Minnesota Wild Playoff Recap at the Dallas Stars – April 17th, 2023

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Robb
Minnesota Wild Playoff Recap at the Dallas Stars - April 17th, 2023

The Minnesota Wild began the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs in Dallas against the former team from Minnesota. There’s a built-in rivalry as the majority of Minnesota Wild fans are not likely fans of the Dallas Stars.* These two teams have only faced each other one other time in the playoffs when Dallas beat the Wild 4-2 in a 1st-round series in 2015-16.
*Maybe they were fans of the Stars or some of the Stars players before Minnesota received another team through expansion for the 2000-1 season but since then… we think NOT! Norm Green Sucks!

A Short Series Preview

Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to do a full preview of this series so we’ll do a little less wordy version here. Wild fans remember how the Wild struggled last season after they took a 2-1 series lead after Game 3 against the St. Louis Blues in St. Louis. They didn’t look like the resilient team they were up until that 4th game and because of that, they lost the next 3 games. They will likely never forget that feeling so the Wild used that experience to make sure they were ready to hold each other accountable and not to panic when the going got rough. 

We’ve now seen examples of that throughout the 2022-23 season. They know they have to outwork their opponent from the moment the puck drops regardless of who is in or out of the lineup. They don’t panic when they get stuck in their own zone and they’ve kept building a team culture that allows for every player to reach or exceed their potential. They will need that with injuries to Joel Eriksson Ek and John Klingberg that kept them out of Game 1, at least. F Sam Steel and D Brock Faber will make their Stanley Cup Playoffs debuts alongside the starting goalie, Filip Gustavsson.

The Dallas Stars have been really good all season. They look like the Wild with a better offense or maybe the better way to say it is more talent.* They are the better team on paper or on a computer screen but everybody knows… games aren’t played on paper or inside a computer so…
*$12.7M+ in cap space would add some pretty nice offense for the Wild but they’ll have to wait a couple of years for that. That’s like adding Jamie Benn and Roope Hintz to the Wild lineup.

This series might very well go 7 and both teams know the Stanley Cup playoffs is about winning battles for the puck as the intensity goes up by about 10. The Wild will look to bring the compete-level and the physicality and stay mentally tough because it has to be Grit First for them to succeed!:

“I want our team to be able to play their best game in the most hostile environment. I want our team to be so mentally tough that we can play our best game in that environment.”
–
Bill Guerin

Alright. Enough words. Let’s…

Drop the Playoff ClutterPuck!!!

––––– CP –––––

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Wild projected lineup

Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov — Ryan Hartman — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Frederick Gaudreau — Matt Boldy
Gustav Nyquist — Sam Steel — Marcus Foligno
Brandon Duhaime — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves

Defensemen
Jake Middleton — Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin — Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill — Brock Faber

Goalies
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury 

Scratched:
Calen Addison, Damien Giroux, Alex Goligoski, Hunter Jones, Nic Petan, Marco Rossi, Nick Swaney, Samuel Walker

Injured:
Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body), Oskar Sundqvist (lower body), John Klingberg (lower body)

Status Report

Jones was recalled from Iowa of the American Hockey League and will be the Wild’s third goaltender.

Dallas Stars

Stars projected lineup

Forwards
Jason Robertson — Roope Hintz — Joe Pavelski
Jamie Benn — Wyatt Johnston — Evgenii Dadonov
Mason Marchment — Max Domi — Tyler Seguin
Luke Glendening — Radek Faksa — Ty Dellandrea

Defensemen
Ryan Suter — Miro Heiskanen
Esa Lindell — Jani Hakanpää
Thomas Harley — Colin Miller

Goalies
Jake Oettinger
Scott Wedgewood

Scratched:
Joel Hanley, Joel Kiviranta, Nils Lundkvist, Fredrik Olofsson

Injured:
None

Status Report

Wedgewood did not practice Sunday because of illness, according to DeBoer. He skated Monday and is expected to back up Oettinger in Game 1.

