Minnesota Wild Recap at the Dallas Stars – January 10th, 2024

Posted on January 11, 2024 by Robb

The Minnesota Wild were looking to snap their 4-game losing streak and their 5-game losing streak to the Dallas Stars* and this is the last regular-season game so it’s now or wait until the postseason or next season. 
*Look at that stupid Dallas Stars logo! Uhh… NORM GREEN STILL SUCKS!!! At least it’s not glowing in the dark! Oh No! Good Lord! You didn’t think it could get worse, did you? Well, there it is! Come On, Wild! Don’t get swept by the Dallas Stars! BRING THE CLUTTER like we know you can!

The Minnesota Wild had a secret weapon though! It was the NHL Debut for G Jesper Wallstedt, the Minnesota Wild’s top prospect & their Goalie of the future! He’s played for the Minnesota Wild’s minor-league club, the AHL’s Iowa Wild, for the past two seasons. He was just named to the AHL All-Star Classic today along with teammate F Nic Petan. 

Really? You’re going to highlight a Texas Star

Here’s how G Jesper Wallstedt’s 2023-24 season has gone down in Iowa so far. In the AHL this season, he was 14th in Goals Against Average, 10th in Save Percentage & tied for 5th in wins with 11. Here are his game logs and totals, including what he’s done at home, on the road, in wins, in losses and how he did over a 14-game span from November 2nd to December 15th:

Jesper’s WallStats! HA! See what I did there? Do you see it? 
Do NOT make me explain it to you! It’s okay. I’m okay. I’ll be alright! JESPER!!!

Alright. Enough words. Let’s…

Drop the ClutterPuck!!!

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Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Wild projected lineup

Forwards
Matt Boldy — Joel Eriksson Ek — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Marco Rossi — Ryan Hartman
Marcus Foligno — Frederick Gaudreau — Pat Maroon
Brandon Duhaime — Connor Dewar — Adam Raska

Defensemen
Jake Middleton — Brock Faber
Alex Goligoski — Zach Bogosian
Jon Merrill — Dakota Mermis

Goalies
Jesper Wallstedt
Marc-Andre Fleury

Scratched:
Daemon Hunt, Nic Petan
Injured:
Filip Gustavsson (lower body), Kirill Kaprizov (upper body), Vinni Lettieri (lower body), Jared Spurgeon (lower body)

Status Report

Foligno and Johansson each is a game-time decision because of illness, Wild coach John Hynes said. … Wallstedt will start and make his NHL debut.

Dallas Stars

Stars projected lineup

Forwards
Jason Robertson — Roope Hintz — Joe Pavelski
Jamie Benn — Wyatt Johnston — Evgenii Dadonov
Mason Marchment — Matt Duchene — Tyler Seguin
Craig Smith — Radek Faksa — Sam Steel

Defensemen
Ryan Suter — Thomas Harley
Esa Lindell — Jani Hakanpaa
Joel Hanley — Nils Lundkvist

Goalies
Scott Wedgewood
Matt Murray

Scratched:
Ty Dellandrea, Nils Lundkvist
Injured:
Jake Oettinger (lower body), Miro Heiskanen (lower body)

Status Report

Murray was recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League on Wednesday and is expected to back up Wedgewood, who will start for the 12th time in 13 games.

Game Recap

1st Period

Did Minnesota Wild Fs Marcus Foligno & Marcus Johansson play?…

Yes for both & Nic Petan was also in the lineup so no Adam Raska.

It took 9: for the first whistle and that whistle was for a Minnesota penalty for tripping at center ice after he tried to knock the puck out of the air and missed then tried again and his stick went into the feet of a Dallas player so… another stick penalty. 

Dallas had almost 2 minutes of extra-attacker time on the delayed penalty. 

The Minnesota Wild killed it off and had a good response with some time in the Dallas zone. 

Foligno probably should’ve shot this puck…

Dallas scored off a flip play but it was challenged for offsides and overturned.

  • Should these be automatically reviewed? It wasn’t that close and the Wild had to challenge it to get it overturned. Where was the linesman? Not on that line, apparently!

Minnesota Wild F Mats Zuccarello tried a cross-ice pass on the neutral zone and it was intercepted and quickly turned into a 2-on-1 by Joe Pavelski and he just shot it past G Jesper Wallstedt!

