A ClutterPuck Season Preview of the 2018-19 Minnesota Wild – How is Your Core Strength?

Posted on October 4, 2018 by
A ClutterPuck Season Preview of the 2018-19 Minnesota Wild - How if your Core Strength?

Will the Core be Shown the Door after the 2018-19 NHL Season?

The Minnesota Wild have made the postseason for 6 straight seasons. They are 1 of 3 teams to have that current playoff streak. You’ve heard that a ton this offseason. You don’t care.

Minnesota Wild fans are tired of hearing about regular season success. They want some success in the postseason. Any success? Would the fans be happy if their team got past the first round only to be ousted in the 2nd round, even if they took it to a Game 7? Maybe, but I doubt it. Happier? Yes. Happy? No.

Because of this, the majority of Wild fans wanted a drastic change to be made to this team with a blockbuster trade or two during the offseason. That didn’t happen and the word, “Tweak,” has been overused to describe what the Wild did (or do) to try to get this team over the postseason hump.

The Eyes Have It!

The drastic change the Wild fans were looking for may have happened at the top of the organization when they fired General Manager Chuck Fletcher and hired a new one in former Nashville Predators Assistant GM, Paul Fenton. Wild fans were excited because they thought the new GM would see what they see, that this team needed to be blown up. But, the new guys came in and realized this is a pretty good team and it’s not easy to make the playoffs consistently in today’s NHL.

Paul Fenton did put out feelers to every team in the league trying to see if they could make a trade to improve the team but nobody was offering anything of value so Mr. Fenton said no, “We’re not going to make a trade just to make a trade.”

Paul Fenton and the rest of the new hires to the personnel staff want to see how this team plays and go from there. Owner Craig Leipold wanted some “new eyes” to see his team and make adjustments (or tweaks) accordingly. How long will they watch this team before trying to make a move? Weeks? Months? Obviously, that will depend on how they begin the season. If they start hot and are winning, they’ll likely leave it for a while. If they start slow and look bad, the phone might be off the hook quickly.

In With the New

So, tweak it is! When the Frenzy of Free Agency began on July 1st, the Wild did most of their work on day 1: It was more quantity than quality, thus, the tweaking had begun:

  • D Matt Bartkowski – 1-year, $650K 2-way deal
  • F Mike Liambas – 2-year, $1.35M 2-way deal
  • F Eric Fehr – 1-year, $1M deal
  • F Matt Hendricks – 1-yr, $700K deal
  • F J.T. Brown – 2-year, $1.375M deal
  • D Greg Pateryn – 3-year, $6.75M deal
  • G Andrew Hammond – 1-year, $650K 2-way deal

They signed F Matt Read to a 1-year, $650K 2-way deal later in July. They added veteran depth to a team that needed some size and physicality but these signings should also help in the locker room.

If you remember last offseason, the Wild signed a lot of players that were on the edge of making an NHL roster. It was meant to make sure every player knew they had to earn their roster spots. Competition makes everyone better. A lot of those players are still with the organization, players like F Kyle Rau, F Landon Ferraro, D Ryan Murphy and not so young F Cal O’Reilly. Add to that some prospects that might be able to help if needed in F Sam Anas, F Justin Kloos, D Carson Soucy and even D Louie Belpedio and F Dmitry Sokolov, even though they are just starting their careers. You never know how they’ll do and if they could provide anything in their first season.

Also, they still have F Luke Kunin whose recovering from a torn ACL suffered late last season. He’ll need some games in the AHL in Iowa to get back into playing shape but he was with the big club for a reason when he suffered that injury.

There is also the additional presence of big 6’6, 227-lb Jordan Greenway that might make a difference this season. He’s been playing center between Charlie Coyle & Joel Eriksson-Ek and that line has looked very good in the preseason.

This is a Restricted Area

The Wild also had to sign restricted free agents D Matt Dumba & F Jason Zucker to new deals and with both players coming off great seasons, they had to be paid. Dumba put up 50 points on 14 goals & 36 assists including 2 goals and 10 assists on the power play in 82 games so the Wild signed him to a 5-year, $30 million deal. Zucker scored 33 goals and added 31 assists for 64 points including 7 goals & 9 assists on the power play in 82 games. He had only 6 power-play points in the 6 seasons (248 games) prior to last season. For that kind of output, the Wild signed him to a 5-year deal worth $27.5 million.

Those contracts mean everyone expects further growth from both players. Dumba can be a huge threat on the power play with that shot from the one-timer spot that Ovechkin & Stamkos have made famous over the last several seasons. He may have finally taken a step towards better defense as well. That’s something that has really propelled Zucker to more ice time. He now has the trust of his coach that he’ll play in all 3 three zones.