Game Recap

1st Period

Your Minnesota Wild Game 1 starters were:

It’s good to see F Marcus Johansson back in the lineup. Let’s Go, ‘Puckers!!!

The 1st period had only a few chances as both teams kind of felt out the game for the first 3rd of the period.

1:24 – Penalty – Dallas – Jamie Benn for High-Sticking Brandon Duhaime

Jamie Benn was trying to get around Wild F Brandon Duhaime on the backcheck but he had to kind of jump around him and while he did that, he raised his arms to get around him and when they came back down his stick hit Duhaime in the face. Oops.

Dallas killed it off and didn’t give the Wild much on their first power play. The Wild had some pretty good time in the zone but didn’t have many scoring opportunities.

1:24 – Penalty – Dallas – Wyatt Johnston for Slashing Kirill Kaprizov 

Dallas F Wyatt Johnston was covering Wild F Kirill Kaprizov in the neutral zone and actually slashed him before he got the puck at about the right half-wall and he slashed him on his hands as he tried to send the puck towards the net. ESPN showed a replay that was seconds after the actual penalty. Apparently they were figuring out this playoff thing, too. Ughh

The Wild were able to set up and Zuccarello fed Marcus Johansson at the left side of the net and he tried to make a quick move for a shot on net but he didn’t get much on it and it may have been blocked/deflected by Stars D Esa Lindell and the puck went behind the net. Johansson pursued the loose puck but tripped/was tripped by Dallas D Jani Hakanpää who followed him but then tripped over Johansson allowing Wild F Kirill Kaprizov to get to the loose puck and send it to Mats Zuccarello at the right half-wall. Zuccarello one-timed a pass to Jared Spurgeon at the middle of the slot and he shot the puck… 

0:47.7 – Goal (PPG) – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov from Jared Spurgeon and Mats Zuccarello

Nice job by Kirill Kaprizov to get in front of the net and to skate in front of Stars G Jake Oettinger then get his stick on the shot. Every Dallas player was at or below the bottom of the faceoff circles when Kaprizov passed the puck to Zuccarello from behind the net then as the puck was moved to Spurgeon, you would think Esa Lindell would try to cover Kaprizov but maybe he was more concerned about Matt Boldy being available for a one-timer at the right dot. So Boldy lighting it up with 14 goals in his last 15 games likely changed the way Dallas played there. Boldy Strategy, Cotton.

1-0 Wild

2nd Period

Minnesota Wild F Ryan Hartman was heading towards Dallas D Esa Lindell who had the puck on the left boards near the blue line. Hartman went to him and Lindell turned just as he was going to hit him.

17:55 – Penalty – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman for Checking from Behind on Esa Lindell

Dallas won the faceoff back to F Roope Hintz in the slot for a quick shot… 

17:52 – Goal (PPG) – Dallas – Roope Hintz from Jamie Benn

That’s tough because Wild F Marcus Johansson probably could’ve got to Roope Hintz with his stick or maybe even tried to slide in front of him to block the shot but he allowed the shot to get through and it beat Wild G Filip Gustavsson.

1-1 Tie

15:53 – Penalty – Minnesota – Marcus Foligno for Slashing

The officials missed a checking-from-behind on Wild D Jared Spurgeon but called Wild F Marcus Foligno for a slash when both he and ? were hacking each other.

And the Stars scored just 6 seconds into that power play off another faceoff win to take a 1-goal lead.  

14:47 – Goal (PPG) – Dallas – Jason Robertson from Miro Heiskanen & Joe Pavelski

Wild G Filip Gustavsson may have been screened by his own defenseman, Jonas Brodin on a good low shot that found its way to the far side of the net.

2-1 Dallas

15:15 – Penalty – Dallas – Roope Hintz for Hooking Mats Zuccarello 

12:52 – Penalty – Dallas – Joe Pavelski for Tripping Matt Dumba

Dallas kept taking penalties but the Wild couldn’t take advantage of them.

