipeg forecheck made worse by a bad change that allowed Zuccarello to feed Kaprizov for a 2-on-1 and Kirill shot the puck but it was saved. Ryan Hartman then won a puck battle for the rebound by knocking it away from Dominic Toninato and back to the left point where Jonas Brodin sent the puck back towards the net with Kaprizov still there and he was able to stop it & quickly send a pass to Zuccarello who was wide open at the right side of the net! 4-0 Wild – Jets make a goalie change to Eric Comrie

Jon Merrill’s goal came after a failed 2-on-1 by Winnipeg that allowed the Wild to make a line rush with not much resistance. Kevin Fiala got the puck at the right half-wall in the Wild’s defensive zone after Pierre-Luc Dubois’ pass went past Jets F Evgeny Svechnikov. Fiala passed the puck to Rem Pitlick at the center of the zone just before Kyle Conner could intercept it so it’s a 3-on-2 odd-man rush. Pitlick got to the blue line & passed to Frédérick Gaudreau who slowed down when he reached the right point. Jets D Josh Morrissey, for some reason, slowed down to defend Gaudreau. Maybe it’s because he had Dubois back-checking but, again, every Jets player is Puck-Watching so nobody knows who to cover because they aren’t looking for anyone to cover.

Jon Merrill Goal - vs Winnipeg - 11-26-2021

Puck-Watchers – Episode 2

Dubois is in the middle, in front of Fiala and behind Pitlick, and, yes, he is watching the puck. Meanwhile, Wild D, & eventual goal-scorer, Jon Merrill is wide open on the far side, trailing the play. His shot must’ve hit Dubois’ stick as it turned into a FlutterPuck (Hey!) that fooled new Jets G Eric Comrie. 5-0 Wild

Kevin Fiala had some great plays throughout the game. He’s going to get on a crazy scoring streak here at some point. Mark this Clutter Take!* He’s just too good to not see some of these chances start to go in.
*8:57 pm on November 27th, 2021! Mark it down ClutterPuckers!

Matt Dumba scored his 3rd goal of the season on, at this point, a predictable Puck-Watching sequence where he was left wide open at the left side of the net for a one-timer he roofed to make it 6-0 Wild. This time, it was Jets D Logan Stanley who stared down the puck then tried the lunging pokecheck of the Marcus Foligno pass but missed.

The Jets finally got on the board with 4:52 remaining in the 3rd period when Pierre-Luc Dubois scored off a power-play line rush on a shot that went under Cam Talbot’s blocker arm to spoil the shutout but…

Kirill Kaprizov scored just 14 seconds later when Jets D Dylan Demelo thought he could turn back towards his own goal line to escape a Ryan Hartman forecheck. He was wrong as Hartman forced the turnover then pushed the puck to Kevin Fiala and he found Kaprizov waiting for a pass in the slot and he one-timed it home. 7-1 Wild

The Jets appear to have a lot of work to do to get their game right but maybe they just had an off night. It does happen. 

Game Highlights

Final Score
Winnipeg Jets 1 | 7 Minnesota Wild

Goals:
MN: Goligoski(2), Zuccarello(5,6) Hartman(11), Merrill(2), Dumba(3), Kaprizov(6)
WPG: Dubois(11)

Assists
MN: Duhaime(5), Sturm(4); Kulikov(8), Kaprizov(14); Kaprizov(15); Kaprizov(16), Brodin(7); Fiala(10), Gaudreau(7); Foligno(6), Pitlick(4); Fiala(11)
WPG: Schmidt(11), Comrie(1)

4-Point Night for Kirill Kaprizov

2nd 4-point night in 5 games, joining only former Minnesota Wild players Mikael Granlund and Eric Staal

Kirill Kaps another 4-point night - 11-26-2021

Kirill Kaprizov Making More Wild History

 

Nick Bjugstad - 500 NHL Games - 11-26-2021

It was also Minnesota Wild F Nick Bjugstad’s 500th NHL game last night. Of course, that’s not counting the 15 playoff games he’s played because, for some reason, those don’t count as games played. I’ve never understood that.

Nick Bjugstad Stats after his 500th Regular-Season Game - 11-27-2021

Game Notes

*Are the Jets suffering from a soft tissue injury? That first goal was terrible. Nikolaj Ehlers shied away from blocking the point shot instead of trying to get in front of it as much as humanly possible to block it. The puck then went off his stick and deflected off the ice to make an almost impossible shot to save for his goalie.

I’d imagine most coaches & teammates would be furious with that kind of effort. That’s not how you win games in the NHL. This screamed as to a huge part of why the Jets might be losing right now & this was just 52 seconds into a divisional game against a team that’s ahead of them in the standings.

Where’s the compete-level? Do you want to win? 

They only seemed to get into the game when they realized they were being blown out. This is supposed to be a physical team and it was hard to see any of that here.

WOW!

**Puck-Watching! It’s self-explanatory. It’s when the defending team is just watching the puck instead of covering an offensive player. This almost always leads to the defending team watching the puck go into their own net.

That’s because, with the speed of the NHL game, defenders don’t have time to react to what they see.