16:45 – Goal – Dallas – Joe Pavelski – Unassisted 

  • Jesper Wallstedt is the 150th goaltender to be scored on by Joe Pavelski. That is 2nd to someone named Alex, who has scored on 172 goalies!

Minnesota Wild 0 | 1 Dallas Stars

Minnesota Wild F Marcus Foligno had a chance right after the ensuing faceoff but missed the net.

Shots were 10-5 in favor of Dallas & the Minnesota Wild didn’t have a shot for the last (?)

2nd Period

4:28 – Goal – Dallas – Matt Duchene from Ryan Suter & Nils Lundkvist

A wicked bounce came out in front of the net right to Dallas F Matt Duchene and he may have scored because he didn’t get all of it so it deflected up & over Minnesota Wild G Jesper Wallstedt.

Minnesota Wild 0 | 2 Dallas Stars

Why does the Dallas arena make the backup goalie sit in the hallway to the locker room? Is there really not enough room on the bench? That’s weird and stupid and it seems amazing that is even a problem.

The Minnesota Wild got another good chance and Brock Faber hit the crossbar.

Leaving the Dallas zone beside Dallas F Jason Robertson, Minnesota Wild F Matt Boldy tried to get to the other side of Robertson and he maybe fell but Jason Robertson’s left glove hit him in the face. The official called penalties on both players, Interference on Matt Boldy & Embellishment on Jason Robertson.

Minnesota Wild D Dakota Mermis is hooked in the neutral zone by Dallas F Mason Marchment but there’s no call then Dallas went the other way when Mermis’ shot missed the net and the puck is sent to Marchment for a 2-on-1 and for some reason Wild D Alex Goligoski goes to Marchment so all he has to do is pass it to F Roope Hintz and it’s 3-0.

Minnesota Wild 0 | 3 Dallas Stars

Is that a penalty? Dakota Mermis may grab Marchment’s stick but the stick is still there so is the official saying him holding the stick is canceling out the hook? Or should they just call both? How often have Minnesota Wild fans seen a stick in the midsection called even if it’s barely there? What about the call in the Finland vs USA game in the World Juniors? Does every official not make that call or just some of them? If it’s just some of them, that’s a problem. Each official should know what each penalty is and call it accordingly. They shouldn’t have different ideas of what each penalty is. Hooking is not an “up to the discretion of the official” penalty. 

This is exactly why officials should have to do a postgame press conference! “Why didn’t you call that a hooking penalty in the 2nd period?” It’d be nice to hear why wouldn’t it?

The frustration is building on the Wild as Brock Faber snapped his stick on the boards after the 3rd goal!

Brock Faber got a Delay of Game penalty after trying to clear the defensive zone.

3rd Period

Down 3 going into the 3rd period, how will the Minnesota Wild play in the 3rd. Who’s going to get something going for them? Throw a big hit? Start a fight? Get the forecheck going? Score a goal, maybe?

4:22 – Goal – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from Brock Faber & Joel Eriksson Ek

Brock Faber got the puck at the right side of the blue line and walked towards the middle and threw the puck at the net and may have gone off of Matt Boldy’s rear end! Hey, they don’t ask how! They ask how many & that’s Matt Boldy’s 14th goal of the season!

Minnesota Wild 1 | 3 Dallas Stars

Get the Mo-mentum and Let’s Go, Boys!!!

Rossi off the post a couple of minutes later! OHHH!!! We have LIFE, ‘PUCKERS!!!

2 minutes or so later, that life was quieted when the Minnesota Wild were too aggressive and Jason Robertson had the puck on a 2-on-1 and wired it past Wallstedt for another 3-goal lead!

81 seconds later, 5-1 Dallas.

Dallas then got a Delay of Game penalty then a tripping penalty so the Minnesota Wild had a 5-on-3 and they scored on a backdoor feed to Ryan Hartman from Mats Zuccarello to make it 5-2!