7:58 – Penalties – Matt Dumba (MIN) & Max Domi (DAL) for Roughing

Minnesota Wild D Matt Dumba looks like he comes in a little late with a hit as Dallas F Joe Pavelski was trying to get around Wild F Ryan Hartman in the left corner of the Wild’s defensive zone and Pavelski doesn’t look like he ever saw Dumba coming for a big shoulder to shoulder hit that sent Pavelski up with so much momentum that his head ended up hitting the ice.

That hit definitely looked like a game-changer since it took Joe Pavelski out of the game but also because it made Dallas play in more of a get revenge mode instead of playing to win the game.

A faceoff in the Wild’s defensive zone was won by Dallas and the puck eventually got back to Jason Robertson at the middle of the blue line and he tried to take a shot but Wild F Sam Steel got in front of it to block the shot and it deflected off of him to teammate F Gustav Nyquist who passed it to Sam Steel who took off after he blocked the shot to get behind the Dallas players and he got a breakaway for his hard work…

5:35 – Goal – Minnesota – Sam Steel from Gustav Nyquist

2-2 Tie

Matt Dumba was now a target for every Dallas forward and Mason Marchment slew-footed him as they were battling behind the play.

How much will that Dumba hit mess with Dallas’ game?

3rd Period

14:20 – Penalties – Coincidental Minors – Marcus Foligno (MIN) for Hooking & Jason Robertson (DAL) for Embellishment

6:45 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jared Spurgeon for Tripping Max Domi

Dallas F Max Domi was skating to the front of the net and Jared Spurgeon tried to keep him from getting there by pushing him and he was coming down with his stick and hit his left skate to make him fall down.

The Wild killed it off as the game reached under 5 minutes left in regulation.

Late in regulation, Dallas D Ryan Suter cross-checked Wild F Kirill Kaprizov from behind and right in the ribs where there’s no padding and he was in pain. Marcus Foligno had a conversation with Suter on his next shift.

Ryan Suter hit Kaprizov earlier with another cross-check in the same place, too:

Both teams had some chances but both goalies were doing a great job of keeping the puck out of their nets so this game went to sudden death…

OVERTIME!

Right out of the gate, we get some OVERTIME! There is no 3-on-3 or shootout in the playoffs like there is in some leagues!* They’ll keep playing until they have a winner.

*Ahem, PHF (with some help from ESPN!) But hey, at least Toronto finally won a Cup, the Isobel Cup.

Alright. Who you got for Bucci’s Overtime Challenge, ‘Puckers? It’s the playoffs so it could be anyone so…

We’re going with Wild F Gustav Nyquist and Dallas F Evgenii Dadonov.

The Wild had the first great chance when Zuccarello hit Dumba with a cross-ice pass but Dallas G Jake Oettinger made the save! OHHHH!!!

The Wild had another great chance a little later but… 

12:22 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jared Spurgeon for Slashing Evgenii Dadonov

No dice for Dallas on that Power Play as the Wild were going everything to get in front of shots to keep the game alive.

Dallas had a good push with about 2 minutes remaining in the first overtime then it looked like the Wild would get a good chance but it was broken up so…

DOUBLE OVERTIME!!

Jake Oettinger was still making timely saves in the 2nd overtime! Geez! Marcus Johansson just couldn’t lift the puck on his backhand or the game might’ve been over.

Rookie Minnesota Wild D Brock Faber made a lunging/diving play to get his stick on a shot that probably saved the game.

Seconds later, Wild F Freddy Gaudreau accidentally tripped Dallas F Jamie Benn with 9:11 remaining in the 2nd overtime but the Wild killed it off.

Wild G Filip Gustavsson made a save or had the shaft of his goalie stick in the way of a shot from Max Domi. Unfortunately, there seems to be no video of it.