Part of the battle is learning how to read plays but also knowing what to do on the backcheck. We prefer a back-checking player to find the open man &/or the trailing player on the play but they can also listen or watch their defensemen as they might talk to them and tell them who to cover. We don’t know if some teams like having a back-checking player go for the puck-carrier but we don’t like that because the defensemen have the play in front of them so let them worry about the puck.

Don’t worry about going for a body check as that isn’t a priority when you’re trying to stop an offensive rush.

The bottom line is…they have to Learn to Read. 

Read the play based on what the player/s you’re defending is doing.
Anticipate what they will do next by
Reacting to what you read then
Execute by disrupting the play with a poke check or intercepting the puck, etc…

That’s how you become a R.A.R.E. hockey player!

We’ve said it here A LOT! If you want to watch the puck, go buy a ticket. Enjoy the game, Puck-Watchers!!! Now, you can watch the puck for the whole game!

***I’ve never been fond of Kyle Connor but I could never really pinpoint what it was that bothered me about him. It came to me during last night’s game. He’s soft! He’s pretty. He’s also pretty soft. Who wants a pretty hockey player? 

He’s a heckuva hockey player who scores (10 goals) & puts up points (22 points in 20 games) but he plays like he wants no physical contact whatsoever. He doesn’t want to receive a body check and he doesn’t want to throw a body check. How do you win with that mindset? Is he scared?

Our nickname for him will now be Fly-By. Ooh…maybe Top Gun is better because of the irony that it sounds like a compliment but it isn’t at all. Hockey coaches don’t like fly-bys!

Air Boss Johnson:
Two of your snot-nose jockeys did a fly-by on my tower at over 400 knots! I want somebody’s butt; I want it now; I’ve had it!

God Dammit! That’s Twice! I Wants Some Butts!!!”

Kyle Conner has played 325 regular-season NHL games and he is credited with just 75 hits in those games. He also has a career plus/minus of -2 to go with his 143 goals, 130 assists, 38 power-play goals, 2 short-handed goals & 25 game-winning goals.

He is currently in the 3rd year of a 7-year/$50M contract that carries a Cap Hit of $7,142,857.00. He will turn 25 on December 9th.

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Next up: 

The Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Xcel Energy Center for the first time since January 16th, 2020 as the Wild will try to exact some revenge on the 2-time Stanley Cup Champs after losing in a shootout a week ago tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!!! Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

Posted in Hockey In Minnesota, NHL Hockey, Wild Game Recaps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Minnesota Wild Recap at the New Jersey Devils – November 24th, 2021

Posted on November 25, 2021 by

Minnesota Wild Recap at the New Jersey Devils - 11-24-2021

The Minnesota Wild head to New Jersey, where, coincidentally, the New Jersey Devils just released the design for a “New Jersey!” It’s an alternate jersey and it just says “Jersey” on the front. It’s also mostly black with a lot of white stripes.*
*Is Jack White a Devils fan?

We’re not big fans of them because they’re relatively….blah!:

Front of the New Jersey Devils new alternate jersey - 11-23-2021

Yep. Jersey!

A Happy PK Subban modeling the New Jersey alternate Devils jersey - 11-23-2021

Do players ever look happy when modeling a new jersey?

Give the New Jersey Devils some credit, though, as they obviously see the humor in it because they tweeted this picture out recently with the caption of, “Coming soon… maybe.”:

New Jersey Devils send humorous tweet - Coming soon...maybe

The game was delayed as the Wild were not able to get to the arena on time as the Holland tunnel was closed down. 

The New Jersey Devils are a difficult team to evaluate. They’re another one of these young teams on the cusp of taking the next step to contending for the playoffs so they are going to battle all game long so the Minnesota Wild had to match or maybe exceed their battle level to win this game.

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

97 Kirill Kaprizov – 38 Ryan Hartman – 36 Mats Zuccarello
18 Jordan Greenway – 14 Joel Eriksson Ek – 17 Marcus Foligno
22 Kevin Fiala – 89 Frédérick Gaudreau – 16 Rem Pitlick
27 Nick Bjugstad – 7 Nico Sturm – 21 Brandon Duhaime

47 Alex Goligoski – 8 Jordie Benn*
25 Jonas Brodin – 24 Matt Dumba
29 Dmitry Kulikov – 4 Jon Merrill

33 Cam Talbot
34 Kaapo Kähkönen

*See Game Notes at the bottom of the article!

New Jersey Devils

New Jersey Devils Lineup vs Wild -11-24-2021

Game Recap

Kulikov showed patience as he entered the offensive zone as the Devils gave him space so he took a half-slapper, meaning he only wound up to about his hips. Ryan Hartman was in front of the net and he got his stick on the low shot to turn it into a high shot that went over Devils G MacKenzie Blackwood to put the Wild in front in the 1st period. 1-0 Wild

Matt Dumba got called for a high-sticking penalty and it looked like the Devils F ? grabbed his stick & threw it into his own face but it’s more likely that Dumba wasn’t aware he was there. It tested the Minnesota Wild’s Penalty Kill (PK) which has been very good for the past ? games (-for their last ),

The Devils had 4 players below the top of the faceoff circles and they lost the puck to the backboards where Wild  D Jonas Brodin got to it and saw F Frédérick Gaudreau leave the zone so he wrapped it around the left corner and created a 2-on-1 with Gaudreau & F Nico Sturm (on Gaudreau’s right.) The defenseman was trying to take away the pass but was close enough to Gaudreau to make a play on him if needed but Gaudreau faked a pass then slowed down and sent a sauce pass over to Nico Sturm and he one-timed it & it just snuck past Blackwood. 2-0 Wild

That’s how the 1st period ended but the Devils brought more compete & energy in the 2nd and took it to the Wild but Wild G Cam Talbot (& his posts) stepped up to keep his team up 2-0. The Devils hit at least 4 posts during the 2nd period. Some might say there’s some puck luck there but those shots are as close to missing the net as they are to going in the net.

