Minnesota Wild Recap vs the San Jose Sharks – November 16th, 2021

Posted on November 17, 2021 by

The Minnesota Wild faced the San Jose Sharks tonight and former teammates D Brent Burns* & F Nick Bonino. The Sharks started their season very well, winning 4 in a row but went just 3-6-1 in their next 10 games before tonight’s game, including 1-3-1 in their last 5 with the win coming against the Calgary Flames one week ago by a score of 4-1. They dealt with some COVID-19 issues that had a lot of players out over the last week or so which likely contributed to the slide they’re currently on. All 7 players along with their coach were reinstated on Friday, though.
*Well, just D Jared Spurgeon was on the Wild in Burns’ last season in Minnesota in 2010-11.

One player to keep an eye on for San Jose is #76 F Jonathan Dahlén and that’s not just because he has the same last name as I do. He has 6 goals & 8 points on 28 shots in 13 games for the Sharks so far this season. Those 6 goals include 1 power-play goal & 2 game-winning goals. He lit up the HockeyAllsvenskan the last 2 seasons to the tune of 148 points on 61 goals & 87 assists over 96 games. He also showed up big time in the postseason to help Timra IK claim the Championship to gain promotion to the Swedish Hockey League with 10 goals & 22 points in 15 games.

He’s also the son of former Minnesota North Stars F Ulf Dahlén, who wore #22 as a Minnesota North Star. Those seasons with Minnesota were the best of his career, too. He was also acquired from the New York Rangers (w/a 1990 4th-round draft pick (Cal McGowan)) for Hall-of-Famer F Mike Gartner.)

They should probably put games played in here, too, huh? 13 for Dahlen, 5 for Pitlick

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

From NHL.com so they could be wrong:
97 Kirill Kaprizov – 89 Frédérick Gaudreau – 36 Mats Zuccarello
17 Marcus Foligno – 14 Joel Eriksson Ek – 22 Kevin Fiala
18 Jordan Greenway – 38 Ryan Hartman – 16 Rem Pitlick
21 Brandon Duhaime – 7 Nico Sturm – 27 Nick Bjugstad

47 Alex Goligoski – 46 Jared Spurgeon
25 Jonas Brodin – 24 Matt Dumba
4 Jon Merrill – 29 Dmitry Kulikov

33 Cam Talbot
34 Kaapo Kähkönen

San Jose Sharks

Game Recap

Well, let’s just say the San Jose Sharks came out with a purpose after struggling in their last 10 (& 5) games and, of course, they also knew they had to do that in order to beat this Wild team who is playing well & playing together and leading the Central Division right now.

It was a physical game as both teams tried to set a tone early that they weren’t going to back down. Matt Dumba tried to throw a hip check on Timo Meier just inside the Sharks zone as he was receiving a pass. He only got a piece of him but it could’ve been a big hit with Meier not knowing Dumba was coming. The Sharks defenseman who passed the puck took exception to the hit attempt and cross-checked Dumba while he was on the ice and Wild F Jordan Greenway took exception to that so they dropped the gloves and both got 5 minutes for fighting, although it wasn’t much of a fight as Greenway went down right away. They didn’t have a good view of it so it was hard to tell how it happened. Greenway was trying to set a tone physically.*

On the very next shift, the San Jose Sharks took advantage of some Wild players out of position and maybe making the wrong decisions on the backcheck &/or showing they are forwards & don’t know how to play defense on a Mario Ferraro goal. 1-0 Sharks

Matt Dumba jumped up into the rush as it looked like a good chance to make something good happen. He drove the net and Frédérick Gaudreau sent a pass towards the net and it hit the far post and came out as almost a mini-breakout pass for San Jose to make a quick transition to offense:

Dumba got on his horse to get back and the Wild actually outnumbered the Sharks:

Mario Ferraro Goal vs MN Breakdown 2 - 11-16-2021

Then, for some reason, Dumba goes after the puck-carrier but so does Jonas Brodin. Maybe Dumba thought Brodin would stay with the driving forward, Logan Couture.** Both of the defensemen going for the puck allowed Timo Meier to float/chip the puck past Brodin which then created a 2-on-1 against Minnesota F Mats Zuccarello. Kirill Kaprizov did what bad back-checkers do by starting to coast once he caught up to the play/player:

Mario Ferraro Goal vs MN Breakdown 3 - 11-16-2021

Then Zuccarello tried the defensive slide move to try to take the pass away but instead of going body first and the long way to make Couture pass the puck over him, he…well…he ended up using his stick to try to take the pass away because he slid late & ended up perpendicular instead of parallel. He had the right idea but, unfortunately, the execution was terrible:

Mario Ferraro Goal vs MN Breakdown 4 - 11-16-2021

Here’s another angle of Mats Zuccarello’s slide:

Mario Ferraro Goal vs MN Breakdown 5 - 11-16-2021

There are a lot of “ifs” in this play:

  • If Kirill Kaprizov doesn’t stop skating, he could’ve prevented that goal. 
  • If Brodin tells Dumba where to go/who to cover, they may have prevented the goal.
  • If Zuccarello lays down the right way, they may have prevented that goal.

I would assume there will be a Film Session tomorrow for this & any of the other goals that were scored tonight. There will probably be some laughter as they play the Zuccarello slide, too. You gotta love the Sharks analyst’s take on them making Dumba pay for trying to run somebody over. I don’t think Dumba was trying to run somebody over. I think he was just trying to make a play to get his teammates going.