Dallas won the ensuing faceoff but the Wild were able to clear the puck and Wild F Gustav Nyquist in the neutral zone and he was able to turn around and feed Sam Steel going up the left side. He tried to send a pass to the far side of the net to Ryan Hartman but it was intercepted by Stars D Thomas Harley but he just sent it to the left corner where Stars D Colin Miller just tried to send it up the boards but Sam Steel was there to pressure the puck and it went off of his stick and/or his skate and deflected towards the net. Ryan Hartman just skated around the net so the puck was coming right to him while the Dallas players all thought they were going to be breaking out of their zone so…

And THAT is a WILD 3-2 Win in Double OVERTIME!!!

––––– CP –––––

This is not an April Fool’s joke though, ‘Puckers. This Minnesota Wild team is for real!

Alright. Enough words. Let’s…

Drop the ClutterPuck!!!

––––– CP –––––

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Wild projected lineup

Forwards
Marcus Foligno — Ryan Hartman — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt Boldy
Sam Steel — Frederick Gaudreau — Oskar Sundqvist
Mason Shaw — Connor Dewar

Defensemen
Jake Middleton — Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin — Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill — John Klingberg
Alex Goligoski

Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustavsson

Scratched:
Calen Addison

Injured:
Kirill Kaprizov (lower body), Gustav Nyquist (shoulder), Ryan Reaves (upper body), Brandon Duhaime (illness)

Status Report

The Wild will dress the same skaters they used a 4-2 win at the the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday, and once again will use 11 forwards and seven defensemen. … Fleury and Gustavsson will alternate starts for the 10th straight game.

Well, this status report was wrong. Wild Fs Brandon Duhaime & Ryan Reaves were back in the lineup which meant no Sam Steel and no Jon Merrill.

Vegas Golden Knights

Golden Knights projected lineup

Forwards
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Jonathan Marchessault
Nicolas Roy — William Karlsson — Paul Cotter
Michael Amadio — Chandler Stephenson — Phil Kessel
Brett Howden — Teddy Blueger — Keegan Kolesar

Defensemen
Alex Pietrangelo — Alec Martinez
Brayden McNabb — Ben Hutton
Nicolas Hague — Zach Whitecloud

Goalies
Laurent Brossoit
Jonathan Quick

Scratched:
Pavel Dorofeyev

Injured:
Mark Stone (back), William Carrier (lower body), Adin Hill (lower body), Logan Thompson (undisclosed), Reilly Smith (lower body), Shea Theodore (undisclosed)

Status Report

Blueger enters the lineup after not dressing for a 4-3 overtime loss at the San Jose Sharks on Thursday; he will replace Dorofeyev, a forward. … Brossoit is expected to make his second straight start; he made 21 saves Thursday.

Game Recap

1st Period

18:51 – Penalty – Vegas – Jonathan Marchessault for Hooking Mats Zuccarello

Apparently Vegas F Jonathan Marchessault didn’t want Mats Zuccarello to backcheck since he hooked him as his team had a 2-on-1. They had just another rush that was broken up by a good stick from Zuccarello. 

Before that, Wild F Joel Eriksson made a great play as went to cover someone in the defensive zone showing that the Wild were in this game from a mental standpoint from the drop of the puck. 

The Wild had a few chances but the Knights killed off the penalty.

Not too long later, Wild F Mason Shaw went awkwardly into the boards beneath his own goal line and had to be helped off the ice. Hopefully, he’ll be alright. He’s torn his ACL 3 times already.

For some reason the audio isn’t working but it’s very sad because you feel like he knows it’s bad.

A minute after that, Wild F Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek were forechecking beneath the Vegas goal line. Ek came out with the puck and sent it back to the left point to John Klingberg and he took a shot…

15:00 – Goal – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from John Klingberg & Joel Eriksson Ek

1-0 Wild

11:23 – Penalties – Roughing to both Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek & Vegas F William Karlsson

Karlsson and Ek pushed and shoved each other after Ek was hit as he was changing.

