Minnesota Wild Recap vs the Colorado Avalanche – February 9th, 2020

Posted on February 10, 2020 by

The Minnesota Wild got a nice, gritty road victory on Friday night against the Dallas Stars to extend their winning streak to 3 games. The Colorado Avalanche stand in their way of extending the streak to 4 games. 

The Avalanche are on their own winning streak and are 2nd in the Western Conference within reach of the St. Louis Blues and are among a handful of teams who could contend for The Cup this season. The Wild have played very well against Colorado so far this season, though. They’ve won 2 out of the 3 games they’ve played, losing the 2nd game of the season 2-4 then winning their only previous home game against them 3-2 and beating them in Colorado 6-4 in late December so they have the ability to beat them.

Let’s see how they did.

This was a February division game between a team wanting to get in the playoffs and a team wanting to keep them out of the playoffs and seeking 2 more points to get closer to the top of the conference so it was bound to have some physicality and it did not disappoint in that aspect.

There was no scoring in the first but it was easy to tell this game meant something to both teams. The Wild outshot the Avs 11-10. 

The Avs got on the board first with a short-handed goal that Devan Dubnyk should’ve stopped. It was a slap shot from the top of the left circle (or to Dubnyk’s right) and it goes in because Dubnyk is going down, allowing the puck to sneak through the 6-hole or under his stick arm between his blocker and his body. In my opinion, it’s an effect of the butterfly-style of playing goalie. It works great for low shots but it also means players will try to shoot high enough to get the puck over the butterflied pads. Duubs would expect himself to make that save 99% of the time. This one might sting at the end of the game if the Wild don’t come back and win.

If there are any goalies or goalie coaches reading this, we’d love to hear your take on this and/or the butterfly-style.

The Wild tied the game 3:26 later on the power play when Jared Spurgeon got open on the back door and received a nice pass from Zach Parise so he could one-time the puck under Avs G Pavel Francouz. The 2nd assist came from Kevin Fiala.

The Avs took their 1-goal lead back just 2:24 later on the power play off a questionable penalty on a breakaway. Nathan MacKinnon scored through a screen of Dubnyk from Gabriel Landeskog.

Then Landeskog scored 3:14 later off a rebound of an Ian Cole shot. The puck should’ve gotten out of the zone when Fiala tried to hit it with his stick but missed then flew by Cole at the blue line. So, a quick change from offense to defense had players out of position and the rebound bounced past Dumba on to Landeskog’s stick and it just got past Dubnyk’s left pad.

The Wild would get back within a goal 2 ½ minutes before the end of the 2nd period on a fantastic play by Kevin Fiala on the power play. After a shot attempt failed, the Wild retrieved the puck and Fiala got it from Eric Staal on the right half-wall with an Avs forward between him and defenseman Ryan Suter & the other Avs penalty-killers in front of the net, the other forward in the slot defending Parise and the 2 defensemen on either side of the net defending Staal who was on the goal line on Fiala’s side and Spurgeon at the top of the left circle.

Kevin Fiala scores an amazing power play goal for the Minnesota Wild

What Fiala had to look at with the puck on the right-half wall (closest in the picture)

Fiala had already passed it to Staal and got it back and that may have given him a little more space between him and that strong side defenseman. Fiala turned to his left as if he was going to pass it to Suter at the blue line & Avs F Matt Nieto went to take away that passing lane so Fiala made a quick move around him and that forced the strongside D to come up to him but Fiala knows he’s trying to take away the shot and he still has space to pull the puck back. He can also see Compher, who was defending Parise, is trying to take away the passing lane to Parise so he should be able to skate past him, too. 

Kevin Fiala scores an amazing power play goal for the Minnesota Wild

Amazing how Fiala reads the play and uses the space created by passing lanes available to him.

Fiala gets the open ice and sees an open shooting lane since Erik Johnson moved over to cover Jared Spurgeon so Fiala has a couple of options. He can pass to Parise in front of the net knowing Parise could also then move the puck to either Spurgeon or Staal for a quality scoring chance but…

Kevin Fiala scores an amazing power play goal for the Minnesota Wild

Fiala created a shooting lane with his quick hands so what would he do with it? #WickedWrister

Fiala also knows he could just rip a wicked wrister past Francouz and get his team within a goal and that is what he did. What a fantastic play.