Broadcast analyst & former NHL goalie Darren Pang was talking about his first game in the NHL which was against the Minnesota North Stars. He allowed a goal on the first shot to D Curt Giles and said Steve Payne scored twice in a 4-1 loss. He was playing for the Chicago Blackhawks. The goal by the Blackhawks was scored by another NHL analyst, Eddie Olczyk. That game was on February 22nd, 1985. The Minnesota goalie was Don Beaupre. The other North Stars goal was by Bo Berglund who I don’t remember. The assists were from D Gordie Roberts & Fs Dennis Maruk, Dirk Graham, Dino Ciccarelli, Bo Berglund, Brian Bellows & Keith Acton.

Goals from Tyler Seguin & Sam Steel made it 7-2 and the Minnesota Wild were once again embarrassed by a Dallas Stars team!

That was ugly like the other 2 games against Dallas. The Minnesota Wild would probably like to play them again this season only because that would mean they made the playoffs.

It was pretty much complete domination by Dallas. The Wild played better in the 3rd and had 14 shots but they left their young goalie out to dry for most of those goals. 

The big question is how will they respond when they take the ice again at home against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night!

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Final

Shift Chart

We applaud you if you read this far & give you a standing ovation if you watched the high… lowlights! That’s Bringing the Clutter! Hopefully, you liked the intro because the rest of it was pretty sad! We could give you a 30-day pass to The Athletic if you want it. Email us at ClutterPuck@gmail.com!

Thanks for Reading!!! 

Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

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The Daily Clutter for Friday, January 5th, 2024 – Issue #5

Posted on January 10, 2024 by Robb

What is The Daily Clutter? 

It’s pretty simple. We’re going to send out a daily post to update our fans, The ClutterPuckers, on anything Minnesota Hockey (or hockey in general.) We might sprinkle in some other fun things, too. 

TGIF, ‘Puckers!!!

We’ll try to keep it relatively light, today so you can read then relax and go out and have some fun on a Friday night! Team USA went for GOLD vs Team Sweden at the World Junior Championships, former Wild F Jason Zucker was suspended and some talk about the Center position!

Oh, and Jackie Redmond, a host & reporter for the NHL Network, now has her own YouTube show called The Jackie Redmond Show! The people who come up with the names of these shows do excellent work, huh? Haha! Keep it simple!

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Who doesn’t love Gold?

“It’s Golden”

Team USA vs Team Sweden TODAY for 2024 IIHF WJC bragging rights!

Obviously, this is a huge game so we’ll do a recap tomorrow but…

We will say these teams have battled each other for a few years…

From The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler:


Here’s the article but, ***SPOILER ALERT***, it reveals who won!

 You don’t really think about how much these players have played each other over the years but it makes sense and it definitely makes for great hockey!

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Jason Zucker Suspended for Boarding Nick Cousins

That headline could be confusing if Cousins’ first name isn’t included! 

It seems like we could say “another day, another questionable hit in the NHL” nowadays. Former Minnesota Wild & current Arizona Coyotes’ F Jason Zucker was Suspended Three Games For Boarding Florida Panthers F Nick Cousins after Cousins hit his teammate Jusso Valimaki in the head with an elbow as he was falling to his knees.

Jason Zucker didn’t like the hit so he responded right away and retaliation was likely on his mind so he didn’t think about the safety of Nick Cousins and where he was on the ice. He also rises into the hit to make it a harder hit. 

Nick Cousins wasn’t given a penalty for his hit. Well, that is unless you count Zucker’s hit that put his head into the glass and put him in concussion protocol and no, it’s not okay to retaliate that way. Should Cousins have been assessed a penalty, too? His elbow hits Valimaki in the head but he doesn’t have much time to see Valimaki drop to his knees to try to keep the puck in the zone but the puck isn’t there yet either. Cousins did put his stick up to try to get a piece of the puck then ran into Valimaki so there isn’t a penalty there.

In the NHL Player Safety Video announcing the suspension, the announcer said, “…Zucker insists this play was not done in retribution…” That’s hard to believe because it looks like that’s 100% what it is.

What do you think, ‘Puckers?

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Front & Center…

How do teams improve at the center position?

If you were hoping the Minnesota Wild or any team could help their center position through free agency, this list should squash that. The “Marquee Names” section only has one name and that’s Calgary Flames F Elias Lindholm. Why do you think that is? 