While 4-on-4, the Knights had the puck in the offensive zone and a shot broke Wild D Jake Middleton’s stick so he had to drop it then had to try to defend without a stick…

10:05 – Goal – Vegas – Ben Hutton from Jack Eichel & Alex Pietrangelo

1-1 Tie

Off a faceoff that was kind of won by Vegas, Minnesota Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury is screened by Vegas F Michael Amadio and Wild D Matt Dumba and as he’s leaning to his right to try to find the puck the shot is coming and… 

Screens are really tough for a goalie. Wild F Mats Zucarrello is a split second too late to get his stick on the puck as he was coasting in to defend the shooter, Vegas D Zach Whitecloud. Jonas Brodin probably needs to do a better job to block that shot.

3:47 – Goal – Vegas – Zach Whitecloud from Chandler Stephenson 

2-1 Vegas

The Wild outshot Vegas 14 to 8. The score wasn’t as good. 

2nd Period

The Wild announced that F Mason Shaw will not return to the game before the 2nd period began.

2 minutes into the 2nd period after a Wild scoring chance, Vegas F Ivan Barbashev gets a breakaway and Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury stops his shot. The puck went into the left corner (to Fleury’s right) and Barbashev was the first to it and he curled to come back up the boards… 

All 3 Wild forwards were caught watching the puck and 2 Vegas players changed during the play which usually makes it difficult to find who you should cover. The goal-scorer was one of the players who came on to the ice and he cut inside Wild F Brandon Duhaime to get open as he saw Barbashev looking for passing lanes. Wild D Alex Goligoski went to defend him and the shot hit his stick and deflected into the net.

17:39 – Goal – Vegas – Brett Howden from Ivan Barbashev & Jack Eichel

3-1 Vegas

9:37 – Penalty – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman for Hooking Phil Kessel 

Wild F Ryan Hartman was defending in front of the net but had his stick in the midsection so when the puck got there Phil Kessel couldn’t make a play on it. 

Down 3-1 already, this felt like a very important kill.

4:31 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jake Middleton for Tripping 

3:00 – Penalty – Vegas – Nicolas Roy for Holding Jared Spurgeon

3rd Period

The Wild had about a 90-second sequence in the offensive zone but they didn’t even get a chance then Vegas had a chance but Fleury made a huge glove save to keep the deficit at 2 goals. 

Empty net with 3+ minutes to go and John Klingberg tried to do too much entering the zone &/or near the blue line 3 times and on that 3rd time it created a turnover that Vegas took down the ice and made it… 

4-1 Vegas

The drop pass is one of the worst passes in hockey or at least it seems like it since it tends to not work most of the time and this was one of those times. Jared Spurgeon doesn’t look like he was ready for a drop pass there and probably thought Klingberg would pass it to Zuccarello. Vegas F Chandler Stephenson did end up poking the puck away so maybe he wasn’t dropping it.

Vegas just blocked so many shots and that made the Wild think too much about when to shoot the puck. Like that last play, they need to move the puck faster and take one-timers and/or fake a shot then pass. They were waiting and that plays right into what the other teams wants you to do.

––––– CP –––––

Final
Minnesota Wild 1 | 4 Vegas Golden Knights

Goals
MN: 1. Matt Boldy(29)
VGK: 1. Ben Hutton(3), 2. Zach Whitecloud(5), 3. Brett Howden(5), 4. Chandler Stephenson(14)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal

Assists
MN: 1. John Klingberg(21), Joel Eriksson Ek(37)
VGK: 1. Jack Eichel(34), Alex Pietrangelo(41), 2. Chandler Stephenson(45), 3. Ivan Barbashev(27), Jack Eichel(35), 4. Nicolas Roy(16)

Goalies
MN: 
Marc-Andre Fleury
39 Saves on 42 Shots, .929 Save% – 14th Loss

VGK:
Laurent Brossoit
29 Saves on 30 Shots, .967 Save% – 3rd Win

Shift Chart

Game Notes
*
Mason Shaw and his Knee

Mason Shaw’s ‘Wild’ journey, through his dad’s eyes: ‘You can’t write that in a script’

From The Athletic which you can & should subscribe to for as low as $2/month!