Kevin Fiala is turning into a heckuva player for the Minnesota Wild. Former GM Paul Fenton might not have been as bad as we thought he was, huh? Well, at least in his scouting of players. We’ll see how his 2 drafts turn out in a few years.

The Wild had several chances on rebounds to get the game tied but they just didn’t come to their sticks at the right time and yes, that first goal on Dubnyk stings as it does end up being a difference-maker. The other 2 goals were not on him and the Wild showed the resilience we’ve seen for the majority of the season but it just wasn’t enough this time.

Next up: Vegas Golden Knights at home at 7pm on Fox Sports North.

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Learn about the Minnesota Wild & the game of hockey with some Film Study!

We’re going to take a look at Luke Kunin’s Game-Tying Goal from Saturday night’s win over the Winnipeg Jets because there are several good & interesting things about it that you may not have noticed.

This really looks like a nothing play because Mikko Koivu is going to change and it’s really 3-on-4 with Luke Kunin coming onto the ice and Marcus Foligno and Matt Dumba coming with some speed. D Jonas Brodin is trailing the play and actually goes for a change.

Minnesota Wild Film Study Marcus Foligno goal vs Winnipeg - January 4th, 2O2O

Where everyone is to begin the play. You can tell Marcus Foligno just received the puck from Ryan Suter.

Here’s how it looks. Dumba is coming up the middle with the puck with Mikko Koivu in front of him but he’s going for a change. Marcus Foligno is also ahead of him on his right and Luke Kunin just got on the ice. Winnipeg Jets Fs Nick Shore is on Foligno’s left, Kyle Connor is defending Koivu and Mason Appleton is backchecking behind Dumba. Minnesota Wild D Jonas Brodin is out of the picture on the left side in the Wild’s defensive zone and isn’t a part of the play so…3-on-4.

Dumba sees Foligno crossing in front of him so he’ll throw a lead pass off the left boards for him to skate into.

Dumba holds the puck but he sees Marcus Foligno crossing in front of him with speed so he throws the puck into space off the left boards so he can skate into the pass and not have to slow down. Winnipeg F Nick Shore has his back to the play and he goes for a change taking himself and his teammate coming onto the ice out of the play. Coaches call that a bad change. Jets Ds Anthony Bitetto and Carl Dahlstrom are in good position and it still looks like a harmless situation. Jets F Mason Appleton got back into the play then coasted since there was nobody to defend. Kyle Connor has Dumba defended.

Anthony Bitetto looks out of position but nobody has the puck so, it’s still not terrible.

Dahlstrom skates to the loose puck but, even though he’s ahead of Foligno, Foligno has the speed to get to the puck first and he already knows what he’s going to do with the puck because he looked at his options before he got to the puck. Kunin is now going to cut to the middle because he’ll see Bitetto watch the puck instead of defending someone. Dumba is battling Kyle Connor to get to the net. Appleton is watching. Someone get him some popcorn.

Bitetto now has 2 players to defend. It looks like he sees the puck but he turned his head and it was too late to get to Kunin.

Foligno got to the puck and made a behind the back centering pass to Kunin and you can see Bitetto has given Kunin too much space although it’s close and to give him some slack, he also has Matt Dumba driving to the net hard now, too. The other Jets D Carl Dahlstrom played it fine as he took away Foligno’s forehand. Appleton probably should get to that passing lane because he had already looked back to see there wasn’t a trailing defenseman on his side.

Kunin receives the pass on his backhand with his back to the net but he hears Dumba yelling at him to SHOOT!

The pass was behind Kunin so he had to catch behind him on his backhand but he executes a quick turnaround shot that may have surprised Jets G Connor Hellebuyck. Bitetto has too big of a gap so he isn’t in a position to do anything to defend the play. It did happen fast, though. Defense is not easy by any means and his forwards didn’t help him out at all on this play. Connor played it pretty well. We just don’t like when players coast on a backcheck especially with a 1-goal lead and under 6 minutes left in the 3rd period.

The best thing to do to learn about really any goal is to watch the replay multiple times and watch every player on defense and on offense to see what happened. What could be done differently to change the play? What happened to make the play?

Our philosophy is this. If you play offense or defense, you should understand what the other team is trying to do on offense or defense. So…if you’re backchecking, think what you would do if you were the forward. The offensive player will drive the net, trail the play or, quite simply, go to the open ice and to be available as a shooter waiting for a pass. They could also just go to the front of the net to screen and try for a tip.