They also re-signed D Nick Seeler to a 3-year, $2.175M deal. He came up late last season and showed he was ready for a 3rd pair role with a simple defensive game with a little physicality added in, too.

Out With the Old

Out are Tyler Ennis, Matt Cullen, Daniel Winnik and a slew of minor-league forward depth players that should be able to be replaced without too much trouble. Losing Matt Cullen hurts more from a “wished for more” standpoint meaning we wished the team would’ve done more so he could’ve done the whole Won & Done thing for his career. Cully signed with Pittsburgh looking to do the Won & Done there.

The last year of Tyler Ennis’ contract was bought out which kind of hurts both in the salary wallet and on the ice. He just looks like he should be a better hockey player but, through mostly nobody’s fault but his own, he couldn’t find a role with the Wild last season so it wasn’t a surprise to see that happen. He signed a 1-year, $650K deal with Toronto and has made the team. That may have more to do with the William Nylander contract situation than what he’s provided but, to give him credit, he has looked pretty good with 3 points in about 4 games.

Winnik joined the Bruins on a player tryout deal and didn’t make the team so he just signed with a Swiss League team.

The Wild also traded D Gustav Olofsson to the Montreal Canadiens yesterday, getting back a forward in Will Bitten who’s 20-years-old, 5’10 and 170 lbs but he’s got a motor and, maybe more importantly, he has a 2-way deal so the Wild can add him to the Iowa roster without having to pay him NHL money.

How’s Your Health?

Staying healthy will go a long way to helping the Wild this season but, honestly, when is that not the case and how do you stay healthy playing a game like hockey?

Injuries ravaged the Wild last season. Zach Parise, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Marcus Foligno, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin and the biggest one in their #1 defenseman Ryan Suter with that major ankle injury and that may have been the final straw.

This is the first time in 3 seasons that Zach Parise is healthy at the start of training camp, but now, “I feel like I’m back to the player that I was before this started a couple of seasons ago. I feel normal again.” A healthy Parise is a good thing but getting Ryan Suter back from that horrific ankle injury might be the biggest comeback. Will it take him a while before he’s back to the Suter everyone expects? He looked alright in his one preseason game but he was either a little worried about the ankle or his skating is still a ways away. It’s probably a little bit of both.

What can a healthy Parise, Niederreiter and Coyle do this season?

TRIAge?

One thing that might help the Wild stay healthy and/or get healthy when they need to is their new training facility. Can a new practice facility play a part in getting the Wild some playoff success? The Wild believes it’s a critical piece to the championship puzzle. With TRIA Rink at Treasure Island Center, the entire way the Wild prepares is about to change. Everything from the way it practices, to the way it dresses, eats, recovers, prepares and trains is about to take a massive step forward. It’s always nice to have the best money can buy, especially when it comes to training and medical facilities and it’s just 6 blocks from the Xcel Energy.

Bruce Boudreau on TRIA Rink from the Town Hall Meeting:
“This is a phenomenal place. I mean, what Craig did to build this thing for this team. If you can’t be happy in there…with this facility, you can’t be happy anywhere. I’m surprised some of the young guys aren’t going to see if they can live there during the course of the winter. It has everything that we need to be successful and we’re getting everything that we do need to be successful so there’s no excuses at all.”

How’s Your Core Strength?

The core of a team is one of the biggest reasons why it does or doesn’t succeed. This why the Wild signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter back in 20012. They felt these two would mark the beginning of getting the Wild to the promised land of winning a Stanley Cup. It definitely hasn’t worked out like they had planned. Is that because of them and/or the rest of this team’s core? Their problem has been getting over the hump in the playoffs and for various reasons, that hasn’t happened.

It’s unfortunate but it doesn’t mean they will stop trying, that’s for sure. Chuck Fletcher is blamed for having the Wild in this position. Should he be blamed? Since signing #11 and #20, he was in a Win Now mode so he was always doing what he could to help the big club. Well, there were only so many prospects and draft picks and dealing those killed the team’s depth. Had they won a Cup, nobody would be complaining about this or, if they did, the response would be to just point at The Cup. Argument over.

The Wild’s AHL club, the Iowa Wild, has never made the playoffs in their 5-years in Iowa. This new regime is adamant about making the baby Wild into a winning team so they’ll do everything they can to keep their draft picks and use the draft and development model that new GM Paul Fenton used in Nashville.

New Team, New Season!

Every year is a new year with a new team. Minnesota fans are notorious for believing their teams will never win anything because “It’s the Wild. They’ll lose again.” Well, believe it or not, it’s a new team every year. If there’s just one new player, one new coach or some other change to the organization then, well, that makes it a new team.