Bret Hedican Quote on Dumba - 11-16-2021

The Sharks then went up by 2 with a goal in the last minute of the 1st period on a rebound off a blocked shot from the right point that went right to Timo Meier. There’s not a lot you can do about these types of goals. You want shots to be blocked but it’s difficult to try to read where the puck will go off a blocked shot. 2-0 Sharks

The Wild responded with a better 2nd period. They outshot the Sharks 13-8 and got within 1 just over 5 minutes in with a great goal by F Joel Eriksson Ek who received a pass from Fiala on the right side of the zone and he made a quick move to get around Tomas Hertl’s stick then pulled it back to his forehand and made a quick shot that beat Sharks G James Reimer on the glove side. 2-1 Sharks

Just 4 minutes later, Sharks D Erik Karlsson put his team back up by 2 on a slapper from the right point as Kevin Fiala went to go get his stick then stepped away from the shot instead of blocking it. This will likely come up in a film session, too.

The Wild made another great push*** to get back in the game in the 3rd but went down by 3 goals on Tomas Hertl’s 7th of the season as he was wide open at the right side of the net for an easy one-timer goal. Wild D Jon Merrill got lost on the play for some reason.

Sharks G James Reimer stood tall and helped get his team back in the W column as they try to right the ship after Covid sent it off track for a while.

Full highlights here:

Game Notes

*Jordan Greenway is a big human. He’s listed as 6’6”, 231 lbs on his Wild player page. He’s never really shown a consistent physical element since he’s been in the NHL. It’s been more off & on and the coaching &/or front office staff have had to request that he be more physical. After the fight in the first period, Wild broadcaster Anthony LaPanta said, “This first 5:30, there’s a significant difference to Jordan Greenway’s game.”

Fans complain about this part of Jordan Greenway’s game because they think just because he’s that big, he should automatically have a physical presence in his game. The problem is if you’ve never played that type of game or role ever before, for whatever reason, it’s extremely difficult to start doing it at the best level of hockey in the world. Does that mean he can’t learn to do it? No. Of course not, but, it might take some time.

Look at Joel Eriksson Ek. When he was drafted, he was listed at 6’2”, 180 lbs but he’s been a forechecking machine since we’ve seen him with the Minnesota Wild because that’s how he plays the game. He gets under the opponent’s skin because he competes his butt off so he’s in front of the net and defending top lines & players and they get irritated every game and he just stares at them with a look of “I don’t care what you say to me. I’m going to keep battling my ass off.” It also looks like he might not understand what they’re saying like it’s a different language but, the bottom line is that is how he plays the game.

Will Jordan Greenway figure out how much help having that element will bring to his game this season with the Minnesota Wild or will he be traded (or have to take a smaller bridge contract)? Time will tell but it’s good to see him trying to do it. That’s for sure.

Give him some time, ‘Puckers! It’s not easy to bring that kind of Clutter every game!

**Is going for the puck-holder what the Minnesota Wild want their back-checkers to do? Either yes or no, someone made the wrong decision here &, in my opinion, the backchecker should take the players without the puck. Or one of the defenders should tell the closest back-checker who they want them to cover.

The cardinal sin of backchecking is to stop skating and watch the play or the puck (PuckWatchers is the common phrase) because, like the play of the first Sharks goal tonight, they’ll watch the puck go into their own net. 

What you say to Puck-Watchers!

What you say to Puck-Watchers!

***The Wild have had a lot of amazing comebacks but the odds are not with that continuing and it gets harder as the season goes on because the league sees what the Minnesota Wild are doing so they know what’s coming and they’ll plan for it.

The big question is can they get that comeback energy going from the start of the game, now? If they can adjust and turn it around so they have the lead more often and earlier, they won’t need to make a comeback as often. 

It is nice to know they’re capable of doing it, though.

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Next up: 

The Wild will look to redeem themselves as they welcome D Ryan Suter back to the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday night when the Minnesota Wild play the Dallas Stars for the 1st time in 648 days. That’s 20 months and 11 days. It will also be exactly 22 months since the last time the Dallas Stars played at the X on January 18th, 2020 which was Hockey Day Minnesota and a B-E-A-UTIFUL 7-0 win. We’ll hope for the same for the next game!

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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Minnesota Wild Recap at the Pittsburgh Penguins – November 6th, 2021

Posted on November 7, 2021 by

Minnesota Wild Recap at Penguins - 11-6-2021

The Minnesota Wild have had a pretty weird (Wild?) schedule to begin the 2021-22 season, haven’t they? They opened with back-to-back games on the road then had 2 days before their Home Opener then 3 days before back-to-back home games. They then alternated days off & game days on a 3-game road trip to Vancouver, Seattle & Colorado. Then 2 days off, a home game, 3 days off before tonight’s game in Pittsburgh which is their first road-home back-to-back of the season. And…we didn’t even mention that they were one of the last teams to start their season so you could count the first 3 days of the season as days off, too.

That’s 16 of the first 25 days of the season off & 8 of the first 11. See? Weird! Or am I just being weird? What do you think?

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Wild Transactions

The Wild got D Alex Goligoski back after he missed 3 games with an upper-body injury so D Calen Addison, who played very well while he was up with the big club, was sent down to the Iowa Wild of the AHL. So, some of you might ask, if he’s playing well, why send him down?