We’ll try to go through some of the goals that happened in the Calgary loss on Sunday next.

Thanks for reading and…Always…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

Posted on January 7, 2020 by | Leave a comment

Minnesota Wild Film Study – Marcus Foligno Goal vs Winnipeg on January 4th, 2020

Posted on January 5, 2020 by


Learn about the Minnesota Wild & the game of hockey with some Film Study!

We’re starting something new here at ClutterPuck! We’re going to study the film of Minnesota Wild goals scored in every game* from now until the end of the season. We’ll study the film to see how the Minnesota Wild succeeded and/or failed in every game. If you want to get better, you study. Then you keep doing the things you did well and learn from the things you did wrong. If you Bring The Clutter and don’t back down from failure or success, you’ll be better for it in the next game. Players get better if they Study the Film!!!

Film study will always consist of how the goals were scored, what the offense did right and what the defense did wrong to allow the scoring chance and any intricate details like if the puck was tipped or deflected off anything to help it go into the net or there was something else that created the play beforehand!
*Well, probably not empty-net goals unless there is an obvious reason to look at them.

We’ll usually do them in chronological order and we’ll sometimes do the opponent’s goals as well. Some goals are more obvious than others as to why they happened but if there’s something we can point out that will help our readers and/or players, young & old, understand the game more, we’ll post about it.

The Minnesota Wild started yesterday’s game with an absolutely great goal from Marcus Foligno and one of the greatest things about this goal is every Wild player on the ice touched the puck to make it happen.

Minnesota Wild Film Study Marcus Foligno goal vs Winnipeg - January 4th, 2O2O

You can tell where everyone is to begin the play. Marcus Foligno just received the puck from Ryan Suter.

You don’t see it in the replay but the puck was dumped in down the right boards by Jets forward Patrick Laine. Wild G Devan Dubnyk stopped the puck behind the net then passed it back around the corner to the half-wall (Dubnyk’s left if he was facing the neutral zone). It kind of got caught between Laine & Wild D Ryan Suter but Suter got the loose puck and passed it up to Marcus Foligno and he started skating down the left side. He has linemate Luke Kunin ahead of him up the middle but it would’ve been a tough pass so he passed it back to D Jared Spurgeon.

Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek was at the faceoff dot near Ryan Suter when the play started and he started skating forward to be a part of the play when Foligno first got the puck. He gives Spurgeon a passing option. Jets F Mark Scheifele turns around to defend Spurgeon opening up the pass and some space for Ek who catches the pass and skates to the offensive blue line with it then passes off to Luke Kunin on his right side. Kunin was ahead of the play so he had to hold up to stay onsides. He sees Ek has some speed and a step on the defenseman so he gives the puck right back to Ek but Ek doesn’t have much of a chance at a shot because Jets D Tucker Poolman came over to defend him but Ek knows he still has his left wing open so he makes a beautiful backhand pass back to Foligno who has an open net just asking for a puck to be put into it!

So, that was the offensive side of the play. Defensively, there are some issues that Winnipeg might “study” before their next game and maybe even on the flight home or wherever they were going. I don’t care where they’re going.

The first thing that sticks out to us is good old goal-scoring Jets F Patrick Laine. He had 2, maybe 3 chances to break up the play. He could’ve won the battle for the puck on the half-wall. He stopped skating once he saw the pass go back to Spurgeon and he took 2 strides to get within reach (stick-reach) of Marcus Foligno, the player who scored the goal. TWO STRIDES! To compare. Jets F Kyle Connor, who was behind the Wild goal line pressuring Dubnyk to make a play, took almost 16 strides to get back to defend Kunin. Jets F Mark Scheifele took 4 strides to try to get back in the play and he wasn’t a factor in the play.

Minnesota Wild Film Study - Marcus Foligno Goal vs Winnipeg - January 4th, 2020

Don’t Coast Your Way Through Life! It won’t be pretty if you do!

Here’s the biggest problem from back-checkers and we already alluded to it with Patrick Laine. All 3 Jets forwards ending up coasting and watching the play and the puck. Our saying when you’re a Puck-Watcher…

”If you’re watching the puck, you’re going to watch it go into your own net!” – ClutterPuck

To us, the rule for backchecking is to get even with the player so you can make a play on the puck. Don’t reach and don’t coast! Patrick Laine had the best view of that goal. If you want to be a spectator, go buy a ticket!