It was still 2-0 after the 2nd period.

The Devils came out very well to begin the 3rd period, too. They then cut the lead in half as Nico Hischier fed Pavel Zacha from beneath the goal line for a one-timer that he fired past Talbot. Fiala was near him but, unfortunately, he was watching the puck instead of defending a player so he wasn’t close enough to him to block or tip the shot. 2-1 Wild

Wild Coach Dean Evason put the Duhaime-Sturm-Bjugstad line out immediately after the goal and they got a great scoring chance on that shift & on their next shift, too. They didn’t score but it got the Wild back to their game.

The Wild got an unfortunate tripping penalty when Ryan Hartman’s stick got near P.K. Subban’s skates then Dumba took a cross-checking penalty but the Wild’s PK was up to the task and their best penalty-killer was G Cam Talbot who made a bunch of big saves to keep his team up 1 goal.

The Wild iced the puck with 1:47 remaining in regulation and the Devils pulled their goalie after they won the ensuing faceoff and eventually scored to tie the game off a rebound from a Jesper Bratt shot from the right half-wall that came out to Nico Hischier & he passed it out to Yegor Sharangovich for another shot & they tied the game with 1:07 remaining in the 3rd period.

Cam Talbot made the first save but wasn’t sure if the puck was under him and it was laying there for Nico Hischier to grab & pass to Sharangovich in the slot. Talbot got a lot of that shot, too, but not enough as the puck snuck through him and past the goal line. DOH!

And….OVERTIME it is but this time, it was the Wild that had the lead and allowed a 6-on-5 goal.

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Which team got the 2nd point and was it in OVERTIME or in the Shootout. The Wild started Ek with Kaprizov & Brodin.

Dougie Hamilton hit the post in the first 30 seconds then with a little over 3 minutes remaining in OT, Talbot made a save but didn’t know where the puck was. He was looking behind him when it was in front of him but Golisgoski cleared it away from the net.

The Wild got a chance with a Kaprizov shot from the slot. The Devils then had the puck for a long time but didn’t really get much out of it then Foligno caused a turnover & he went in on a 2-on-1 and he ended up taking a slapshot that was saved with 8.1 seconds left in OT and this one went to a shootout.

Dougie Hamilton missed on a deke attempt – No Goal

Mats Zuccarello hit the post…PING but – No Goal

Jesper Bratt tried a move – No Goal

Kevin Fiala makes some moves then fired it past Blackwood – GOAL!!!

Sharangovich had to score to extend the game & he went for the shot….

NO GOAL!!!

That’s another WILD WIN!!!

Final Score

Minnesota Wild 3, New Jersey Devils 2 – F-SO

Goals:
MN: Hartman(10), Sturm(3)-SHG
NJ: Zacha(8), Sharangovich(3)
Assists:
MN: Kulikov(7), Zuccarello(10); Gaudreau(6), Brodin(6)
NJ: Hischier(9), Tatar(6); Hischier(10), Bratt(9)

Game Notes

*How many Minnesota Wild fans thought Jordie Benn would get another start when D Calen Addison is ready to go? And…how many of those same fans were angry because of it?

It’s a good thing when the team shows confidence in their NHL depth. That’s why they signed The coaching staff & player personnel know the team better than anyone so that should be enough for any fan. If fans think they know more or better than the coaches and personnel who are with them every day, they’d probably find out very quickly how wrong they are.

They’re also showing a lot of confidence & trust in Rem Pitlick as he’s now on a line with Kevin Fiala & Frédérick Gaudreau. 

This is the culture the Wild are building, a team with depth at the NHL level and, as we saw earlier this season, in the minors, too. They’re getting to a place where it’s next man up and their players know the system so they can jump right in and keep the puck rolling, so to speak. Maybe sliding? Whatever. Every team will have to rely on the depth multiple times throughout every season.

Another thing the Wild appear to be doing is making sure their scratched players keep getting into the lineup every few games or so rather than sit for a long time. Tonight, Victor Rask was a healthy scratch & Nick Bjugstad was back in the lineup.

**We’re not up on the advanced stats of the National Hockey League or hockey in general but this tweet made us question the validity of Expected Goals or “goals more than expected.”

We’ll have to do some research but it seems quite crazy to think the Minnesota Wild “desperately” needs goaltending this season. Our main research will be if the stat/s account for goals that are relatively impossible for a goalie to save. For example, a goal that’s deflected off a stick or a player on purpose or not. There are a lot of goals in the Minnesota Wild’s 19 games so far this season that come to mind when we think of that.