This team made several changes from last season’s team. There are new players, a new assistant coach in Dean Evason, a new practice facility and new people in the management department. Yes, there are a lot of the same players but they also have another year of experience and they learned from that experience so, even they aren’t the same.

The big question is can any or all of those changes make a difference in turning this team into a contender for the Cup? Can a healthy Zach Parise, Nino Niederreiter & Charlie Coyle, veteran depth at the bottom of the depth chart & in the locker room and young players like Nick Seeler and Jordan Greenway be the difference this team needs?

What clicked last season for the Washington Capitals, a team that battled for 9 years in the playoffs with nothing but disappointments to show for it? They failed so often that people started expecting them to fail but they finally got over the hump last season and they now have a championship, a banner, rings and A LOT of videos to show for it. Does that sound familiar?

Can that happen for the Wild? Why can’t it? Everyone is expecting this team to fail but they have the talent to win and to win now. They have good goaltending, a great group of defenseman and good to great forwards that should produce more this season. They just have to get over the hump.

Gotta Win the War Before You Dance

The Central Division is stacked this season. You can make an argument for every team to make the playoffs from the Central but, at least two of those teams will not make the dance. Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis may have said it best when describing the Central Division:

“The West and especially our Central Division, each game’s a war and you have a little bit of a rivalry with every team. You can’t guarantee yourself a playoff spot. You really have to go out every night and compete and the divisional matchups are even more key from there.”

The Wild have to be ready from the start because the first game is against a Central Division foe and the Colorado Avalanche know as well as the rest of the league knows that there are no easy games, especially in the Central so…

Let’s Dance!!!

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As always….

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

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Chuck Fletcher Out as Minnesota Wild General Manager

Posted on April 23, 2018 by
Chuck Fletcher Out as Minnesota Wild GM - April 23rd, 2018

Will changes at the top be able to get the Minnesota Wild over the hump?

The Minnesota Wild and owner Craig Leipold announced today that their General Manager for the last 9 seasons, Chuck Fletcher, will not be back. His contract was due to end after the season so they’ll just let him go and they’ll begin the search for a new GM immediately.

Being one of only three teams to make the playoffs in the last six straight seasons wasn’t enough to keep Chuck Fletcher the GM of the Minnesota Wild. That might seem wrong but just making the playoffs isn’t & shouldn’t be enough for the players or the fans and, the Wild might be lucky to have an owner in Craig Leipold that doesn’t think it’s enough, either. He wants his team to win a Cup for the deserving fans of the State of Hockey.

For whatever reason, the Wild have struggled in the postseason. For the first three of those six straight postseasons, the hump they couldn’t get over was the Chicago Blackhawks. The last three seasons, the hump has been getting past the first round. They’ve met a hot goalie, a hot team or a combination of both that has ended their season. Two of those teams won the Stanley Cup, if that matters and no, that shouldn’t matter, either.

It’s hard to blame the GM but, he is the man who ultimately built the team. It was Chuck Fletcher’s team so if his teams couldn’t win, it was time for him to go and for the Minnesota Wild to make a change to that philosophy and the best way to build a team. Chuck Fletcher deserves respect for building this team through a combination of the NHL Draft, Free Agency and through trades.

Were all his moves successful? No. Of course not but neither are all the moves from every GM in the National Hockey League. He did sign both F Zach Parise & D Ryan Suter to huge 13-year/$98M contracts in 2012. Without those deals, they don’t make the playoffs for 5 of those 6 seasons. He traded a 3rd-round pick for G Devan Dubnyk. Without that trade, they miss the playoffs that season and who knows about the following seasons.

A lot of fans question Fletcher’s trades & giving up so many draft picks but you have to give up something to get something and it seems the price is going up and probably why he didn’t make any big moves at this season’s trade deadline.

He also spent to the cap this season. That’s a good thing. It means he’s using every possible dollar he can to field the best team possible. He can’t predict injuries, especially all of the weird injuries the Wild had this season.

The bottom line is the teams Chuck Fletcher built each season didn’t get it done. You can say the blame shouldn’t all fall on him but he’s responsible for the teams he built. The hockey operations he built can only put a team together that they think can get the job done. Unfortunately, if they don’t develop into what they thought they could be and don’t get the job done, they then have to figure out both what to do with them and how to fix them.

It will be extremely interesting to see who the Minnesota Wild bring in to succeed Chuck Fletcher as the next General Manager and who that GM decides needs to go. In our opinion, every player should be on the table in trade talks as a means of improving this team so they can finally go on a run for The Cup.

The only player we can see as being “untouchable” is F Kirill Kaprizov, who is currently in the KHL through the 2019-20 season. There is no agreement between the NHL & the KHL so there is currently no way to get Kaprizov to the Minnesota Wild before then. He’s the type of player the Wild has rarely seen put on their jersey. Will that be when this team gets over the hump and has some playoff success? Well…hopefully, it will be sooner than that but…

It will be up to the players and the new GM to get them to that point.