Some other notes about the goal:

  • Joel Eriksson Ek drove hard to the net. Because he did that, he forced the defenseman to come over to him which left Foligno open for the pass.
  • Ek also started skating hard as soon as he saw Foligno had the puck in his own zone.
  • Every Minnesota Wild player on the ice touched the puck. It went Dubnyk, Suter, Foligno, Spurgeon, Ek, Kunin, Ek, Foligno….GOALLLLL!!!
  • Offense is more fun than defense for most people but Winning requires both and Winning is A LOT more FUN than Losing!

We’ll tackle Luke Kunin’s Game-Tying Goal next!!!

Thanks for reading! Let us know what you think in the comments or on social media on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram and always….

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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Minnesota Wild Recap vs the Winnipeg Jets – January 4th, 2O2O

Posted on January 4, 2020 by

New Year, New Wild! Time to start winning at home by playing the right way from the drop of the Puck!
The #MNWild began the 2nd half of the 2019-20 season with another game at home against the Winnipeg Jets, a team that has already beat them twice, a 5-2 loss in the 3rd game of the season and a 6-0 spanking 2 weeks ago at The X. So…this is a good test to make sure they come out and play a hard 60 minutes and more if they need it.

Wild Coach Bruce Boudreau made some line changes yesterday, moving F Jordan Greenway up to the 1st line alongside Eric Staal and Mats Zuccarello and moving Zach Parise back to the familiar line of Parise, Koivu & Fiala. In Greenway’s old spot on the left of Joel Eriksson Ek and Luke Kunin is now Marcus Foligno leaving the 4th line of Ryan Donato, Victor Rask and Ryan Hartman.

Well, if it’s playing hard right from the start, the Wild did that tonight. Marcus Foligno plays well no matter where he plays but his linemates made a beautiful tic-tac-toe play to put the Wild up 1-0 just 72 seconds into the game. They then outshot the Jets 13-7 and didn’t even give up a scoring chance but Winnipeg G Connor Hellebuyck kept his team within a goal by not giving up anything else in the period.

To start the 2nd period, Wild F Kevin Fiala tugged on the back of Nikolaj Ehlers breezers to get a holding penalty and put Winnipeg on the power play and they needed just 17 seconds to make the Wild pay for it and tie the game at 1.

There were multiple double-minor penalties for high-sticking on the Wild. The first one was on a follow-through of a Luke Kunin pass that caught Mark Scheifele high and it drew blood. Accidental follow-throughs are permitted but, apparently, the officials didn’t see it that way and/or it doesn’t count on a pass attempt.

Then, with a couple minutes left in the 2nd period, another high-sticking incident wasn’t called when Greenway supposedly hit Jets D Anthony Bitetto in the lip. Bitetto went down but, you tell us if it looks like he got hit.

The officials let the play go on until the puck was frozen by Hellebuyck. The Wild had the puck right after the incident happened but no whistle ever happened. Apparently, a linesman can call a penalty if it was missed and the officials can then review the play to find out who the penalty was on and they ended up giving Greenway a double-minor. The problem is that a linesman, according to rule 32.4, is supposed to stop play immediately when it is apparent that an injury has resulted from a high-stick. That didn’t happen. Obviously, the linesman probably doesn’t know if it’s a double-minor so maybe that’s why he let the play go on but…if the Wild had scored, the goal would’ve been disallowed because of the penalty so why would you let the game keep going?

Anyways, the Wild killed the first minor to finish the 2nd period but the Jets scored during the 2nd minor to put them up 2-1 on a Blake Wheeler one-timer off a Kyle Connor from behind the net. That was their first shot of the period.

The Wild, like they have most of the season, responded with some dominating play and offensive zone time and outshooting the Jets 15-3 the rest of the 3rd period but it took until 5:30 left for the Wild to finally tie the game on a Luke Kunin goal.

Matt Dumba took the puck up the center of the neutral zone. He saw Marcus Foligno crossing in front of him to the left side so he floated a puck ahead of him so he could skate into it, a pass into space. Foligno, before getting to the puck, looked to see if anyone was open or going to be open for a pass then made a behind the back pass to the middle to Luke Kunin. The pass was a little behind Kunin so he had to receive the pass on his backhand. He then turned the rest of the way around for a quick shot that actually goes off the paddle of Hellebuyck’s stick and up into the net. How ‘bout that?