Wild F Mason Shaw has been through hell with his right knee, 3 torn ACLs (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) in his career and sadly, it looks like that’s what he’s done again and it sucks but we’ll see how he responds. It will likely be how he always has, with resilience and a great work ethic to get back and help the Minnesota Wild but we’ll wait to hear what the actual prognosis is.

**
Kirill Kaprizov Out for the Regular Season & the Playoffs?

How long did it take you to realize what day it was? I was wondering why there was only one tweet about it since that would be very HUGE news for the Wild so I’m glad it was April 1st when I saw it. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, though.

I actually searched Twitter for Kirill Kaprizov because he went to the Timberwolves game last night to see if I could find a picture of it. Well, the tweet showed his ankles which look very bruised so you could understand why he hasn’t started skating yet. That was a pretty nasty injury and it sure could have been a severe ankle injury:

Look at Kirill Kaprizov at the Timberwolves game then look at his left ankle and how bruised it is.

And… how many of you wondered what kind of shoes Kirill was wearing? Did you know the brand of those shoes? I did not so I searched for it and did end up finding it. I know. It’s sad but hey, it’s Google’s fault because they’ve taught us you can find anything on the interwebs.

I did find this, too:

Kirill Kaprizov will start skating later this week
Kirill Kaprizov will start skating later this week

––––– CP –––––

Next up: 

Same Teams, Different Time on Monday night at The X at 7pm on Bally Sports North PLUS and we expect a different Wild to show up as they won’t be happy with the result of this game.

Thanks for Reading!!! 

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

AND…as always…

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Minnesota Wild Recap at the Colorado Avalanche – March 29th, 2023

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Robb

The Minnesota Wild traveled to Colorado to face the surging Colorado Avalanche who have won 9 out of their last 10 games. They still trailed the Minnesota Wild by 1 point but they also had a game in hand and the Wild have been the best team in the league since February 17th having only lost one game in regulation with a record of 15-1-4. The Wild knew if they won in their last game against the Avalanche this season that would go a long way to making that one game not matter.

This is going to be a pucking battle filled with a lot of Clutter! 

Enough words. Let’s Do This…

Drop the ClutterPuck!!!

––––– CP –––––

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

​​Wild projected lineup

Forwards
Marcus Foligno — Ryan Hartman — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt Boldy
Sam Steel — Frederick Gaudreau — Oskar Sundqvist
Mason Shaw — Connor Dewar

Defensemen
Jake Middleton — Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin — Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill — John Klingberg
Alex Goligoski

Goalies
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury

Scratched:
Calen Addison

Injured:
Kirill Kaprizov (lower body), Gustav Nyquist (shoulder), Ryan Reaves (upper body), Brandon Duhaime (illness)

Status Report

Klingberg will return after missing three games because of an upper-body injury. … Reaves and Duhaime, each a forward, is day to day. … The Wild will dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen with Goligoski possibly playing some minutes at forward, coach Dean Evason said.

Colorado Avalanche

Avalanche projected lineup

Forwards
Valeri Nichushkin — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Alex Newhook — J.T. Compher — Evan Rodrigues
Denis Malgin — Lars Eller — Matt Nieto
Andrew Cogliano — Darren Helm — Logan O’Connor

Defensemen
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Bowen Byram
Jack Johnson — Erik Johnson

Goalies
Alexandar Georgiev
Jonas Johansson

Scratched:
Kurtis MacDermid, Brad Hunt

Injured:
Gabriel Landeskog (knee), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Josh Manson (lower body), Artturi Lehkonen (finger)

Status report

There is no timeline for a return for Manson, a forward, and Francouz, a goalie, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. … Georgiev is expected to make his 13th start in 15 games.

Game Recap

1st Period

How crazy is it that the Wild all of a sudden had to use D Alex Goligoski as a forward?

From the drop of the puck, both teams were ready for this huge game for first place in the Central Division. The pace was insane! This is playoff hockey, ‘Puckers! You have to LOVE IT!!!

3 minutes in and the Wild tipped in the puck with F Joel Eriksson Ek forechecking. The puck went around the right corner and Avalanche G Alexander Georgiev had plenty of time to take a look and either put the puck around the corner or just leave it behind his own net for his defenseman that was 5 feet away from him but he decided it was better to send it around the other corner. 