We’ll be going over the Minnesota Wild’s season and previewing the offseason over the next couple of weeks so follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram and let us know what you think and always….

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Wild Recaps – at Ottawa Senators – December 19th, 2017

Posted on December 22, 2017 by


Can the Wild get back in the win column in Ottawa?

The Minnesota Wild have lost 2 games in a row and face an Ottawa Senators team that has struggled for the majority of the season but they just got their captain D #65 Erik Karlsson back and have won 2 straight. That doesn’t matter. This is the National, the Hockey League with the best players in the world. There are no easy wins. There isn’t a coach in the league that would ever tell their team they can take it easy in a game because the opponent is weak or having a bad season.

Also, every opponent is pumped up to play against the best teams. No team is okay with losing. They want to win just as bad as any other team. It doesn’t matter to them if they might not have the right players or if they haven’t played well so far. They play the game to compete, knowing they have to go earn a win and actually beat the other team, not just show up. The Wild are not even close to being a team that can think any game will be easy, either.

There’s a hockey saying that says:

Hard Work Beats Talent
When Talent Doesn’t Work Hard!

That means just being a player with great talent doesn’t mean you won’t have to put the work in to win a puck battle, a shift, a period or a game. I like to think you can take the “Hard Work” saying a little further and say:

If Hard Work Meets Talent,
Together They Can Be Unbeatable!

This is what happens when a team plays their game without a care of who’s on the other side of the ice. Victories Are Earned! Teams have to go take a victory away from their opponent.

This Minnesota Wild team has the ability and the players to become one of the best teams in the NHL this season. You won’t find a lot of people who think that’s the case. That doesn’t matter. The only people who have to think it’s possible are the players and coaches in the room. In order to become one of the best teams, they have to stop messing around and get to their game as soon as the vulcanized rubber hits the ice.

We may have caught a glimpse that Minnesota Wild team tonight in Ottawa. It, apparently, took getting down 3-1 in the 2nd period for them to figure out if they wanted to get back in the game, they were going to have to play a certain way and it had to happen right then and there. We finally saw a response from this team. They started buzzing. They were forcing turnovers and creating scoring chances off of those turnovers and low and behold, they started putting the puck in the net. We’ve seen them respond before but this lasted pretty much until the end of the game. They were relentless!*
*Is this an after effect of having Zach Parise back with the team? He’s known for not relenting.

In the first minute of the game, Jason Zucker took a shot from the far left point after a pass from Matt Dumba and then Dumba went to the net. Ottawa Senators G Craig Anderson left a small rebound and Dumba was there to take a few whacks at it. That was a good sign that the Wild may have had a shooter’s mentality from the get go.

Stellar Ottawa defenseman #65 Erik Karlsson scored 2:08 into the first period off a wrist shot from the right point. Wild G Alex Stalock was screened on the play by his own player in F Matt Cullen and Ottawa Senators F Ryan Dzingel. The puck appears to go off of Matt Cullen’s stick and he reacts like that’s the case but he’s also being pushed from behind from Dzingel which may have affected the play.

It’s very difficult to stop something you can’t see.

The Wild responded with a few scoring chances and they’d finally get one to go in the net at the 8:49 mark of the 1st period when Eric Staal tipped a Ryan Suter point shot that was he shot in front of Staal to give him (or Charlie Coyle) a chance for a tip since it’s shot at the dot and clearly going wide. The best views of this goal are on the Condensed Version of the game about 2:00 into the video. That is also the video at the top of the article.

Don’t forget to tip the waitress! More than 15%, too!

The first period would end with the score tied at one and with the Wild ahead in the shot department at 10-9. It was a good period by the Wild as they outchanced the Senators and it felt like they should definitely take some momentum into the 2nd period. One other thing to note about the 1st period for the Wild was they didn’t take any penalties.

14 seconds into the 2nd period behind the Ottawa net, Jason Zucker pushed Erik Karlsson’s leg and knocked him down but the official saw it as a trip. Was it a bad call? Probably but it did look like a trip and it’s doubtful anyone saw it as a bad call until they saw the replay. Well, the officials don’t get the luxury of seeing a replay before deciding if it’s a penalty or not.

Anyways, that would put the Wild Penalty Kill to the test and Erik Karlsson struck again from the point for his 2nd goal of the game. Just like his first goal, this one also goes off a Minnesota Wild player. This time, it’s D Jared Spurgeon and all you need to see to know that’s what happened is to look at his reaction after he realizes the puck went into the net:

Not again! Jared Spurgeon reacts after a Karlsson one-timer goes off his skate into the net.