We haven’t had one problem with Wild goaltending this season. Cam Talbot may allow a goal that he should’ve saved but he tends (goaltends?) to get better as the game goes along if that happens.

We don’t believe you can evaluate off of stats or results alone. You have to pair the stats with the situations of how each shot or goal happened so if you truly want to evaluate any goalie, you’d have to isolate every shot against him.

Cam Talbot has shown throughout his short time in Minnesota that he is plenty capable of helping this team get where they want to go. He makes big saves every game, saves that help keep his team either within reach or ahead.

Kaapo Kähkönen has had very little time in net this season as the schedule has allowed the Wild to play Cam more often. He’s played (& started) in just 4 of their 19 games and, if you just look at the stats, he’s had 2 rough games & 2 very good games.

What we see in both goalies is they’re calm, read the play & track the puck well and also come out to challenge the shooter to cut down the angle so there’s very little opportunity to get a puck past them. Do you really want any more than that?

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Next up: 

A Black Friday matinee will once again be a part of your Wild Holiday Weekend as they’ll take on the Winnipeg Jets on Friday at 2:30pm as the Minnesota Wild begin a 5-game homestand that will see them play every other day until they head out on a 4-game road trip in the 2nd week of December.

Thanks for reading!!! Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

Posted in Hockey In Minnesota, Minnesota Wild, NHL Hockey, Wild Game Recaps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Minnesota Wild Recap at the Florida Panthers – November 20th, 2021

Posted on November 22, 2021 by

Minnesota Wild Recap at Florida - 11-20-2021

The Minnesota Wild had one of those “measuring stick” games last night as they took on possibly the best team in the league in the Florida Panthers who were undefeated at home (9-0) and 12-2-3 (W-L-OTL) which makes them 3-2-3 on the road so far this season with 27 points.

The Minnesota Wild were 11-5-0 (22 points) and were leading the Central Division by virtue of a tiebreaker with the Winnipeg Jets because they have more regulation or overtime wins (ROW) than Winnipeg.

Former Minnesota Wild player and coach, Andruw Brunette is the interim coach after Joel Quenneville was relieved of his duties earlier this season.

The only other connections we can think of are Nick Bjugstad  & Kyle Rau, who were both drafted by the Florida Panthers, Bjugstad in the 1st round in 2010 & Rau in the 3rd round in 2011. Neither of them were in the lineup. Bjugstad was a scratch & Rau is with their minor-league affiliate, the Iowa Wild.

The Florida Panthers aren’t that different from the Wild as they made a long unexpected playoff run in their 1st playoff appearance in their 3rd year of existence and since then, they haven’t been able to get past the 1st round in 6 playoff appearances in the last 24 seasons, including 4 in their last 10 seasons.

The Wild, of course, also made a long unexpected playoff run in their 3rd season but it ended in the Conference Finals. They’ve made the playoffs in 11 of their 20 seasons, including 8 of their last 9 seasons but they’ve only got past the 1st round 3 times and twice in those last 9 seasons.

Both teams are headed in the right direction, that’s for sure, but the Panthers are probably a little ahead of the Wild at this point.

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Same as the lines vs Dallas in the last game:
Fiala-Hartman-Zuccarello
Greenway-Eriksson Ek-Foligno
Kaprizov-Rask-Gaudreau
Duhaime-Sturm-Pitlick

Goligoski-Spurgeon
Brodin-Dumba
Merrill-Kulikov

Cam Talbot
Kaapo Kähkönen

Florida Panthers

We couldn’t find a lineup
Here is who started the game:

Florida Panthers Starting Lineup vs the Minnesota Wild- November 20th, 2021

Game Recap

The Panthers were undefeated at home for a reason. They have a team that is ready to contend for a championship. They have a lot of veteran players and are coached well so they saw the Wild on the schedule and knew they were leading the Central Division so they weren’t going to take them likely so they brought a very physical & energized effort right from the drop of the puck.

The Panthers outshot the Wild 15-5 in a dominant 1st period but they only scored 1 goal on a tremendous play by D Aaron Ekblad, who was leading the rush and tried to split the D. Minnesota Wild D Jon Merrill made a pretty good physical play to knock him down but Merrill’s partner, Dmitry Kulikov was to Merrill’s right and Panthers F Owen Tippett was trailing the play a little bit to the left of Merrill. Somehow, as he was falling down, Ekblad was still able to get the toe of the blade of his stick on the puck and drag it back & towards Tippett who corralled it on his backhand then made a deke to his forehand before going back to his backhand to flip it just over Minnesota Wild G Cam Talbot’s pad. 1-0 Panthers

It was an amazing play by Ekblad but with Merrill knowing he had his partner to his right and an opposing forward driving to his left, he probably should’ve played it differently and tried to play the puck instead of the body.* Minnesota Wild F Nico Sturm was backchecking on the play and slowed down to find a trailer since he could see it was 2-on-2. Merrill’s physical play took Kulikov out of the play as it looks like he could’ve made a play on Ekblad.
*See the Game Notes at the bottom of the article.