Teams do not allow good centers to get to free agency!!! You either have to trade for them or draft them and either way is difficult because you’re projecting what a player will turn into in 2-3 years if not more. Will they develop as they move up to the higher levels of hockey? How will they adjust when they have some adversity and the game gets more difficult because the players around them are a lot better & are not just in their age group anymore? This is why the scouts & general managers making the picks want to see what they’re made of, see how they compete & how hard they work on & off the ice, and find out what kind of person & teammate they are. All of them have a ton of talent but talent can probably get you on the ice but it’s going to take some hard work to keep you there.

Elias Lindholm did have an 82-point (& 42-goal) season in 2021-22 so maybe there’s something there but that went down to 64 points (22 G) in ‘22-’23 & 26 (8 G) so far this season in 41 games. Is part of that because he’s in Calgary and they’ve struggled in those seasons? For sure but that’s also part of why it’s so difficult to find centers in the NHL right now.

One name we’re going to keep an eye on is F Alex Wennberg. He makes us think of F Jonathan Drouin, who struggled after basically forcing his way out of Tampa Bay and to Montreal 8 years ago and has found some success with the Colorado Avalanche this season to the tune of 21 points (9 goals) in 39 games. You’re probably saying, “21 points? Big deal!” Well…18 of those points (8 goals) are from the last 24 games and they also include 7 points (3 G) on the power play. He was one guy we wanted to the Minnesota Wild to try to sign in the offseason. He signed for just $825K so the 28-year-old is setting himself up for a pretty good payday in July!

We aren’t surprised that he signed with a team that has all of the pieces to win it all either!

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How can you not love Jackie Redmond?

Mariners great Edgar Martínez hits these questions out of the park!
The Jackie Redmond Show debuted from the Winter Classic

If you aren’t familiar with NHL Network host & reporter Jackie Redmond, she does an excellent job covering the NHL there and for TNT. That is surely a big reason why they are giving her her own show on YouTube!

Also, she will be covering the Minnesota Wild when they play the Dallas Stars in Dallas on Wednesday, January 10th on TNT & MAX at 6:30 pm.

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Minnesota Wild

The Record: 16-17-4 (W-L-OTL); 36 points, 7th in NHL’s Central Division 

The Minnesota Wild lost 4-1 against Tampa Bay last night as their losing streak extended to 4 games. They’ll try to snap it tomorrow night in Columbus.

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Thanks for Reading!!! 

If you missed any of the Daily Clutter Issues, Here you go:

Daily Clutter – Issue #1

The Daily Clutter for Monday, January 1st, 2024 - Issue #1

Daily Clutter – Issue #2

The Daily Clutter for January 2nd, 2024 - Issue #2

Daily Clutter – Issue #3

Daily Clutter – Issue #4

Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

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

The Daily Clutter for Thursday, January 4th, 2024 – Issue #4

Posted on January 5, 2024 by Robb

What is The Daily Clutter? 

It’s pretty simple. We’re going to send out a daily post to update our fans, The ClutterPuckers, on anything Minnesota Hockey or hockey in general and we might sprinkle in some other fun things, too.

If you didn’t see the SPOILER ALERT for the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships above, we will be covering who won today’s two Semifinal games between Sweden 🇸🇪 & Czechia 🇨🇿 and USA 🇺🇸 & Finland 🇫🇮 but we’ll put it at the bottom because we feel like we’ve seen every possible way to find out a score before watching the game and we know how much that sucks! 

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Minnesota Wild
The Record: 16-16-4 (W-L-OTL); 36 points, 7th in NHL’s Central Division

2023-24 Minnesota Wild Schedule and Results
5 Points out of the final playoff spot since Arizona would win the Tiebreakers

NHL Hockey Standings
(Tiebreaker Rules at the Bottom of the Page)

And… there are 4 other teams the Wild have to pass to get to Arizona anyway so, bottom line, they just need to worry about their game right now and not even look at the standings Winning cures everything!

Tonight’s opponent is the Tampa Bay Lightning and, for the most part, they are in the same spot as the Wild. They are also a few points out of a playoff spot after a pretty rocky start to the season. They were 10-9-5 through November but they had a better month of December when they went 8-6-0 and now they are 1 point behind the New Jersey Devils for the final playoff spot.

Team Minnesota of the PWHL

With over 7,000 tickets sold already, will PWHL Minnesota set a new women’s hockey attendance record in their home opener on Saturday?