Those are the breaks. Let it bother you or move on. There’s nothing you can do about it.

After killing a Spurgeon tripping penalty, the Wild had 3 defensemen out on the ice. This may have caused some confusion about who was defending who but they were also puckwatching and that left J.G. Pageau wide open in front of the net to put the Senators up 3-1 with 14:16 left in the 2nd period. Once again, you could see the players’ frustration on the ice and on the bench afterwards, particularly Ryan Suter.

Those are the types of goals that have killed the Wild this season and they’ve let their frustration from these goals and not scoring many goals of their own get in their heads but, for some reason, on this night, they responded and played some pretty dominant hockey for the rest of the game. Jason Zucker was thwarted by Craig Anderson. With his speed, Zucker created a mini-breakaway for himself. Coming from the right side, he was able to pull the puck to his forehand around Anderson but the goalie was able to make the save with his outstretched right pad. Ottawa D Johnny Oduya was clearly being careful of Zucker’s speed as he made sure he couldn’t cut back behind him as he chased him down. He also appeared to be worried about putting his stick somewhere that might draw a penalty.

It’s amazing how many goals get taken away by goalies stretching out at the last second because the offensive player thinks all they have to do is slide it into the net. If only they’d lift the puck up, it should be a goal every time. They usually think they don’t have enough time to lift the puck or feel they can sneak it past the goalie before they get their pad over there. Work on that, young players. Lifting the puck when you’re close to the net would be a very useful skill.

A few minutes later, promising young Wild F Joel Eriksson-Ek made a great play to get his team within 1 goal when he made a pass to Chris Stewart as he was driving to the net and Stewie didn’t waste any time putting the puck into the back of the net. In the replay, you can see Eriksson-Ek* battle (and get held) for position to get to the puck that Stewie wrapped around the boards then he took a peak right before he made the pass and put it right on the tape. That’s how you make apples, people!!! That was Chris Stewart’s first goal since November 27th.
*Coach Bruce Boudreau said after the game that he thought “Ek was great…the best player on the ice, tonight.”

Then with just under a minute left in the 2nd period, just as their power play expired, Ryan Suter took a slapshot from the center of the blue line with both Jason Zucker and Mikko Koivu set up in front of the net for the tip and the Kaptain got his stick on it and broke an 11-game pointless streak and a 24-game streak without a goal that goes all the way back to October 28th. It’s good to have that monkey off his back but there was still more work to do.

Koivu deflects a Suter point shot in to tie the game at 3 & snap his goal-scoring drought.

In between periods, Fox Sports North’s Kevin Gorg interviewed Mikko Koivu and, of course, he asks him how it feels to finally score a goal. The Minnesota Wild Captain didn’t miss a beat as he said it feels good and quickly moved on to saying how important it was to keep playing the way they have been so they can get the win. It’s not about him scoring. It’s about winning and finding any way possible to do it.

The Wild now had momentum going into the 3rd period as they rallied from the 3-1 deficit. Would they take that momentum into the 3rd period? You bet they would. This time the goal came from the one & only Nate Prosser. Mike Reilly took a slapshot from about left center and in about 5 feet from the blueline that leaves a rebound and J.G. Pageau tries to clear it out by hitting the puck the middle but he doesn’t get a lot on it. Nate Prosser is able to keep it in the zone and while backpedaling towards the puck and to the left he shoots back against the grain and scores to the middle to upper right corner. That was Nate Prosser’s first goal since last April.

It’s hard to stop what you cannot see.

About 3 minutes later after Wild G Alex Stalock absolutely stones Bobby Ryan (6:17 of the highlight video at the top),Jonas Brodin gets on the board with his 3rd of the season off his own rebound that also came off a failed attempt to clear the puck out from in front of the net by Ottawa D Cody Ceci. Alex Stalock made a number of huge saves to give his team a chance to come back and get this victory.

The Wild had the Senators scrambling just trying to throw pucks to get it out of the zone. Those are the moments when the offense can really take advantage of a team because as they are scrambling, the offensive players are calm and looking to get open or trying to find the puck to shoot again. The Wild have “exorcised the demons” with the goals in this game! Who’s next?

With the Wild up 5-3, they didn’t hold back. They kept being aggressive in the offensive zone, trying to expand the lead instead of just protect it. They ended up extending the lead to 6-3 on Eric Staal’s 2nd goal of the night off a rebound. Ottawa would get one back on their own power play with 1:26 left in the 3rd period so the final score was 6-4 but that’s a heckuva response from a Wild team that was down 3-1 in the 2nd period where 2 of the goals against went off of Wild players.