Well, Head Coach Dean Evason addressed that very question in his practice update from Friday from the Wild Warmup:


1:27 in to hear Dean talk about them sending Addison down to Iowa

Quote about Wild Prospect D Calen Addison after being sent back down to the AHL's Iowa Wild

We couldn’t find lineups for this game at PPG Paints Arena.

Minnesota Wild

Pittsburgh Penguins

1st Period Recap

Kirill Kaprizov got the scoring underway just shy of 10 minutes into the 1st with an easy goal off a rebound.

Go to the net! Goals are scored there!

The Penguins then scored 2 goals in 2:31 late in the 1st off the stick of Kasperi Kapanen (& assisted by former Minnesota Wild F Jason Zucker). So…apparently, they were playing Good Kap, Bad Kap!

2nd Period Recap

13:34 into the 2nd, MN native, F Jake Guentzel wired a wrister to the upper right corner for his 3rd goal of the season to put the Pens up 3-1.

But Minnesota Captain Jared Spurgeon got the Wild back within 1 with a Great Tip on the Power Play for his 2nd of the season.

The 2nd period would end with the score 3-2 so the Wild would have to mount a comeback in the 3rd.

3rd Period Recap

Kasperi Kapanen got the #HatTrick 🎩 8:45 into the 3rd when his shot went off the crossbar then hit Wild D Alex Goligoski and went in to put the Penguins up 4-2!

7:56 later, Wild Captain D Jared Spurgeon rang one off the right post for his 2nd of the night (3rd of the season) to get his team within a goal.

And the Wild just kept working. With 10 seconds left, Ryan Hartman threw the puck on net but it deflected wide & went behind the net. Nico Sturm, Marcus Foligno & Adam Beckman went to work & Beckman came out with the puck & sent it to Matt Dumba below the faceoff dot on the left side (Penguins G Tristan Jarry’s right) & Dumba had to reach for it to catch the pass so he could just quickly send it on net with 3.6 seconds remaining…

But it was blocked by Bryan Rust! It deflected right to Ryan Hartman’s stick and he shot it into the mostly empty net…for…the…BUZZER BEATER with 2.2 SECONDS LEFT!!!! YESSSSSS!!!

OVERTIME

…had its fair share of chances but both goalies were up to the task. Wild G Cam Talbot stopped 2 breakaways late so this one went to a Shootout!

Jake Guentzel scored immediately in the 1st round then…

Frédérick Gaudreau ❌
Kris Letang ❌
Kevin Fiala🚨
Bryan Rust🚨
Kirill Kaprizov🚨
Kasperi Kapanen❌
Nick Bjugstad🚨

WOW!!! What a Game! What a Comeback!

Should you ever leave a game early? Should you ever stop watching a game?

Well, we don’t think so but that is up to you, of course. 

With this 2021-22 #MNWild team, we highly recommend staying & watching until the game is completely over! AND…they’ve completely left the ice along with the officials. Make sure the refs are not in the penalty box talking to Toronto about a play, too.

The Minnesota Wild do not give up, though. The #ClutterPuckers know this because, well, we’ve told them, but also because, of the Wild’s 6 wins before last night’s game, 5 of them were of the comeback* variety!
*Don’t Call It A Comeback! They were on the ice 🧊 the whole time!

Game Notes

*The Minnesota Wild scored the first goal of the game but still needed a crazy comeback. It’s pretty crazy (or Wild, we guess) that they’ve won all but 1 of their games in comeback fashion

We are just 10 games into the season and it’s great that they can keep battling and make these comebacks but you’d have to think it’s not a great recipe for consistent success, right?

Get a lead, hold that lead, get 2 points is the basic recipe. These gourmet, multiple-ingredient, crazy recipes are hard to keep making every night but, man, it’s fun to watch, huh?

**Cam Talbot is now 7-2 with a 2.85 Goals Against Average (GAA) & a .904 Save %. The record is great. The stats aren’t but stats are misleading and one thing that Minnesota Wild fans may not be used to seeing is a goalie get stronger as the game goes on.

We’ve seen goalies give up soft goals way too many times and that goal would end up being the difference or it would get in the goalie’s head and ruin the rest of the game. Cam Talbot might get better after a bad goal, or a goal that he feels he should’ve stopped. One thing we’ve seen him do so far this season on almost an every game basis is making HUGE saves that may be best described as game-saving saves, saves that make the broadcasters say, “Remember that Save!”

He did it last night by making 2 saves on breakaways in Overtime.

You win games by getting those big saves that keep you in the game. Cam has done that A LOT since signing with the Minnesota Wild on October 9th, 2020. Is this Cam on? Probably, especially if it’s on the ice!
–Side note: Backup G Kaapo Kähkönen has played just one game (October 24th – L to Nashville). That is due to the early Wild schedule having so many off days as noted in our opening above.

***One of the things that might go unnoticed is how the young prospects are looking comfortable and playing their roles well. It’s extremely difficult to have success if you’re uncomfortable, nervous &/or tentative while trying to play the game. Connor Dewar & Kyle Rau looked the part tonight.

Will we see Mats Zuccarello &/or Rem Pitlick return tonight? If yes, will it be a seamless return where they get right back to their game, playing with confidence, or will it take a few shifts or more to remove the rust from not playing a game in 10 days?

Full Highlights

🏒–– CP ––🏒

Next Up:

The Minnesota Wild face another former player in F Zach Parise as he makes his 1st appearance since being bought out* as the New York Islanders come to town for a Sunday night tilt at 🕖 at #TheX!

