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:

Moneyball quote on the Yankees Paying you to Play Against Them

Billy Beane:
“No, man, I ain’t paying you $7M. Yankees are paying half your salary. That’s what the New York Yankees think of you. 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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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

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