We haven’t really seen that kind of consistent play from the Wild very much this season. Now, hopefully, they keep up that kind of effort and keep shooting the puck, especially since those shots started going in. We’ll find out when they face the Florida Panthers at 6:30pm on Friday night on Fox Sports North!

Get Wild &…

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Wild Recaps – at the Chicago Blackhawks – December 17th, 2017

Posted on December 18, 2017 by


Some response to a loss against a big rival for the Wild?

The dream of a consistently competitive Minnesota Wild team within their reach but they still have some obstacles to get past to get to the point of playing well every game regardless of the opponent. A great team loves winning and battles through everything to win any and every game. The thing that makes a great team stand out, though, is how much they hate losing and how they respond to a loss and/or how they respond to playing bad.

I’ve been laughed at for saying, “I hate losing more than I love winning.” I’m not sure why that’s funny but I’ll explain what I mean. Losing sticks with you because of the mistakes that were made and chances that could’ve made a difference weren’t capitalized on. Maybe a shot went off the post, or an assignment was missed, or you were a split second late to cover the guy who scored or many other things that may have turned the game in your favor. That will stick in your mind and just gnaw at you until you get the chance to go back out on the ice and change it.

That’s why it’s sometimes nice to have a game right away the next day. You now have a chance to respond to the challenge of a competitive game of hockey again. Then make it against probably your biggest rival, the team that has ended your postseason more than any other team and everything is there for you to get up for that game and to do all you can to go get a victory together, right? You’d think so but, the Minnesota Wild didn’t really perform like that was the case last night in Chicago.

They came out with a lot of energy and had 5 shots within the first few minutes and ended up outshooting the Blackhawks in the first period at 13 to 9. The Blackhawks haven’t looked like THE Blackhawks for most of this season so it was hard to know what to expect coming into this game but they were on a 4-game winning streak and they still have Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Corey Crawford. Those guys are getting older but they can still get it done. Patrick Kane seems like he’s having an off-year, at least, by Patrick Kane standards. Maybe it’s because we aren’t seeing the nightly highlights or something or maybe it’s because Chicago has gone through so many ups & downs this season or because he doesn’t have the “Bread Man” on his line anymore since Artemi Panarin was traded in the offseason. Whatever it is, he’s still Patrick Kane and the last thing any team wants to do is give him a scoring chance. He’ll usually bury it and then get better as the game goes along.

Mikael Granlund is a very gifted offensive player. He enjoys passing the puck, maybe even more than shooting. That can sometimes be a problem. There’s nothing wrong with passing, obviously, but a player should also know when it’s time to shoot the puck. Mr. Granlund, because he enjoys passing the puck, sometimes tries to make too much out of a play when the simple play might be the right play. This may have caused the first goal against the Minnesota Wild last night.

Granlund has the puck in the corner. Where should this puck go?

The simple play is back to the point because all 5 Blackhawks players are at or below the dots. Staal isn’t open unless the puck was wrapped around boards. Eriksson-Ek could get the puck behind the net but instead he decides to come out in front of the net to be an option for Granlund.

Granlund decides to pass the puck to the player with the most players around him.

Joel Eriksson-Ek isn’t even in that great of a position to do anything with a pass other than maybe give it right back to Granlund but Artem Anisimov is right on him, takes the puck from him and the Blackhawks head down the ice on a 4-on-2. Granlund gets back to defend on the play but who do they leave open on the weakside? None other than #88 Patrick Kane just waiting to one-time a Nick Schmaltz pass into the net to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Granlund came very close to getting his stick on the pass to Kane but missed it. It’s amazing how quickly one little play can turn a game. That Granlund pass caused the odd-man rush and then it’s split second decisions on who/how to defend the play. Granlund had other options in going to either point or behind the net to Staal. Get the puck to a player that will have time & space to do something with it or is in a shooting position and doesn’t have 3 defenders within reach of him. Make the defense turn to find the puck, which will then open you up to go to the net as they all watch the puck.

The Wild did get some chances but, of course, didn’t capitalize on any of them and then came the 2nd period and they went back to mistakes at the offensive blueline, trying to make plays instead of just getting the puck deep and getting the forecheck going. They were outshot 22 to 6 in the period. They took 3 penalties including a too many men penalty that just shouldn’t happen.

Another bad change gave them a 2-0 deficit when Patrick Kane got behind the defense and went in all alone on Alex Stalock and beat him through the 5-hole.

Chicago D Jordan Oesterle sees Saad changing & both Wild players changing and is already looking for that pass to open up.

There’s a pass available to Saad as he’s changing. He’s wide open and would’ve had more of a breakaway than Kane did. Brodin knew Saad was changing and in the replay of the goal you can see him adjust to the middle but he obviously didn’t adjust enough because the pass still got through and that’s 2 for Patrick Kane and a 2-0 lead in the 2nd period.