*There is another former Wild player also coming back to town who is somewhat important to us, the One & Only Cal Clutterbuck, our namesake! We still miss you, Cal!

AND…if you haven’t seen it, yet, Edmonton Oilers F Connor McDavid may have scored the #GoalOfTheYear last night!!! WOW!!!

This is just God playing NHL22, right?

🏒–– CP ––🏒

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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Minnesota Wild Recap at the Colorado Avalanche – October 30th, 2021

Posted on October 30, 2021 by

The Minnesota Wild have been dealing with Covid-19 & Injuries early in the season. It’s not great but it might be better to be dealing with it now, rather than later in the season.

They placed F Jordan Greenway on Injured Reserve (IR) with a lower-body injury after he took a hit from Seattle Kraken D Mark Giordano and struggled to get off the ice in the 3rd period.

The Minnesota Wild recalled F Adam Beckman from the Iowa Wild to replace Greenway and he made his NHL debut in tonight’s game. Safe to say he’s a Mile High in more ways than one as it’s hard to imagine what it feels like to reach the best league in the world and play your first game. Were there nerves? Was it going to take a shift or two for him to get used to the speed of the NHL game?

The Wild also recalled D Calen Addison & sent D Jon Lizotte down to Iowa because D Alex Goligoski is out for 1-2 weeks with an upper-body injury and Dmitry Kulikov was day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Kulikov was good to go and played opposite Captain Jared Spurgeon tonight which meant Addison would play on the bottom pair opposite Jon Merrill.

It was also reported that both F Mats Zuccarello & F Rem Pitlick were confirmed to be Covid-19 positive so they will both be out at least 10 days (starting from the day they were put on the NHL’s COVID-19 Protocol List.)

Here’s how the teams lined up in Colorado:

Minnesota Wild

97 Kirill Kaprizov – 14 Joel Eriksson Ek – 17 Marcus Foligno
22 Kevin Fiala – 89 Frédérick Gaudreau – 38 Ryan Hartman
21 Brandon Duhaime – 7 Nico Sturm – 27 Nick Bjugstad
53 Adam Beckman* – 52 Connor Dewar – 37 Kyle Rau

29 Dmitry Kulikov – 46 Jared Spurgeon
25 Jonas Brodin – 24 Matt Dumba
4 Jon Merrill – 59 Calen Addison

Cam Talbot
Kaapo Kähkönen
*NHL Debut

Scratched/Out:
F Victor Rask, F Mats Zuccarello (Covid-19 Protocols), F Rem Pitlick (Covid-19 Protocols), F Jordan Greenway (IR-LBI), D Alex Goligoski (IR-UBI)

Colorado Avalanche
Colorado Avalanche Lineup - October 30th, 2021

1st Period Recap

Minnesota Wild F Kirill Kaprizov, who has yet to score a goal this season, got his hair cut so maybe we should expect a faster Kap so I predicted a breakaway goal from him for the 1st goal of the game (#mnwildFirst)!

Adam Beckman got a shot, the Wild’s 1st shot of the game, in his 1st shift of the game just 3:00 in. 

Kaprizov had 2 shot attempts early and was also cross-checked by Nazem Kadri to knock him down and take the puck but that was apparently not a penalty.

Well, it wasn’t the first goal of the game for Kaprizov as Colorado Avalanche F Gabriel Landeskog scored when he skated through the offensive zone past pretty much every Wild player and received a pass from Andrei Burakovsky on a line rush against the Wild’s bottom line & bottom defensive pair. It was not long after the Wild got a great shift from the Fiala, Sturm & Hartman line. Kap could still score the Wild’s 1st goal of the game, though.

That goal really energized the Avalanche as goals usually do but they dominated the next couple of minutes before Wild G Cam Talbot made a save to send the game to a commercial timeout. During that sequence, Calen Addison took a stick up high but it looked like it was friendly fire from his defense partner, Jon Merrill.

Avalanche F Nathan MacKinnon then drew a holding penalty on Wild D Dmitry Kulikov. The Wild killed off the power play, though.

The Avalanche then dominated the rest of the period so the Wild would try to regroup in the 1st intermission.

2nd Period Recap

Early in the period, Wild rookie F Adam Beckman, who is known for scoring goals (97 goals in 152 WHL games, 4 in 13 AHL games), got the puck on the left side of the net (COL G Darcy Kuemper’s right) and he wasn’t facing the net but he just turned & took a shot. It created a small scoring chance.* 

Colorado D Cale Makar came in for a hit on Brandon Duhaime and, on first look made it look a little high or a little higher than it needed to be but, on the second look (replay), Makar could’ve hit him a lot worse and he actually could’ve hit him with his left side but he turned to his right side so he would hit him more from the front than the side. 

Stick tap to Hockey Wilderness for the video/s

Just over 14 minutes into the 2nd period. Wild D Matt Dumba started a rush &, with the puck dumped in, he saw F Gabriel Landeskog going to get the puck so he lined him up and hit him with a good, physical hit. Landeskog didn’t like it so he shoved Dumba’s head into the boards and got called for roughing** The Wild’s power play got plenty of chance then drew another penalty and scored to tie the game on a great pass from Marcus Foligno out front to Ryan Hartman for a one-timer for the slot that beat Kuemper to the blocker side to tie this game at 1!