The Wild weathered the Florida storm and played much better in the final 2 periods, outshooting Florida, 36 to 22 but the Wild lost D Jared Spurgeon early in the 1st, forcing them to play with just 5 defensemen the rest of the way. The physical play and resilience of both teams were on display for the whole game as neither team was going to back down.

The Wild gave up a 2-on-1 when Dmitry Kulikov decided to try to keep the puck in the zone & played the body of Panthers F Joe Thornton but Thornton took a hit to make a play by getting the puck over to Frank Vetrano to start a 2-on-1 and he just ended keeping the puck but made a head fake like he was going to move the puck and then fired a wicked wrister to the upper left corner. 2-0 Panthers

The Wild responded 3:23 later with a power-play goal on a great pass by Mats Zuccarello to Joel Eriksson Ek who had to battle Aaron Ekblad to get his stick in a position to tip in his 7th goal of the season. 

Unfortunately, the Panthers responded 3 minutes later when Vatrano scored his 2nd of the night after Cam Talbot made the save on a point shot but didn’t know where the puck was and Vatrano found it for an easy goal.

That meant they were going into the 3rd down 3-1 which, if you’ve followed the Wild this year, you know that doesn’t really matter. They’ve come back in a lot of games so far including tying one game with 2.2 seconds left so we knew a push was coming from them but this had already looked like the best team the Wild had faced this season so that made it a monumental task. To add to how difficult it might be to come back against the Florida Panthers, they had won 7 of their 9 home games prior to last night by more than one goal and 6 of those games were won by more than 2 goals. The other 2 wins were in overtime so not only have they won all of their home games but they’ve won the majority of them in convincing fashion.

That wasn’t going to stop this Minnesota Wild team from leaving everything on the ice in the 3rd period and it took just under 2 minutes into the 3rd for the Wild to get back within 1 when Kirill Kaprizov got a great pass from Frédérick Gaudreau to send him on a mini-breakaway and he fired it past Panthers G Sergei “Bob” Bobrovsky. Obviously, it takes both players to connect on a play that ends up in a breakaway and Kaprizov trusted Gaudreau would read what he was doing to make it happen. 3-2 Panthers

4 minutes later, the Panthers got their 2-goal lead back when Carter Verhaeghe scored a crazy goal with a great individual effort He chipped the puck into the offensive zone then skated past Wild D Dmitry Kulikov to get the puck back and cut to the middle of the ice. He still had Wild D Jon Merrill in front of the net and Kulikov all over him and he was still able to make somewhat of a chip shot to the upper right corner to beat Cam Talbot. 4-2 Panthers

The Wild pulled their goalie with 5:15 remaining in regulation since they were down by 2 goals. They weren’t getting much done until 52 seconds remained and Matt Dumba barely held the puck in the offensive zone & passed to Victor Rask at the right half-wall. Rask sent the puck to the center of the ice. It looks like he was trying to pass it to Gaudreau but it went off of Mackenzie Weegar’s stick and deflected to Alex Goligoski but he was facing center ice so he did a quick turnaround shot on net and Marcus Foligno got his stick on it to help the puck somehow get past Bobrovsky & make it a 4-3 game with 46 seconds left in regulation.

The Wild won the ensuing faceoff and Kevin Fiala playing at right defense tried to quickly get the puck to the red line so he could dump it in to the Panthers zone & the Wild could get in on the forecheck but Panthers F Jonahtan Huberdeau poked it free & it went to Fiala’s skates but it went off his skates & to the boards. Fiala got to it first and he tried to dump it in with his backhand but it hit the linesman and got past Fiala so Huberdeau got it & passed it to Sam Bennett and he was able to get past Wild F Ryan Hartman’s poke check and fire it on the empty net and just like that, Florida led by 2 goals again! WOW!!! How about that?

36.4 seconds left!

That was probably the nail in the coffiin but the Wild have taught their fans to watch the game until the final buzzer, right?

The Wild wrapped the puck around the left boards to the right corner with 16.9 seconds left. Panthers D Gustav Forsling got to it and threw it up the right boards & it either hit F Frank Vatrano or he stopped it and Kirill Kaprizov was on him and chopped at the puck to send it back in the zone where Joel Eriksson Ek was coming up the boards & he got the puck, made a quick move around Vatrano & cut towards the center of the at & fired a shot from the blue line. Ryan Hartman headed to the net when he saw Ek get the puck and he got his stick on it to tip it in with 8.6 seconds left and it was a 1-goal game again! THIS IS NUTS!!!

8.6 seconds left!

Of course, 8.6 seconds still made us think it’s impossible but the Wild won the faceoff again and Kaprizov got it and quickly shot it on net. Was he hoping Bobrovsky would freeze the puck or was he trying to score? It doesn’t matter much because the puck was frozen with…

3.4 seconds left!

It took 4 tries to get drop the puck as the inside wingers were both trying to get a jump on it to get to it as quickly as possible to have a chance. After the 3rd try, the linesman at the blue line threw Eriksson Ek out of the faceoff so it was up to Mats Zuccarello to win the faceoff to give the Wild a chance.

The puck ended up basically staying in the faceoff dot but Ryan Hartman got it to & sent it back to Brodin who was at the top of the circle & he quickly sent it to Fiala for a one-timer slapshot that Bobrovsky caught and threw into the corner to end the game.