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SPOILER ALERT!

It’s World Junior TIME!!!

Alright. This is it! We’re discussing the SEMIFINALS of the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships so if, for some reason, you still haven’t watched the games from today, you should stop reading and watch NOW!

Also, if you haven’t watched them, what are you waiting for and why are you reading this right now? Oh, and THANK YOU for reading The Daily Clutter! The digital paper boy needs to save up for a new bike!!!

We were writing so we missed most of the Sweden vs Czechia game: 

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sa2jjKM5D9M?si=_23_BABGctRDZaw5″ title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” allowfullscreen></iframe>

Then we had to start watching the USA vs Finland Semifinal late then fast-forward when we could to catch up.

Maybe the preliminary round didn’t prove too to be much of a challenge and Latvia wasn’t too much of a tough game in the quarterfinals where they won 7-2 but Team USA wasn’t great in the 1st period and ended up down 2-0 to Finland. T he two goals were not on the goalie.  The first goal was a bad turnover in front of the USA net on a play that should’ve been easy to avoid. 

USA & Minnesota Gopher D Sam Rinzel played a puck on his backhand by just tapping the puck in front of him to start breaking out of the zone but Finland F Tommi Mannisto poke-checked the puck away from & through the legs of Rinzel & towards the net then took a shot that Team USA G Trey Augustine saved but the puck still got through and behind him but it hit the post and just laid in the crease, “just lying there” and Finland F Oiva Keskinen got to it first to tap it into the empty net for an early 1-0 lead! Wow!

Sam Rinzel had a lot of options to play this differently and the one he chose was the worst one. First of all, he’s the last man back & as a defender closest to his goalie, he should know that. Second of all, you usually want to get the puck to your forehand as soon as possible because you can make a stronger play on your forehand than your backhand. He could’ve & probably should’ve turned to protect the puck with his body or moved his feet before the puck got to him so he would be on his forehand so he could’ve sent the puck around the weak side corner, passed the puck to his teammate at the weak side far boards, chipped the puck off the glass to get it out of the zone, flipped it out into the neutral zone. 

The worst option was to carelessly tap the puck with his backhand so the puck was no longer on his stick and skate in the direction of the oncoming forechecking Finnish player. It’s a learning moment in a huge game. Will it be a moment he looks back on as a terrible memory that caused a big loss in a World Junior Championship Semifinal or will it just be a bad play in a big game that he will learn from in a film session as Team USA prepares to play Sweden in the Gold Medal game tomorrow? Time will tell. These are young players who are still learning the game at a higher level. Failure is a great teacher but it’s not always your favorite teacher.

Come Back… See Here?

Breakdown of Finland's 1st goal - 2024 WJC Semifinal - January 4th, 2024
“If I had known what I’d known now… I never would’ve played so nonchalant”

A little less than 11 minutes later, Team Finland struck again when Minnesota Wild prospect F Rasmus Kumpaleinen tipped in a shot from the right point from Arttu Karki to make it 2-0 Finland. It was another goal the US goalie could do very little to stop. Tips are really difficult to judge let alone not knowing if a shot is going to get tipped to begin with then add that there was a mass of humanity in front of him… DON’T BE A GOALIE, kids! 😬

Team USA obviously knew they were going to have to make some adjustments to get back in the game. Adjust they did & they got to their game quickly in the 2nd period and didn’t really let up for the rest of the game. Broadcast analyst Dave Starman said it well, “Sometimes having an intermission when your team is on a roll is the worst thing that can happen. It looks like Finland left their game in the locker room.” 

Even though Team USA got back to their game, Finland G Niklas Kokko was playing very well as he had stopped 18 shots up until about the 8-minute mark of the 2nd period. Team USA took the shutout away when F Jimmy Snuggerud scored off a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle to cut the deficit in half and make it a game again with 27:50 remaining in regulation to tie the game &/or take a lead! Oh yeah, that Snuggerud guy, he’s a Minnesota Gopher & one of us, too!