Unfortunately, on the very next shift, Nathan MacKinnon forced a turnover (or won a battle for the puck) and it ended up on D Erik Johnson’s stick and he scored just 40 seconds after the Wild tied it at 1 & the Avalanche were right back up by 1 goal at 2-1.

3rd Period Recap

2:24 into the period, Wild F Brandon Duhaime cross-checked Avalanche D Bowen Byram from behind about 5 feet from the boards. It’s a dangerous hit but is it a major? We think it’s questionable but the league wants that kind of hit out of the game. Afterwards, Avs F Nathan MacKinnon skates over to Duhaime, says something & they both drop the gloves and throw some punches.

The officials called it a major right away then reviewed it and kept it as a major. Then, they give each 2 minutes for roughing instead of fighting and MacKinnon didn’t get an instigator for some reason.*** Why? The major already changes the game. That’s on Duhaime but he then had to leave the ice because the major came with a game misconduct so, he was done for the night. An instigator penalty comes with a 5-minute major for fighting & a 10-minute misconduct but, of course, the officials didn’t call an instigator or fighting. If they had, MacKinnon wouldn’t have been back until there was only 36 seconds left in the 3rd period.

Is this a fight?
from Spoked Z

The Avalanche scored 29 seconds into the 5-minute Power Play to make it 3-1 but the Wild killed off the rest of that penalty which also included 68 seconds of a 2-man advantage then 52 more seconds of power play time.

It looks like they missed another penalty when Gabriel Landeskog hit Joel Eriksson Ek in the face with his stick. That should’ve been a double-minor & it’s hard to believe it wasn’t seen by either official since it came right off the faceoff:

Courtesy of @cjzero on Twitter

The Wild made a great push but didn’t score & allowed an empty-net goal for a final score of…

Final Score
(5-3-0) Minnesota Wild 1 | 4 Colorado Avalanche (4-4-0)

Goals (Assists):
MN:
Hartman(4) (Foligno(4), Dumba(4))

COL:
Landeskog(3) (Burakovsky(3), MacKinnon(7))
Johnson(1) (MacKinnon(8), Landeskog(3))
Kadri(3) (Landeskog(4), Compher(3))
Landeskog-ENG(4) (Compher(4), Johnson(2))

Game Notes

*Beckman likes to shoot and we like that….a lot!!! It’s incredibly difficult to score without shooting the puck and the players who score a lot, shoot a lot. They go to the goal-scoring areas and are always ready to shoot. Their teammates know they like to shoot and know where they like the puck for a one-timer.

Beckman probably thinks about shooting every time they get the puck no matter where they are on the ice. That’s what made us think of it. He made a turnaround shot from a bad angle because he has a great shot. He’s likely also been told he’s with the Wild because of that shot so they want him to shoot the puck instead of deferring to his veteran teammates.

**Landeskog is supposed to be a leader for the Avalanche but he takes a lot of really stupid penalties. How many times do those penalties cost his team. The Wild scored on the 2nd power play but his penalty was what caused the 2nd penalty to be drawn.

It appears you just have to get in his head and he’ll get mad and do something stupid.

***Officially Bad! So…here’s the Instigator rule from the 2021-22 NHL Rulebook. Should that have been an instigator? Did MacKinnon have the “distance traveled, first punch thrown, verbal instigation or threats, obvious retribution for a previous incident”? We’d say yes but…what do the ClutterPuckers think?:

Postgame

Coming soon as no videos were up on the Wild’s Press Pass Playlist but here’s the Postgame PONDcast from the radio side from KFAN.

And…here’s the link to @BallySportsNorth’s postgame tweet with Head Coach Dean Evason:
“Looked like a fight to me…I don’t understand it…they dropped their gloves. They throw punches. It’s a fight. He shouldn’t be on the ice for 5 minutes.”

Next up:
vs Ottawa at The X
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021
at 7:00 pm
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, News/Transactions, NHL Hockey, Wild Prospects | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Minnesota Wild Recap at the Seattle Kraken – October 28th, 2021

Posted on October 29, 2021 by

The Minnesota Wild responded to their 1st loss (a bad 5-2 loss at home to the Nashville Predators) with a great game in Vancouver where they scored the 1st goal for the 1st time this season then held on for a 3-2 win to get back in the Win column!

They looked to start another winning streak as they played their first game against the Seattle Kraken. They saw former teammates & Minnesota Wild players, D Carson Soucy, who was taken in the Expansion Draft, and Fs Ryan Donato & Marcus Johansson, who both signed as free agents. 

The Wild got some bad news on Wednesday that Fs Mats Zuccarello & Rem Pitlick had to be placed in the NHL’s Covid-19 protocols so the Wild recalled Fs Kyle Rau, Connor Dewar & D Jon Lizotte.

We also found out before the game that Ds Alex Goligoski & Dmitry Kulikov were out due to injury so D Jordie Benn made his Minnesota Wild Debut & D Jon Lizotte made his NHL Debut.

That’s 4 regulars out so how did the Wild do against the expansion Seattle Kraken?

It’s always interesting to see how a team plays against a brand new team in a brand new arena. The Wild did very well in Vegas in their first season as they won all 3 games against them in their inaugural season. They’ll play Seattle 3 times this season, too, with 2 of those games in Seattle.