See the highlight at the 9:00 mark of the video below:

Game Notes

*It’s a lot easier to talk about defense than it is to actually play it and make split second decisions with a player coming at you with a lot of speed so I wonder if teams go over a play like the Aaron Ekblad goal and try to talk out if it could be played differently.

Another part of this play that’s strange is that Nico Sturm played the backcheck as well you’d probably want him to play it. He slowed down to make sure a trailing opponent wouldn’t be open for a pass. How is he supposed to know it will play out like it did? Should he watch the play then make a decision? It might be too late then.

Do they just say, hey, this was a great game where both teams just battled for the whole 60 minutes and move on? We’d think they’d at least talk about it. 

**Victor Rask was back in the lineup because, well, Wild Coach Dean Evason put him back between Kaprizov & Zuccarello against Dallas for a few shifts and they scored 3 goals.

It’s sad how many fans rip on Victor Rask and don’t want him in the lineup or part of this Wild team. He worked his butt off because that’s what he was asked to do and we find it extremely hard to believe there are any professional hockey players that don’t want to get better and help their team. Well, Victor Rask put in the work and he has some skills or he wouldn’t be in the National Hockey League and, if the head coach and the front office of the Minnesota Wild believe in him, maybe everyone should give him a chance.

***After watching this game, it definitely looks like the Florida Panthers are ready to contend for the Stanley Cup. They were physical. They have a ton of talent and they look like they’re all on the same page, too.

Nico Sturm said:

“In my 2 1/2 years, I think that was the fastest pace that I’ve seen. I think this is as good as it gets, and they have Barkov missing, too. That’s a good hockey team, but we were right there with them. That was a winnable game; we made some costly turnovers, gave up too many odd-man rushes, and they’ve got a forward group that will punish you for it.”

The Wild could be where they are in a year or two, especially if Marco Rossi, Matt Boldy, Adam Beckman and Calen Addison develop well & quickly.

  • Marco Rossi is up to 14 points (3G, 11A) in 10 games after a 3 assist game (Playmaker) on Friday night in a 5-0 home win against Tucson.
  • Matt Boldy had 2 goals and an assist in his first game of the season.
  • Adam Beckman has 8 points (3G, 5A) in 8 games.
  • Calen Addison has 6 assists in 10 games & he’s a +4
  • Don’t sleep on that Nick Swaney guy, either! He has 7 goals & 5 assists in 12 games including 1 Power-Play goal & 1 Short-Handed goal.

Postgame

Jonas Brodin Postgame Interview

Kevin Fiala Postgame Interview

Minnesota Wild Head Coach Dean Evason Postgame Interview

 

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Next up: 

The Reigning 2-Time Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday at 4pm on Bally Sports North.

Thanks for reading!!! Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

Posted in Hockey In Minnesota, Iowa Wild, Minnesota Wild, NHL Hockey, Wild Game Recaps, Wild Prospects | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Minnesota Wild Recap vs the Dallas Stars – November 18th, 2021

Posted on November 19, 2021 by

Minnesota Wild Recap vs Dallas - November 18th, 2021

The Minnesota Wild were looking for redemption tonight when they faced maybe their biggest rival, the Dallas Stars, for the 1st time in 648 days or 20 months and 11 days. It will also be exactly 22 months since the last time the Dallas Stars played at the Xcel Energy Center on January 18th, 2020 which was Hockey Day Minnesota and it was also a B-E-A-UTIFUL 7-0 win for the home team. Ahh…Hockey Day!!!

.

This season, there is another big reason to want to beat them and that is D Ryan Suter now being a Dallas Star. Can you imagine going from a Minnesota Wild player to a Dallas Stars player? Ughh…that’s rough but, hey, he was paid $6.67M over the next 8 years (or $833,333 per season*) to not play for the Wild, or, if you’re a MoneyBall fan:

They’re paying you $3.5M to play against them.”

Don’t feel too bad for Mr. Suter. He did sign a 4-year/$14.6M ($3.65M AAV) in the offseason so he’ll be alright but, it will be interesting to see what happened tonight. He’s also off to a pretty good start, personally, as he has 2 goals, 6 assists & a minus-2 for the season. Last season, his worst as a member of the Wild, he had just 3 goals, 16 assists and was a plus-9 so he’s already almost halfway to his total points from last season. He’s also already equaled his total from last season with 1 power-play goal.
*That’s $208,333.25 for each of the 4 games they’ll play against Dallas this season. Nice, huh?

The Dallas Stars have struggled a little this season. They were 6-6-2 coming into tonight and before their last 2 wins in their 2 previous games, they needed extra hockey in Overtime or a Shootout to win. They started the season 3-4-2 and had to have at least one of those “Players Only” meetings to get back on track. They won 3 out of their last 5 to get back to .500 so the Wild had to be aware of their recent play more than their overall record to get themselves back in the win column.

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Dallas Stars

Minnesota native F Riley Tufte ended up being scratched about an hour before the game as Joel Kiviranta took his place.