4 minutes later in the offensive zone, USA F Ryan Leonard (#9) came out of the left corner with the puck but lost control of the puck and it went back to USA D Ryan Chesley (#71) just to the right of the middle of the blue line and he just sent it wide right off the back boards. USA F Gabe Perrault (#34) got to it first while USA F Will Smith (#6) was battling for position in front of the net and went to go around the net. Finland D Joona Vaisanen was covering him but Smith skated so close to the net that Vaisanen couldn’t follow him. Smith continued around the net to get open for a backdoor pass. Vaisanen looked back at Perrault and realized he better get to Smith but he had to skate in front of his goalie who had gone down thinking a shot was coming but it was a pass instead of a shot. Vaisan appeared to get a piece of the pass but Smith was still able to catch it and shoot it into a gaping net and…

THIS… GAME… WAS… TIED!!!

The teams traded chances through the rest of the 2nd and 3/4ths of the 3rd period then we had to work at 3 pm. That meant I had to leave the house around 2:40 pm and we don’t get the NHL Network at work so… I had to watch my DVR recording of it about an hour later to watch the last 8 minutes of regulation.

Controversy entered the game when Finland D Kasper Kilonummi put his stick in a USA F Frank Nazur’s (#91) midsection and got part of his stick (& leg) to slow him down & make him trip just enough for the official to call him for hooking. It looks like a terrible call and you can “call it what you want” but the easy way to stop getting called for hooking is to not put your stick up in a player’s midsection or on their hands. It’s really that simple. When will the players realize that and do it? Who knows because they just keep doing it at all levels of the game.

That call loomed large because Team USA scored the go-ahead goal when USA F Cutter Gauthier (#19) took a shot from just above the right faceoff dot with USA captain F Rutger McGroarty screening the goaltender and he beat him on the short side in the upper right corner.

Team USA took a hooking penalty 40 seconds later to put Finland on the power play but the US penalty kill took care of business and they’ll get to play for gold tomorrow at 12:30 pm on the NHL Network.

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Highlights HERE:

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Thanks for Reading!!! 

Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

Posted in News/Transactions, College Hockey, Wild Prospects | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Daily Clutter for Wednesday, January 3rd, 2024 – Issue #3

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Robb

What is The Daily Clutter? 

It’s pretty simple. We’re going to send out a daily post to update our fans, The ClutterPuckers, on anything Minnesota Hockey or hockey in general and we might sprinkle in some other fun things, too. 

What do we have today? A Minnesota-born woman scored the 1st goal for PWHL Minnesota, World Junior Heartbreak, Wild Injuries just keep on coming and even more Daily Clutter!

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Is that a Women’s Puck?

That is a Very Important Puck!

The PWHL Minnesota Women’s Hockey team played their first game tonight in Boston and Minnesota’s Taylor Heise scored the first PWHL goal on American soil with a snipe past Boston’s Frankel! Yeah, that Taylor Heise who was the number one pick in the inaugural PWHL Draft who played for the Minnesota Gophers and who was born in Minnesota. The W on that puck above can pretty easily look like an M, a Gopher M, can’t it?

That’s pretty cool, huh?

The Ladies from Minnesota won 3-2. Attendance was 3,352!

What in the World Juniors?

The 2024 IIHF U20 World Junior Championships Quarterfinals were yesterday. Two games went into OVERTIME, another game was decided with 11 seconds left in regulation and…

Team USA beat Team Latvia 7-2 to advance to the Semifinals.

Team Sweden faced Team Switzerland…

Team Finland faced Team Slovakia…

&

Team Canada faced Team Czechia…

Takeaways: Canada’s World Junior run ends in heartbreaking fashion after late goal

You’d think it’s been a long time since Canada didn’t at least play for a medal in the annual IIHF World Junior Championships but it was just 5 years ago but they’re always expected to be in the running for gold.

Canada’s brain trust reflects on world junior exit: ‘It’s always a little empty’

The Semifinals are tomorrow:

Sweden vs Czechia at 8 am CST & USA vs Finland at 1 pm CST with both games on the NHL Network!

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Minnesota Wild

The Record: 16-16-4 (W-L-OTL); 36 points, 7th in NHL’s Central Division 

2023-24 Minnesota Wild Schedule and Results

The Minnesota Wild have now lost 3 straight games and have fallen back to a .500 team with 46 games remaining.

NHL Hockey Standings

No, The Minnesota Wild didn’t start Wild+!

