Minnesota Wild Recap vs Vegas Golden Knights – February 11th, 2020

Posted on February 12, 2020 by

The Minnesota Wild had another tough opponent in town with the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night. Vegas currently holds the top Wild Card spot so it should be another good battle at the Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild were also going to have to play without F Jason Zucker as he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night but they had new acquisition, F Alex Galchenyuk, in the lineup to take his spot.

The game started and Vegas F Ryan Reaves laid a heavy check on Minnesota Wild C Mikko Koivu and F Ryan Hartman saw the hit, didn’t like it and told Reaves so. They had a little scuffle and Vegas got a power play out of it because Hartman was a little rougher than Reaves during the scuffle as he got a double-minor for Roughing while Reaves only got a minor.

Well, the Wild get to work on their power play and they’ve been trying to fix it for a while now. The work is starting to see results as they shut down the Knights to get back to 5-on-5 play.

Then, on their own power play, the Wild think they score but the official waves it off saying it never completely crossed the goal line but they were celebrating like it had so Vegas F Reilly Smith got a breakaway and G Alex Stalock made a huge save to keep the game scoreless.

Later, in that same power play, Ek got the scoring started when he flew into the offensive zone and took a shot that was blocked by Vegas D Nate Schmidt. The puck came right back to Ek though so he shot it again and G Marc-Andre Fleury had very little chance to react fast enough to make the save. It was Ek’s 1st Career Power Play goal. He’s not usually a power-play guy but the power play was almost over and his line was going out for the end of it so he got a chance and buried it.

The next goal, also on the power play. Ryan Suter got the puck at the middle of the blue line and fed Jared Spurgeon in the slot. Spurgeon made a tip pass to Kevin Fiala at the right of the goal crease for a shot then another chance on the rebound but he tried to move the puck to his forehand and missed but it trickled out for Jared Spurgeon to put the wild up.2-0,

The Wild continued to play very well in the 2nd period and had the Knights trapped in their own zone. Eric Staal had the puck at the right point with Fiala coming towards him up the right half-wall and Staal tries to pass it to Fiala but Vegas F Chandler Stephenson gets a piece of it then knocks it towards the center of the zone. Wild D Jonas Brodin was coming in on the puck and tried to shoot only to snap his stick but the puck got to the net and may have hit Zach Parise’s skate before getting to Fleury then Zach tries to slide it between his legs but Fleury makes that save only to have the puck laying there for Fiala to score his 14th goal of the season. 3-0, Wild!

The @MinnesotaWild added another goal on the Power Play when Zach Parise tipped in a quick one-time pass from Eric Staal that may have gone off of Nate Schmidt and then up and over Fleury. This goal also happened after Fiala’s pass from the corner was blocked but he got it back and made the pass to Staal below the goal line.

Just a great all-around game from the #MNWild, from being physical in the 1st period not letting Ryan Reaves get them off their game with his physicality to G Alex Stalock making big saves in the 1st & the 2nd that kept the game scoreless and the Wild up 3-0.

The value of gold may have gone down because the Wild dismantled the Golden Knights.

Goals by Joel Eriksson Ek (7), Jared Spurgeon (7), Kevin Fiala (14) & Zach Parise (21) all came on rebounds or a tipped shot.

Next up: New York Rangers at #TheX tomorrow night at 7pm on Fox Sports North

Thanks for reading! Let us know what you think about this game or anything Wild and…always…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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Minnesota Wild trade Jason Zucker to Pittsburgh Penguins

Posted on February 11, 2020 by
Minnesota Wild trade Jason Zucker to the Pittsburgh Penguins

Zucker to Pittsburgh for Galchenyuk, Prospect D Calen Addison & a 1st-round pick

The Minnesota Wild traded F Jason Zucker, probably the player who had the most value in a trade, to the Pittsburgh Penguins for F Alex Galchenyuk, the Penguins Top Prospect D Calen Addison and a conditional 2020 1st-round pick.

Alex Galchenyuk was the 3rd pick in the 2012 NHL Draft for the Montreal Canadiens and he produced right away, scoring 71 goals in 275 games including scoring more each of those first 4 seasons and producing more on the power play. Unfortunately, injuries and/or other issues have brought some rough years and, as he’s a free agent after the season, the last 27 or so games left in this season might be his only chance to show teams that he can still be a goal-scorer in the NHL. He’s still only 25 years old (26 tomorrow) so this is the time for him to figure out how to produce on a nightly basis. Either that or he’ll have to sign a 1-year prove-it deal this summer and go from there. GM Bill Guerin could still flip him to another team at the deadline, especially if he gets on a roll. All it takes is one GM that thinks they can get something out of a player to turn his career around.

Wild coach Bruce Boudreau compared the situation to Anthony Duclair this season. Duclair had 20 goals in his 2nd season but struggled for the next 3 seasons, traded twice since then and ending up in Ottawa. Something finally clicked and/or, as it is with a lot of young, very talented players, he realized his career was in jeopardy so he went all in and he’s having a career season with 21 goals and 34 points in 54 games and he may be a very important piece in Ottawa’s or another team’s future with 13 days before the Trade Deadline.

Calen Addison is an offensive defenseman and the stats shout stud but producing in Junior Hockey, even in the Canadian Juniors, is not even close to producing in the NHL. He’s at a point per game with the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League including 4 goals and 16 assists on the power play. He is in his last season in junior hockey so he will turn pro next season or later this season.

Add on a 1st-round pick in the next draft, even if it ends up being late in the first round because the Penguins will likely make some noise in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and this trade looks very good for the future of the Minnesota Wild. The 2020 NHL Draft is rumored to be a very deep draft as well. The conditional part of the pick is if the Penguins miss the playoffs, they can change the pick to be lottery-protected and/or have the option to push the pick to the 2021 Draft. There have been very few things said about this so we may be wrong on this. The pick may already be lottery-protected but it probably doesn’t matter because it’s highly unlikely the Penguins miss the playoffs. They are currently in 4th place in the Eastern Conference with 73 points and they are 4 points behind the Washington Capitals in the Metropolitan Division with 2 games in hand.

Other parts of why this is a good trade for the Wild? Someone likely had to be moved to make room for F Kirill Kaprizov and now that has happened. The Wild will also gain some cap room since Galchenyuk is a free agent at the end of the season. With 27 games left, there is a spot for either Galchenyuk, Ryan Donato or maybe even Gerry Mayhew to get some games playing in the top-6 to see if they can produce there.

Thanks for reading this Clutter!!! Have a Great Day! GO WILD and…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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Minnesota Wild Film Session – Kevin Fiala PPG vs Colorado on February 9th, 2020

Posted on February 11, 2020 by

On Sunday night, February 9th against the Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild F Kevin Fiala scored an Amazing goal on the Power Play. It was so good, it calls for another Minnesota Wild Film Session!

The Minnesota Wild were down 3-1 late in the 2nd period and they were 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.

What do you think, ClutterPuckers? How good is #22 going to be? Is it a coincidence that he wears the same number as the one and only Cal Clutterbuck who is the reason for this here blog you are reading? It probably is but, hey, we’re big fans of Mr. Fiala and, at still only 23 years old, his future looks very bright and…Very WILD!!!

Thanks for taking time out of your day & life to read some Clutter! We hope you like it but would still love to hear what you think so Bring The Clutter in the comments or on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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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