Game Recap

The Minnesota Wild Tribute to former defenseman Ryan Suter:

The Minnesota Wild had some push early and earned a power-play 1:19 into the game when Mats Zuccarello was cross-checked by Dallas Stars D Miro Heiskanen as Kevin Fiala was trying to feed him the puck from behind the net. The Wild had some great chances to score on the power play but couldn’t get one past Dallas Stars G Anton Khudobin.

Rem Pitlick* put the Wild ahead just inside 10 minutes into the 1st period for his 4th goal of the season. He made a nice pass to Brandon Duhaime for a one-timer that went wide so he just retrieved the puck at the right half-wall then continued to skate around the top of the zone and took a wrist shot at the top of the left faceoff circle about a foot & a half high with F Nico Sturm screening Stars G Anton Khudobin. 1-0 Wild

Pitlick actually made 2 great passes before scoring as he tried to feed Nico Sturm at the side of the net before he passed to Duhaime.

Matt Dumba took a hooking penalty to negate a Jamie Benn scoring chance but the Wild’s Penalty Kill was up to the task and killed it nicely & they went back to work at even strength.

The forecheck created the 2nd Wild goal as they were just relentless on the puck and Mats Zuccarello was instrumental in keeping the puck in the offensive zone then he tried to pass to Victor Rask below the goal line but it deflected back to him so he tried again then went the net and Rask fed him right away so he had space and the option of shooting or passing.

The Dallas Stars were mostly puck-watching instead of reading the play and anticipating and when you’re watching the puck, you’re just reacting to it which usually means you’re going to be too late to make a play so Zuccarello decided to try to pass the puck through Stars D Jani Hakanpaa to Kirill Kaprizov at the side of the net. 

Stars F Tyler Seguin could maybe have moved to defend Zuccarello but he decided to just give him space so he took that space & got a nice apple for his work.

Hakanpaa was watching the puck so he wasn’t sure where Kaprizov was behind him so Zuccarello was able to send a pass through his legs for an easy tap-in goal to double the Minnesota Wild lead to 2-0 with 4:51 to go in the 1st period.

Greenway drew a power play in the offensive zone just by being physical and annoying Dallas Stars D Jani Hakampaa (Or is it Häagen-Dazs?) to the point where he cross-checked him when he didn’t even have the puck. That’s what physical play does to an opponent and especially defensemen. They don’t want to get hit even if it’s a legal hit.

Geez! Kaprizov skated into and around the Dallas zone then set up Jared Spurgeon for a scoring chance that he sent over the net. That was impressive. Is Kap getting his game back? It sure looked like it? His compete level was off the charts. 2-0 Wild

Minnesota Wild D Alex Goligoski received a pass at the left half-wall from F Ryan Hartman as he was skating into the left corner so he used his speed & kept the puck away from Tyler Seguin with his body while he skated behind the net and he tried a wraparound. It’s hard to tell if he was to score or pass but we’d lean score and the puck came off his stick to the other side of the net right to Ryan Hartman for a one-timer that was initially saved by Khudobin but the rebound came right back to Hartman and the 2nd try found the twine for his 8th goal of the season.

You can learn a lot from almost every goal. For instance, Tyler Seguin stopped skating and tried to reach the puck by swinging his stick but Goligoski protected the puck well. If Seguin keeps skating, he could check him off the puck or force him to go further into the corner or pass the puck or lose the puck. Ryan Hartman passed the puck then went to the net. What happens at the net? Goals are Scored There!!! 3-0 Wild

Greenway drew another penalty just by being tenacious so…Tenacious F? Anthony LaPanta then quoted Minnesota Wild Head Coach Dean Evason talking about Jordan Greenway:

 “He is so big & so strong that if he just brings effort…
nobody can deal with him!”

Interference by Dallas Stars D Miro Heiskanen. Oops. They then show Greenway laughing on the bench. He can be a big part of this team just by doing what Ek & Hartman do. Get on the opponent quickly and often and it will pay off eventually. Physicality can take a team off their game. It can draw penalties because it just frustrates the opponent.

My favorite quote about physical play is from current Pittsburgh Penguins President of Hockey Operations, Brian Burke about checking in the National Hockey League: 

Dallas came out with an expected push early in the 3rd and got a power play when Jordan Greenway hooked Jamie Benn as he went to the net and the Stars as Jacob Peterson scored when he was fed a centering pass by Tyler Seguin. Alex Goligoski was right there but the puck squeaked through and Peterson took a shot while he was falling down to get the Dallas Stars on the board. 3-1 Wild

The Marcus Foligno, Joel Eriksson Ek & Jordan Greenway line got in on the forecheck, forced a turnover and, eventually, Joel Eriksson Ek sent a pass from the right half-wall out to Alex Goligoski just left of the center of the point and he hesitated then took a shot that got past Khudobin. The hesitation was likely to wait for Marcus Foligno to screen the ‘tender. 4-1 Wild

Look at number 34, Dallas Stars F Denis Gurianov. Why is he so low to cover the front of the net if nobody is there? He should be closer to Goligoski. 

Then, when Goligoski gets the puck and shoots, Gurianov goes the way of a bullfighter…Olé and tries not to get hit by the shot. That will go over well when your team just scored. No coach has ever said to make yourself thin to block shots. We haven’t followed the Stars this season. If they’re this bad, it’s going to take more than a players-only meeting to right this spaceship.