That’s a First Aid logo because the Minnesota Wild are dropping like flies!

They had to put D Jared Spurgeon back on IR with an undisclosed injury so they Recalled Daemon Hunt. The Minnesota Wild now have Fs Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello & Marcus Foligno and Ds Jonas Brodin & Jared Spurgeon out. Geez! That could be the number 1 Power Play unit!

Unfortunately, they aren’t getting most of those players back anytime soon. F Marcus Foligno wasn’t in yesterday’s game but there wasn’t really an update on what the injury was and if he’d be out for more than just that game.

They can’t worry about it…

Also… look at this Minnesota Wild player walking into the game yesterday. Hey! He has a lot of style. Someone asked, “Who was that player?…

and… Taylor Swift said, “It was… Maroon!”

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Thanks for Reading!!! 

Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…

AND…as always…

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

The Daily Clutter for Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024 – Issue #2

Posted on January 2, 2024 by Robb
The Daily Clutter for January 2nd, 2024 - Issue #2

What is The Daily Clutter? 

It’s pretty simple. We’re going to send out a daily post to update our fans, The ClutterPuckers, on anything Minnesota Hockey or hockey in general and we might sprinkle in some other fun things, too. 

Today we have share some Clutter on the beginning of the PWHL, the Professional Women’s Hockey League, the 2024 Winter Classic and the Winter Classic in general and a little about NHL fines and why they are & kind of have to be so low!

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Minnesota Wild
The Record: 16-15-4 (W-L-OTL); 36 points, 7th in NHL’s Central Division 

Minnesota Wild vs the Calgary Flames - January 2nd, 2024

The Minnesota Wild will try to get back to winning but will be without F Marcus Foligno as the injuries continue to pile up. F Sammy Walker was recalled from the Wild’s AHL Affiliate, the Iowa Wild.

The PWHL Began Yesterday!

That’s Professional Women’s Hockey League* if you didn’t know!

There is now one league for the best female hockey players in the world and they started their inaugural season on New Year’s Day! 

Attendance records were broken! A lot of firsts for the league happened (goal, win, shutout, etc…) The majority of the hockey community is doubting they’ll have much success but we hope they succeed in year one and beyond, especially in Minnesota. 
*Here’s something kind of funny. The PWHL had to go with thepwhl.com because PWHL.com was already taken by… Pigeon Wholesale Handmade Linens. The email for more info about their linens is… info@pwhl.com! Have they received a lot more email in the last few months? Is this a sponsor opportunity for the league? The Official Linens of the PWHL is the PWHL! BOOM! That just writes itself, people!

We are the State of Hockey so get out there and support your PWHL Minnesota team! Their home games will be played at the Xcel Energy Center and all games will be televised on Bally Sports North! 

GET TICKETS HERE!!! 

Ticket options are Full Season, Half Season or Single-Game Tickets!

PWHL Minnesota Women's Hockey Season Ticket comparison

There are 5 different ticket prices ($19, $24, $34, $45 & $65) but, unfortunately, the main ticket seller is TicketMaster so you’re going to get screwed on fees.

PHWL Minnesota Single-Game Ticket Price Comparison along with Ticketmaster Service Fees! Did you know that as the ticket prices go up, the fees go up too? 
Did you know that as the ticket prices go up, the fees go up too? 

Who knew it was more work to serve someone buying more expensive tickets? It took me the same amount of time to select the higher-priced tickets as it did to select the lower-priced tickets so why is the service fee higher for the higher-priced tickets?

The PWHL Minnesota Women's hockey team plays their first game on January 3rd, 2024!
The PWHL Minnesota team plays their first ever game tomorrow night in Boston!

The Home Opener is on January 6th vs Montreal!

The PWHL Minnesota Home Opener is on January 6th at 2:30pm!

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The 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships entered the medal round:

2024 IIHF World Junior Championships entered the Medal Round

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The 2024 NHL Winter Classic

The 2024 NHL Winter Classic was in Seattle at the Seattle Mariners T-Mobile
The Winter Classic was in Seattle this year!

It’s a cool event, no pun intended, but we didn’t watch it. We can’t stand Vegas (don’t ask!) and we find it pretty sad that the NHL gives Seattle a Winter Classic in their 3rd season.