Here’s how the teams lined up for the 1st game at Climate Pledge Arena:

Minnesota Wild

97 Kirill Kaprizov – 14 Joel Eriksson Ek -22  Kevin Fiala
18 Jordan Greenway – 38 Ryan Hartman – 17 Marcus Foligno
21 Brandon Duhaime – 7 Nico Sturm – 89 Frédérick Gaudreau
52 Connor Dewar – 49 Victor Rask – 27 Nick Bjugstad

25 Jonas Brodin – 24 Matt Dumba
8 Jordie Benn – 46 Jared Spurgeon
4 Jon Merrill – 39 Jon Lizotte 

33 Cam Talbot
34 Kaapo Kähkönen

Seattle Kraken

17 Jaden Schwartz – 37 Yanni Gourde – 19 Calle Jarnkrok
72 Joonas Donskoi – 21 Alexander Wennberg – 7 Jordan Eberle
13 Brandon Tanev – 16 Jared McCann – 14 Nathan Bastian
9 Ryan Donato – 15 Riley Sheahan – 67 Morgan Geekie

5 Mark Giordano – 24 Jamie Oleksiak
6 Adam Larsson – 55 Jeremy Lauzon
4 Haydn Fleury – 29 Vince Dunn

31 Phillipp Grubauer
35 Joey Daccord

1st Period Recap

We were anxious to see Kevin Fiala play on the top line with Kaprizov and Ek. 

Ryan Hartman got the Wild on the board 1st for the 2nd game in a row as he was wide open in the slot and Kirill Kaprizov found him from behind the net with a great pass. 

The Wild then scored seconds later but the officials immediately waved it off because Marcus Foligno knocked it in off his skate and they viewed it as being kicked in. They reviewed it and stayed with the call of No Goal.

Seattle tied the game when a pass out front missed its mark but it went off the left half-wall and bounced right to D Haydn Fleury for a one-timer that deflected off Matt Dumba’s shin and past Cam Talbot.

The Wild responded with a great shift from the Nico Sturm line then another one from the top line but didn’t get a chance or even a shot.

It was mostly Wild early but the Kraken got their game going and then Marcus Foligno took a double-minor for high-sticking Joonas Donskoi with 5.3 seconds remaining in the 1st period.

Shots
MN: 11 | SEA: 13
Faceoffs
MN: 59.1% | SEA: 40.9%
Power Play
MN: 0-1 | SEA: 0-1
Hits
MN: 15 | SEA: 15
Blocks
MN: 4 | SEA: 4
Giveaways/Takeaways
MN: 2/1 | SEA: 1/2

2nd Period Recap

The Kraken kept dominating but the Wild killed off the double-minor penalty and were in survival mode for the majority of the 2nd period as the Seattle Kraken were just getting more confident as the game went on.

Seattle then took the lead on a wraparound when D Haydn Fleury scored his 2nd goal of the game as he took a shot from a bad angle and the rebound came right back into him as he was skating toward the net so he just went around the net for a nice wraparound goal for his 2nd goal of the game.*

*Haydn Fleury has 7 career goals in the NHL in 183 games.

The Wild started to get their game back then Connor Dewar took a tripping penalty in the offensive zone with 3:00 remaining so back to the kill they went. 

We expected the Wild to come out for the 3rd with a lot more energy and a much higher compete level. The Wild had 8 of the first 10 shots in the game so they had only 7 of the next 35 shots.

2nd Period Totals
(1st Period Stats)
Shots
MN: 16 (11) | SEA: 30 (13)
Faceoffs
MN: 50% | SEA: 50%
Power Play
MN: 0-1 | SEA: 0-4
Hits
MN: 29 (15) | SEA: 25 (15)
Blocks
MN: 8 (4) | SEA: 6 (4)
Giveaways/Takeaways
MN: 5/3 (2/1) | SEA: 2/2 (1/2)

3rd Period Recap

Did the Minnesota Wild show up for the 3rd period? This team has been known for their response for a while now so…

They started off the period very well then had to kill off a boarding penalty when Jon Lizotte sent Morgan Geekie into the boards but the Wild got right back to their game and drew an interference penalty and the Power Play created a couple of great chances but Grubauer made to great saves. Seattle got a clear and the Wild changed units but didn’t get much out of the 2nd unit as they couldn’t set up to get any zone time.

Then Seattle D Jermey Lauzon threw Hartman into the boards but no penalty was called even after the after-whistle scrum as Marcus Foligno let his frustration be known.

7:57 left in regulation at that point.

The Wild were pinned in their own zone but they eventually got out of it and got another good shift & scoring chance but Grubauer was still up to the task.

6+ & the shots were 13-4 Wild in the period & it felt like the Minnesota Wild were going to tie it up at some point.

5:02 left in regulation…

Greenway took a hard hit from Mark Giordano and struggled to get off the ice.

Net empty at 1:47. Matt Dumba had to make a block/save to keep it at one goal but eventually, Brandon Tanev scored to put Seattle up 3-1 with just a minute remaining in the game.

Time Out – Minnesota

A Full-Ice Empty-Net goal with 7.9 seconds remaining ended it for sure.

The Wild gave it a heckuva effort in the 3rd but it’s hard to make up for 30+ minutes of bad hockey.

Final Totals
Shots
MN: 31 | SEA: 38
Faceoffs
MN: 54.5% | SEA: 45.5%
Power Play
MN: 0-2 | SEA: 0-4
Hits
MN: 43 | SEA: 40
Blocks
MN: 11 | SEA: 10
Giveaways/Takeaways
MN: 5/5 | SEA: 2/2

Game Notes

*The Wild responded in the 3rd like we’d expect them to but it just wasn’t enough. There are going to be games where a team doesn’t play well and has to battle their way out of it. They did that tonight but just could never get the big goal they needed.