Watch the replay again and see it go off Hellebuyck’s stick.

Kunin said later that he heard Dumba yelling to shoot the puck so he did.

The game ended up tied after regulation so the Wild had to try to get it done in Overtime for the first time this season. The Jets had the puck at the beginning of OT. Mats Zuccarello took the puck away from Blake Wheeler and Wheeler slashed and ended up knocking the stick out of Zuccarello’s hands so…the Wild went on the power play and…some more controversy

Eric Staal scored on a loose puck in front of the Winnipeg net but Zach Parise made some contact with Hellebuyck so the officials had to review the play. The call on the ice was a goal and Parise was pushed into Hellebuyck by Bitetto and D Tucker Poolman. It was called a good goal! Game Over! Good start to the 2nd half.

Nice comeback and hard work to get it done!

On to the next one, the Calgary Flames at #TheX tomorrow at 6pm on Fox Sports North!

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Minnesota Wild Recap at the Colorado Avalanche – December 27th, 2019

Posted on December 28, 2019 by

The Minnesota Wild got back in action in Colorado to begin the 2nd half. How would they do against the big, bad Colorado Avalanche?

The #MNWild got back on the ice tonight in Colorado after the Xmas break and they were ready to go. They scored twice in the first 10 minutes on goals by D Carson Soucy & F Eric Staal to put the Minnesota Wild up 2-0 but the Avalanche scored 2 goals in 46 seconds in the final 2 minutes of the first to ruin their period and make that 2-goal lead disappear.

The Wild took the lead again about halfway through the 2nd on D Brad Hunt’s 5th goal of the season when he took a shot from the left point that went in largely because Colorado G Pavel Francouz had a Green Screen in front of him so he couldn’t see a thing (F Jordan Greenway took his vision away.) 

The Avalanche then did the same thing they did in the first period. They scored a goal in the last minute to once again tie the game. This goal came off the foot of F Nathan MacKinnon and, though some fans thought it was a kicking motion, it appeared to us to be redirected by MacKinnon’s skate so Bruce Boudreau didn’t challenge since redirections are legal in today’s NHL. Don’t ask us why that is, though. We don’t understand how any goal should count if it is intentionally kicked or redirected into the net off a player’s foot. What do you think, ‘Puckers?

So…the 3rd period began with the game tied at 3 which the Wild would probably take most of the time, especially on the road. They still had a chance to win and they’d already played a very good game.

1:33 into said 3rd period, the Avalanche took their first lead of the game off F Matt Calvert’s 2nd goal of the game on a tipped shot in front of the net which was also how he scored his 1st goal of the game. 

The Wild responded and ended up tying the game at 4 when F Mats Zuccarello got a rebound off D Jonas Brodin’s shot from the right point and kicked the puck up to his stick then shot it into the empty net.

Then, just 77 seconds later, Wild F Victor Rask intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and skated up the left side and as he got to the faceoff dot, he unleashed a laser of a wrist shot that went far side over Francouz’s left pad and the bell (post) rang to announce the Wild had retaken the lead at 5-4.

The Avalanche made a strong push to tie the game but a faceoff in the Wild’s defensive half & right side of the neutral zone was won by F Joel Eriksson Ek back to D Ryan Suter and he took a chance by shooting at the empty net and scored to put the Wild up 6-4 and that is how it would end.

What a comeback by the Minnesota Wild, huh?

Joel Eriksson Ek actually scored a goal off a ripper of a shot but it was challenged as being offside and disallowed because of it.

The keys to the Wild’s game was their forecheck their quickness to defend and their poise to keep playing no matter what happened. They didn’t get deflated when the Avs tied the game once, twice and when they took the lead. They responded and fought back and that is becoming what they are known for, their Resilience!!!

Goals: Soucy (5), Staal (15), Hunt (7), Zuccarello (10), Rask (4) (GWG) & Suter (5)(ENG)

Assists: Greenway (11), Fiala (14); Fiala (15), Parise (9); Dumba (8), Kunin (7); Brodin (16), Parise (10): Ek (11) in the same order as the goals above.

Next up is the New York Islanders at #TheX on Sunday at 5pm on Fox Sports North!

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