Alex Goligoski Goal Breakdown 2 - DAL vs MIN - 11-18-2021

Minnesota Wild F Frédérick Gaudreau scored off a great pass by Kirill Kaprizov as he must have eyes in the back of his head (or he just has great hockey sense & vision) on this pass. So…if an assist is an apple, is a Kaprizov assist a Kapple? Should he be sponsored by Snapple? HA! 5-1 Wild

Dallas did score the next goal as Jamie Benn got to the rebound off the deflected pass shot but the Wild then scored just 29 seconds later and added a 7th goal 45 seconds after that.

Zuccarello added his 4th off a nice hesitation move to take advantage of more bad defense.

Then Victor Rask scored a goal that reminded us of the Seinfeld Magic Lugie episode as his shot went off the defender’s stick then off Khudobin’s helmet and fluttered into the net past D Miro Heiskanen’s baseball swing as he struck out trying to save that goal. He then took the puck and shot it into the half-wall. PUCK!!!

Minnesota Wild F Brandon Duhaime got into it with many Stars. On one play he was mucking it up with Joel Kiviranta then he saw Radek Faksa knock his captain down so he went to grab him and he was ready to fight as he dropped his gloves but the linesman already had him so they both went for roughing.

Later in the period, before a faceoff, Faksa & Duhaime chatted before the puck was dropped and Duhaime obviously thought they were going to drop ‘em after the puck was dropped so he dropped his but the linesman didn’t drop the puck so he got 2 minutes for Unsportsmanlike Conduct with 4:18 remaining in the 3rd period.

When Duhaime came out of the box, he was looking for Mr. Faksa and he found him with a good hit that Faksa didn’t like so they finally dropped the gloves and it was a pretty good bruhaha.

Game Notes

*Minnesota native F Rem Pitlick has looked good since getting a chance to get on the ice as he now has 4 goals and 2 assists through 7 games this season.

There are some fans who didn’t think much of Rem before these last 2 games even though he had a nice assist in his 1st game then had to miss a handful of games (3?) due to Covid-19 protocols. In the next 3 games, he had an assist & 1 shot on goal in 23:08 of ice time.

A fan/blogger/podcaster said something about not being impressed by him and thought he was kind of a career tweener. 

So…how many games does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? What? Noo…wait! That’s not what I meant. How many games does it take to see what a player can contribute to a new team? 1…2…3…crunch! Th-ree!!! Obviously…that’s ridiculous. Every player is different and develops differently but fans judge them right away. He sucks. Yeah..he’s playing in the best hockey league in the world. He must suck. How ‘bout we let him play and give him quite a while before deciding how good he is?

Another fan said in the comments* of an article that picking up Rem Pitlick off waivers was Bill Guerin going back on his word that everyone has to make the team because they just gave Pitlick a spot.
*Never read the Comments! Unless they’re on your article!

So…again…apparently the team can’t pick up a player they think will help their team more than the players they already have on the roster? That makes sense.

Keep playing hard & keep Bringing The Clutter, Rem! You look fine to us!

**One thing about Ryan Suter that we noticed last season is he seemed to enjoy the game a little more. He looked like he was having more fun than in most of his seasons with the Wild so maybe he was liking what Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin was turning this team into. 

Was buying Suter out still the right thing to do? It’s hard to tell right now but defensemen tend to age a little slower than forwards. Suter has an excellent stride so his skating will always be there and he knows how to play defense.

The big questions are if he’ll play 4 more seasons and if he’ll still be a very good top-pair defenseman throughout those seasons. If he retires at any time before the 2025-26 season &/or turns into more of a middle-pair defensive defenseman, it was probably the right choice.

The cap penalties if he or Parise had retired before their mega-contracts were up were crazier than the buyout costs.

Just think…if they were signed with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement rules on free-agent contracts, they would’ve only been able to sign 7-year deals so they would’ve ended after the 2018-19 season. How ‘bout that for something to think about, huh?

Stars of the Game
Kirill Kaprizov

Goal(3), 3 assists for a career-high 4-point night.
He was also a +4 & had 2 shots on goal.

Mats Zuccarello

Goal(4), 2 assists, +4, 2 shots

Alex Goligoski

Goal(1)-1st Wild Goal, 2 assists, +4, 2 shots

Honorable Mention

How ’bout Cam Talbot?

He stopped 36 of 38 shots for a .947 Save %
He’s now 9-4 with a 2.85 Goals Against Average (GAA) and a .906 Save % in 13 games this season.

We don’t talk about the goaltending enough at all. We’ll have to work on that.

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Extended Highlights

Next up: 

The Wild head out on a 3-game road trip to the east coast as they’ll play the back-to-back games in Florida on Saturday against the Florida Panthers (5pm on Bally Sports North) & on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning (4pm on Bally Sports North) before heading up to New Jersey to play the Devils on Wednesday (6pm on Bally Sports North).

This will be a good test for the Wild to see where stand as they face the team with the most points in the league so far this season then face the 2-time Stanley Cup Champs.

Thanks for reading!!! Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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