**Minnesota Wild G Cam Talbot suffered his 1st loss of the season even though he stopped 34-of-36 shots against him. He’s been amazing for the Wild this season. As he has in most of the Wild’s games, he made a number of great saves to keep his team in the game. He also had very little chance on either goal but that is the life of a goalie. 

***The Wild didn’t look as good as they usually do. Is part of that because they had 4 players out? Yes, but, we’re sure the Wild expect any players called up from Iowa to seamlessly move into their lineup because it’s the same system they run down there. It wasn’t as smooth as they’d like it to be but 2 of those players were also making their NHL Debuts and it is a step up from the American Hockey League so it might take a little bit to figure out how to play in the best hockey league in the world.

Next up: 

The Minnesota Wild head to Colorado to end this 3-game road trip as the Avalanche have maybe righted their game with a 4-3 win in St. Louis tonight.

We, of course, expect the Wild to come out very ready to play on Saturday night in Colorado. The big question is who will & who won’t be in the lineup since the Wild have 2 injured players and 2 players in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols. Will they lose more players? Will they get back any of those players?

––––– CP –––––

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Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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Minnesota Wild Recap vs the Anaheim Ducks – October 23rd, 2021

Posted on October 24, 2021 by

The Minnesota Wild face the Anaheim Ducks for the 2nd time this season already and we’re only 4 games into this season. They obviously were looking to avenge their home-opening loss they were handed by the Wild.

Did the Wild play a much more defensively responsible game after allowing 5 (or 6) goals? They’re at an average goals allowed of 2.67 per game which isn’t really that bad.

Let’s see what happened in today’s game.

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Anaheim Ducks

1st Period Recap

The Ducks came out flying* and Rickard Rakell scored the first goal just 78 seconds into the game when he got to a rebound by winning a batter with Wild D Jonas Brodin and sent it through G Cam Talbot’s legs. 

Kirill Kaprizov & Max Comtois took coincidental Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalties at the 14:38 mark of the period so they played 4-on-4 for a couple of minutes and …

Brandon Duhaime scored his first career NHL goal & he didn’t even have his stick in his hand as the shot from the point came from Nico Sturm and it deflected off of Anaheim F Rickard Rakell’s stick then went towards Duhaime in front of the net and he had dropped his stick and when he went to grab it off the ice, the puck deflected off of his left skate & into the net. WOW!! How ‘bout that for your 1st NHL Goal, huh?

Then just 114 seconds later, D Jared Spurgeon unleashed a laser from a bad angle below the right faceoff circle to put the Minnesota Wild up 2-1. The Captain went bar down from that crazy angle. WOW! What a Shot!!!

Kaprizov received a drop pass from Brodin and decided to try to protect the puck instead of shooting it when he saw a defender in position to tip the puck away. It eventually turned into a goal for the Ducks as Troy Terry tied the game at 2. He somehow tipped this shot.*

Kaprizov took another penalty, this time it was a hooking penalty in the offensive zone just reaching instead of skating. The Wild are just piling up the stick infractions. Sooner or later, these penalties are going to cost them. They may have already. We’re not sure what penalties align with the goals allowed on the penalty kill.

This time it ended up in 4-on-4 play just 24 seconds after the power play began as Max Comtois took an interference penalty at the offensive blue line trying to stay onsides.

2nd Period Recap

Rickard Rakell scored his 2nd goal of the game to put the Ducks up 3-2 early in the 2nd period, this time off a tip from in front of the net.  

It took a little more than 10 minutes, that included another Wild stick infraction penalty (Goligoski hook) and a Ryan Hartman goalie interference penalty as he drove the net, but the Wild finally responded to tie the game at 3 on D Jon Merrill’s 1st goal as a member of the Minnesota Wild. 

It came off kind of a weird play as the Ducks D Josh Mahura had a deflected pass come to him in the middle of the Ducks zone & he tried to pass it to F Derek Grant but Grant didn’t handle it. Grant, Mahura and Ducks F Nicolas Deslauriers all thought one of the other 2 were going to get the puck so no one went for it and that allowed Marcus Foligno to get to the puck before all of them and they were now out of position.

Foligno proceeded to take the puck behind the net and you can see every Ducks player on the ice was PuckWatching so that allowed Foligno the time to find D Jon Merrill coming in from the left point and feed him a pass for a one-timer and his 1st goal in a Wild uniform AND another tie game!

Through the Five Hole!

Anaheim challenged the play as being offsides and failed so the Wild received another Power Play but, unfortunately, they did not score on it but Merrill got the double celebration of his goal and that’s always fun.

3rd Period Recap

Coincidental minors between Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek & Ducks D Hampus Lindholm after Ek checks Lindholm’s arm into the glass and he didn’t like that so he cross-checked Ek in his right side in the rib area and Ek went down. The official called cross-checking & embellishment. How do they determine it’s a dive? Maybe the official should feel what a cross-check in the ribs feels like. I don’t recall Ek being a diver, either.

No scoring in the 3rd so they headed to OVERTIME for the 2nd game in a row but the Wild finished the 3rd with a flurry of chances and had a minuter plus of offensive zone time but obviously couldn’t score to end the game.

Overtime

The Wild got a power play when D Hampus Lindholm closed his hand on the puck to try to get it out of harm’s way but the official spotted it. The Wild had their share of chances but couldn’t score.