Patrick Kane's second of the night 2 - MIN at CHI - 12-17-2017 - NHL com

How wide were Jordan Oesterle’s eyes when he saw Patrick Kane behind the defense and open for the long pass?

Going into the 3rd, you had to believe the Minnesota Wild would bring a push to get back into the game. They did but they are struggling to put the puck in the net and the frustration of those struggles is showing. Just 1:41 into the 3rd period, Chicago F #38 Ryan Hartman put the Blackhawks up 3-0 with a nice play from a bad angle, shooting high once he saw Alex Stalock going for the pokecheck. So, now the Wild are down 3-0.

Matt Dumba scored with 14:04 left in the 3rd period to get the Wild on the board and maybe get them some momentum when he fired a laser from the right point into the upper left corner. It was a blast from Dumba, too. It wasn’t one of those Knucklepucks. Corey Crawford was screened by two of his own players so didn’t pick it up until late. Queue up The Imperial March (the Darth Vader theme)….Dum, dum, dum, Dumba-dum, Dumba-dum…

The Wild did get some momentum from Dumba’s goal but Charlie Coyle and Joel Eriksson-Ek were foiled by Corey Crawford to keep the Blackhawks ahead 3-1.The Wild received a power play with 5:25 left in the 3rd period and Bruce Boudreau decided to pull the goalie so they’d have a 6-on-4 advantage and hopefully get the game within 1 goal so they could push to tie it up with 3+ minutes to go. Unfortunately, Ryan Suter whiffed on a pass and the puck went to Tommy Wingels and since the Blackhawks were killing a penalty he sent it down the ice right away and it slowly, painfully went into the Wild net and the Blackhawks had their 3-goal lead back at 4-1. That would be the final score.


Boudreau Postgame Interview
Wild Coach Bruce Boudreau said in the postgame press conference that the Wild are getting frustrated because they aren’t seeing results from their hard work. Then he made a really good point about frustration:

“Frustration is the most useless emotion you can have. It does nothing but hurt you.”
– Minnesota Wild Head Coach Bruce Boudreau

He’s right because the frustration and not seeing results makes the team and the individual players think they aren’t good enough or that they have to change what they’re doing to get results. What they actually have to do is stick to their game and trust it. That means trust their teammates, trust their shots and trust the system. Trust that what they are doing works and keep working at it.

It’s exciting to see what a team does when they aren’t having success. How will they respond the next time they’re on the ice, the next time they get a scoring chance, the next time the same situation comes up where they’ve been scored on recently. It’s an 81-game season and every team goes through some ups and downs. The great teams find a way to get through the downs quickly and get back to playing their game.

We’ll see if the Wild can do that tomorrow night when they face the struggling Ottawa Senators in Ottawa at 6pm on Fox Sports North.

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Wild Recaps – vs Edmonton Oilers – December 16th, 2017

Posted on December 17, 2017 by


The Wild take on the Oilers. Can they keep shutting down Connor McDavid?

Have the Minnesota Wild turned things around this quickly? It was only 3 weeks ago when they lost two games in a row to the St. Louis Blues (6-3) & the Winnipeg Jets (7-2) and fans & writers were putting a fork into them saying the problems were too hard to fix. Then they got on a roll of sorts and won 6 out of their next 7 games including a 4-game winning streak going into the game against Edmonton. Since November 9th, they are 12-4-1. 3 of those 4 losses were blowouts and the overtime loss was to the New Jersey Devils.

Those losses (and some of the wins) showed the Wild they had problems to fix with their defense and in how they play in Overtime. They’ve improved in those areas as shown by not losing a game that’s gone past regulation, 3 in overtime and 2 in shootouts. But, just because a team is winning doesn’t mean they are playing great. They’ve allowed too many comebacks in the 3rd period and still have yet to play a full 60-minute game of good hockey. They played pretty well against Toronto the other night, though.

The Edmonton Oilers activated their #1 goaltender, Cam Talbot, off injured reserve for yesterday’s matinee game so the Wild should’ve been shooting quickly and shooting often, right? Well, they should have but for some reason this team doesn’t seem to want to shoot the puck. There’s a time to shoot and a time to look for a pass or a better angle for a shot but way too many times nowadays, players love to get closer to the net to shoot. It doesn’t make any sense. These are NHL players with NHL shots and the closer you get to the NHL goalie, the harder it is to score. Here’s one example:

Tyler Ennis after an Edmonton turnover at their own blueline.