Maybe he partially fanned on it but Wild F Marcus Johansson was coming around the left corner so he intercepted it and tried to feed Matt Boldy skating into the right slot but the pass was off-target. Boldy tried to catch it on his backhand but ended up just getting the heel of his stick on it and the puck went back to Wild D Matt Dumba. He passed it to Joel Eriksson Ek who was now at the right side of the net. He caught the pass with his back to the net but he knew where Johansson was so he made a backhand pass through his own legs…
*There seem to be so few good puck-handling goalies. Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.

16:36 – Goal – Minnesota – Marcus Johansson from Joel Eriksson Ek & Matt Dumba

1-0 Wild

14:41 – Penalty – Minnesota – Alex Goligoski for Tripping 

Wild D Alex Goligoski put his stick on the outside hip of Colorado F J.T. Compher and he fell down. They called tripping and he stumbled but was it because of what Alex Goligoski did? Pretty hard to tell especially when TNT doesn’t show a replay but it’s another stick penalty where a coach will repeat what he’s said for every stick penalty: “Don’t put your stick there!” 

The Wild killed it off beautifully. 

11:26 – Penalty – Colorado – Bowen Byram for Hooking Matt Boldy

Byram didn’t like the call but it’s similar to the Goligoski penalty. It looked like a penalty because his stick was up and in on Boldy’s hands. 

On the power play, Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek was standing on the blue line as the Wild tried to enter the Colorado zone and Avalanche F Andrew Cogliano backed into Ek and fell over when he ran into Ek so…

10:48 – Penalty – Minnesota – Joel Eriksson Ek for Interference 

TNT analyst Ed Olczck said what most Wild fans (& Dean Evason) were thinking, “That ice is as much Eriksson Ek’s as it is Cogliano’s.” Then they asked TNT’s Rules Analyst Brad Meier and he said, “Eriksson Ek knows exactly what he was doing. Even though he’s stationary, he gets set there and he eliminates that guy from coming back into the zone.”

We’ll have to look up the rule because you could say Cogliano knows exactly what he’s doing, too. He can skate into Ek on purpose and fall down so is he saying Ek has to try to avoid him?

10:23 – Penalty – Colorado – Lars Eller for High-Sticking Freddy Gaudreau 

Eller made a sweeping poke-check attempt and his stick slid up Gaudreau’s stick and hit him in the face. Twoooo minutes! Sit Down!

The Wild had a great scoring chance when Marcus Johansson passed it back to Mats Zuccarello for a quick shot and Colorado G Alexander Georgiev made the save. The rebound bounced out to Avs F J.T. Compher & D Jack Johnson and they quickly sent the puck out of the zone off the far boards knowing D Bowen Byram’s penalty was expiring so he’d be coming out of the penalty box for a breakaway. 

9:17 – Goal – Colorado – Bowen Byram from J.T. Compher & G Alexander Georgiev

So, the goalie got an assist for making the save and giving up a rebound? Okay. They apparently took the assist away from Georgiev and gave it to Jack Johnson which might be even more questionable since he may not have even touched the puck.
*What is this, the MNJHL? Inside joke.

1-1 Tie

6:35 – Wild F Ryan Hartman went through 2 Avs then hit the far post! (1:33 of the highlight video at the bottom of the recap) OHHH!!!

John Klingberg threw a backhand shot at the net from the left faceoff dot and it hit Sam Steel & Avs D Samuel Girard then dropped down to the ice. Sam Steel saw it and got his right skate to it so he could kick it to his stick and, with his back to the net, he just shot a high backhand and it went in the upper right corner.