Joel Eriksson Ek had planted himself in the Ducks’ heads as he tends to do to every opponent. He’d been knocked down in front of the net by Ryan Getzlaf when Getzlaf’s stick hit Ek’s left skate and Ek went down to which Getzlaf responded with palms up, obviously claiming he goes down too easy. He was backing up and all of sudden his left skate has nothing to stand on.

Then, after John Gibson made a glove save, Ek was going to past him thinking the puck had gone behind the net. Getzlaf got in his face and Gibson pushed him in the chest with his catcher glove. 

The Wild took their timeout so they could put the same lineup back out of the ice for the 2nd half of the power play and as Ducks G John Gibson skated to the bench, he ran into Ek on purpose. Ek is just a pest and you gotta love it because he just plays hard. He’s one of those guys who you love if he’s on your team but hate if he’s on the other team.

 

At the end of the power play, the Ducks got a 2-on-1  but didn’t get a shot but they kept possession and got a couple of chances that were stopped by Cam Talbot. 

The Wild then took control of the puck and got a shot from the point from Jonas Brodin that was deflected into the left corner (to Gibson’s right) and the Ducks were able to clear the zone but Brodin made a quick pass off the boards by the Wild bench to Zuccarello. He pulled the puck back to create some space and as he did so, he saw Gaudreau change for a fresh Ryan Hartman so he fed Hartman as he was just entering the zone. He skated to the left dot and went upper right with 13 seconds left to win another Wild game in OVERTIME!!!

Game Notes

*How do goalies deal with tipped shots? It has to be one of, if not the most, difficult shot to save because they can’t really plan for it because it might not get tipped. It’s like playing the pass instead of the shot. We’d assume they just try to follow the puck as much as possible and react accordingly. The puck can also be tipped in any direction. 

Consider the Duhaime goal… does Ducks G John Gibson see the puck get tipped at the point?

I just finished watching All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs, a docuseries from Amazon Prime chronicling their 2020-21 season. It’s definitely worth a watch, especially if you’re a hockey or sports fan.

Toronto Maple Leafs Head Coach Sheldon Keefe cusses…A LOT in it. There’s one scene where G Frederick Anderson had allowed 4 goals and the coaching & front office staff are in the postgame meeting discussing the game and goalie coach Steve Briere said 2 of the 4 goals were deflected in and one of them went off D Jake Muzzin’s ass. He then asked what’s he (Anderson) supposed to do about that. Keefe responds saying he needs to stop one of them to which Briere responds, “off of Muzz’s ass?” which received a quick “Fuck Off!” then a pause for awkwardness. 

Maybe they were disCUSSing the game instead?

**Jordan Greenway seems a step off or a second late right now. In one sequence, he received a pass from behind the net when he was just above the goal line and he hesitated then moved a little and attempted to shoot but it was easily blocked. Is it a confidence thing or does he look to pass first?

He did have an assist today, a secondary assist on the 2nd goal to double his assist & point totals to 2. He also led the team in assists last season with  26 in 56 games. He also had just 6 goals on 80 shots in those 56 games so he just needs to look for his shot more. He hasn’t really been much of a goal-scorer since moving on to the US NTDP where he scored  25 goals in 105 games. In college, he scored just 28 goals in 112 games. He’s a big player (6’6, 231 lbs) who should be more physical than he is. That’s bigger than Marcus Foligno (6’3, 226) & Joel Eriksson Ek (6’3, 207) and those guys hit a lot more than he does but…

We’ve said this before, Jordan has never really had to worry about being physical because he was usually just bigger than everyone else so it was easy to impose his will on them. Now, he’s in a league with men and men who are as big and bigger than he is and they know how to by physical. Hopefully, he’ll figure out how to play a physical game and shoot more. He should easily average more than a shot per game in our opinion. In his NHL career so far,  he has just 289 shots in 214 regular-season games and 17 shots in 16 postseason games.

It’s a contract year for him, there is no better time to step up and be the player he can be. If he doesn’t, he’ll be another Charlie Coyle.

We’re pulling for you, Jordo!!!

LET’S GOOOOOO, JORDOOOOOO!!! 

Go The GreenWay, people!!!

***Kevin Fiala, on the other hand, looks like a player about to break out. He’s making things happen almost every shift but they just aren’t turning into goals right now. He had 3 shots but he just creates things with his speed, his hands and his vision. 

Some people think he should have better linemates but we pointed out in our Season Preview that Fiala is a player that can create with anyone and we like that the Wild went out and signed a free agent that he’s had success with when he was developing in the minors in F Frédérick Gaudreau.

He also gets to face the team that traded him tomorrow so…

Stars of the Game
1st Star
Minnesota Wild F Ryan Hartman

GWG with 13 seconds remaining in Overtime!

2nd Star
Minnesota Wild F Brandon Duhaime

1st NHL Goal, 5 shots on goal, physicality, compete level

3rd Star
Minnesota Wild D Jared Spurgeon

That BarDown Goal in the 1st! WOW!

Postgame

Ryan Hartman in the postgame interview: “Thanks to you guys, I knew when to shoot!” Haha

Next up: 

Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin and the Nashville Predators come to town for another 5 pm game on Sunday night fresh off a 6-4 loss in Winnipeg that made them 1-4 on the season so they might be an ornery bunch.

Will the Wild be ready for them? We think YES!!!

The game will air 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

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