Tyler Ennis gets the puck at the offensive blueline and he has the time and space to skate into a prime shooting area as show in the photo above. Chris Stewart should have gotten the puck deep but he tried and hit the Edmonton d-man with the puck as he was entering the zone. He’s now on the right half-wall. Daniel Winnik is coming out of the right corner. Ennis has the puck and has speed skating through the slot. He could take a shot and maybe even use the Oiler player as a screen. He decides to keep the puck and skate all the way around to the left and take a shot from a terrible angle at the bottom of the faceoff circle and, of course, it’s right into the goalie’s chest.

Why not take a shot earlier from the slot? The shooting angle is better. He can aim for a corner and if it misses the net, he has the speed to be the first one to get there or he can get behind the net and set up a play. I’m sure after that shift the coach on bench told him to shoot it right away. Get pucks on the net early in the game. This play was 3 minutes into the game.

Edmonton F #93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the first goal while shorthanded when Matt Dumba gets a little too aggressive and there’s 4 Wild players below the dots. It’s a power play and yes, you’re trying to score, but you can’t be careless.


4 players below the dots all looking for a rebound, not worrying about defense.

The shot was saved and the rebound squirts out to the right boards and Zack Kassian and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins get a 2-on-1 with Ryan Suter as the loan defenseman for the Wild. The usual rule on a 2-on-1 is to take away the pass and let the goalie take the shooter so he doesn’t have to try to get across his crease to make a save. For some reason, Suter doesn’t try to do that and Nugent-Hopkins gets an easy goal to put the Oilers up 1-0.

Angle 1

Angle 2

In Angle 1, Suter is maybe giving up too much of a gap because the pass is already available then for some reason, he moves closer to the shooter basically forcing a pass. Nugent-Hopkins was able to catch the pass and pretty easily shoot it past Alex Stalock. Was Suter counting on Mikael Granlund to get back into the play or did he think Stalock could get across his crease quicker? Did he think Kassian would hold the puck longer?

Matt Dumba would redeem himself rather quickly when a little over 4 minutes later he would score off a one-timer from a Mikael Granlund backhand sauce pass. Maybe it wasn’t the greatest sauce pass because the main reason it turned into a goal was probably because it turned into a KnucklePuck because Dumba didn’t get all of it.

The tie game would only last a few minutes when a deflected puck goes right to Milan Lucic’s stick and he buries it to the right of Alex Stalock. Ryan Suter makes a great play to separate Connor McDavid from the puck with some physical play but Leon Draisaitl sees a loose puck and gets his stick in there before Suter can pass it away and Milan Lucic wastes no time getting the shot off, surprising Stalock.

Matt Dumba and his aggressiveness would be the main culprit again. On a faceoff in the Oilers zone, Eric Staal wins the faceoff but Charlie Coyle was tied up by Jesse Puljujarvi leaving the puck free for Milan Lucic to grab it and start down the ice. Dumba would’ve been fine if he had just started skating back on the play instead of trying to check the 6’3”, 236-pound power forward but he thought he could make a play and Lucic showed him just how hard he is to move off the puck, causing Dumba to fall down and making the play into a 2-on-1 with Charlie Coyle backchecking hard to try to break it up.

Look how far away Dumba is from the puck. Just play good solid defense with 11+ minutes left down 2-1 in the 3rd period.

There were some other things that played into this goal. Ryan Suter, who is usually one of the best at getting the blade of his stick in the way of the puck when defending, either took his eye off of it for a split second or was maybe more worried about Lucic shooting then passing and that allowed Lucic to make a slight adjustment to get the pass over to Puljujarvi. Charlie Coyle got on his horse after losing a battle for position on the faceoff and he actually gets his stick on the pass from Lucic but the puck then goes off of Puljujarvi’s right skate, off the toe of Alex Stalock’s right leg but right back to Puljujarvi and he just taps it into the empty net.

That’s two 2-on-1s where Suter went to the player with the puck instead of taking away the pass. Is he just overconfident that he can break up that play or is there something about the Oilers they saw to do that on 2-on-1s?

Matt Dumba would redeem himself once again with another one-timer Knucklepuck to bring the game within 1. This one also came off a backhand sauce pass although this time it was from Chris Stewart and it knuckled into the upper right corner over a waving Cam Talbot catching glove.

The Minnesota Wild brought a big push to tie the game up and Connor McDavid, who is not known for his defense, made a great defensive play to break up a Nino Niederreiter wraparound with 50 seconds left that very well may have tied the game and forced overtime.


97 preventing goals, too!

Well, the Wild get right back at it tonight with a game in Chicago to start a 4-game road trip. Will this be the night Mikko Koivu breaks out of his slump? He’s been getting chances, hitting posts but has just been snakebit when it comes to scoring. The Wild should get up for this game and they played a whale of a game the last time they were in the United Center so, hey, Let’s Go WILD!!!

THANKS for reading some Clutter. We’d love to see your thoughts on this game, the Wild or anything else hockey-related so….

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