There are always great visuals:

2024 NHL Winter Classic at T-Mobile Stadium in Seattle

There are 32 teams in the NHL and only two teams haven’t been in an outdoor game in either the Winter Classic, the Heritage Classis or a Stadium Series game. Those two teams… the Arizona Coyotes & the Columbus Blue Jackets. What do you think the fans of those two teams think of Seattle getting a Winter Classic in their 3rd season when they’ve been waiting since they began 17 years ago in 2008 to just play in an outdoor game?

Those teams haven’t been great over those 17 years. Arizona has made the playoffs just 4 times over that span and only once in the last 12 full seasons. They are in the thick of the battle to make it this season, though. Columbus? Just 6 times in 16 seasons and 3 straight seasons missing the dance.

Would anyone watch a Columbus vs Arizona Winter Classic or Stadium Series game other than those teams’ fans? Not likely. That and their lack of regular-season success are the major reasons they have yet to take the game outdoors.

It’s all about the ratings and the money, right? Show me something! Tell me why we should give you an outdoor game! 

Many other teams have yet to host a Winter Classic or an outdoor game too. 11 teams have hosted a Winter Classic. The Boston Bruins have had three and played in 4. Chicago has hosted 1 and played in 4. Buffalo, Detroit, the New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis & Washington have hosted 1 & played in 2. 

We won’t go through them but here’s the list of the Stadium Series games if you want to look at them. There have been 13 of them and there are 2 scheduled for February 17th & 18th at the New York Jets MetLife Stadium:

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Do NHL Fines Seem Too Low?

Minnesota Wild F Ryan Hartman was fined $4,427 for High-Sticking Winnipeg Jets F Cole Perfetti on Sunday afternoon. 

Whenever a player gets fined, there are usually a few people who ask why the fine is so low. Their reason for thinking that is because the NHL has players making over $10M/season. There are 15 players to be exact but there are also players making as little as $756K* so they can only fine them so much.
*As if $756K is a little, right? GEEZ! It would take 30 years to get to $750K if you made just $25K/year! Now, I’m sad! Keep working hard on whatever your dream is!

From the Department of Player Safety:
“Players can be fined up to 50% of one day’s salary, up to a maximum of $10,000.00 for their first offense, and $15,000.00 for any subsequent offenses (the player had been fined in the 12 months before this fine).[1] Coaches, non-playing personnel, and teams are not restricted to such maximums, though they can still be treated as repeat offenders.”
– The thoery of players repeatedly making these plays because the fines aren’t that much to them is debunked by the fine going up for subsequent offenses.

If you wondered where the money from fines goes:
“Players’ money forfeited due to suspension or fine goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund, while money forfeited by coaches, staff or organizations as a whole goes to the NHL Foundation.”

Should fines be bases on a percentage of a player’s pay instead of half their daily cap hit?

Ryan Hartman’s salary this season is $2M. 1% of that is $20K so you start to understand why it’s based on their daily cap hit.

Kaprizov’s daily cap hit is $46.9K so he could be fined up to $10K because they set a maximum for any player since half of his cap hit is $23.45K.

Just an FYI since we’re talking about fines & money lost to bad plays. Here’s what a player loses for a suspension:
“Non-repeat offenders lose salary based on the number of days in the season. For example, if there are 190 days in a season, a three game suspension would cost a non-repeat offender 3/190ths of his average salary.

Repeat offenders lose salary based on the number of games in a season (82). For example, a three game suspension would cost a repeat offender 3/82nds of his average salary.”

So… we’ll use Ryan Hartman’s contract as an example here too. His daily cap hit is $8,854 so a 3-game suspension if he were a non-repeat offender would cost him $26,562 but he is a repeat offender since he’s been suspended before so that means he would cost him $73,170.73!

It was also revealed yesterday by Winnipeg Jets F Cole Perfetti that Minnesota Wild F Ryan Hartman intentionally hit him with a high-stick as retaliation for the two cross-checks that Kirill Kaprizov took from Winnipeg Jets D Brendan Dillon:

That’s not a great look from Ryan Hartman but it also speaks to the bad officiating that resulted in no penalty called on two cross-checks to Kirill Kaprizov’s ribs and Kaprizov now being week-to-week:

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