3:58 – Goal – Minnesota – Sam Steel from John Klingberg 

Colorado D Samuel Girard was defending space with Sam Steel behind him so he missed the tiny puck then lost the battle with the a-lot-bigger-than-a-puck man. He had good position on him then thought it was better to keep watching the puck and be worried about Wild D John Klingberg who was being defended by his teammate. It’s actually a great play by Klingberg just to throw the puck at the net. It’s really a harmless backhand** until it hit Girard and he had to try to find the puck where Sam Steel saw the puck the whole time.
**#UnleashTheBackhand! Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.

2-1 Wild

The shots were even at the end of the first period with 11 each. 

The score was not even!

2nd Period

11:04 – Penalty – Minnesota – Oskar Sundqvist for Boarding Valeri Nichuskin

Avalanche F Valeri Nichuskin was playing the puck from beside the Wild net and Wild F Oskar Sundqvist checked him and he went into the boards awkwardly. His leg hit the ice before he hit the boards. How much of that, if any, should be on the player being hit?

Seconds into the Power Play, wild D Jonas Brodin blocked a shot from Nathan MacKinnon and the puck bounced out towards the blue line where both Wild F Freddy Gaudreau & Avalanche D Cale Makar went for it and Gaudreau swept at the puck to get enough of it so he could chip it past Makar and he was off to the races…

10:50 – Goal (SHG) – Minnesota – Freddy Gaudreau from Jonas Brodin

Makar seemed hesitant to go 100% at the puck and that may have been the difference between this becoming a breakaway or not. Maybe he thought it would get to him quicker since it was a bouncing puck and that split second made the difference.

3-1 Wild

The Wild then finished killing the penalty. 

8:09 – Penalty – Colorado – Logan O’Connor for Tripping Matt Boldy

Avalanche D Samuel Girard got a breakaway off a bad change by the Wild but Wild G Filip Gustavsson made the initial save and the save on the rebound. 

The shot totals at the end of the 2nd period was 26-24 in favor of the Colorado Avalanche.

3rd Period

14:12 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jake Middleton for Hooking Devon Toews

Wild D Jake Middleton was in on the forecheck as he thought he might be able to get around Colorado D Devon Toews. He tried to lift his stick from behind him and it looked like Toews felt it under his arm so he grabbed it by closing his arm on it. Middleton had one hand on his stick and was trying to get his stick loose so he could play the puck but Toews kept holding it until he got turned around and fell down. How they don’t see that being 2 minutes for each player is pretty amazing.

The Wild killed off another Power Play.

Colorado kept getting chances but Wild G Filip Gustavsson was stopping everything and/or getting some help from his defense or the posts. Colorado F Mikko Rantanen, the career-high 48 goals on the season, was getting most of those chances but was stoned by Gus on one then probably took some paint off the crossbar on another.

With 6:30 minutes to go in regulation, Colorado had an offensive rush that looked like nothing but the Wild gave them too much time & space and the backchecking forwards lost coverage and watched the puck so J.T. Compher was able to find Girard trailing the play and both Wild F Sam Steel went to him while Freddy Gaudreau was trying to find who he should defend. Girard passed the puck over to Devon Toews which forced Wild D Jonas Brodin to cover him and that left Lars Eller open in front of the net…

6:19 – Goal – Colorado – Lars Eller from Samuel Girard & Devon Toews 

If Matt Dumba is quick-to-defend either Avs F Evan Rodriguez in the neutral zone or J.T. Compher, that whole play might’ve been broken up from the start. Some puck-watching from the Wild forwards didn’t help either.

3-1 Wild

With about 5:30 minutes to go in regulation, Wild F Ryan Hartman was changing but dropped his stick when he left the ice so he stepped back out and bent down to pick up his stick and the puck hit him. The play was stopped which made you think it was going to be a Too Many Men on the Ice penalty but the officials got together after whistling the play dead and said there was No Penalty for Too Many Men on the Ice. It was called an “Inadvertent Play.” How ‘bout that?

5:19 – No Penalty for Too Many Men on the Ice against the Wild

0:51.3 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jared Spurgeon for Delay of Game Puck Out of Play

The puck hit the boards and went out of play but apparently nobody saw that so the Avalanche got a power play with less than a minute to go in regulation. Will the league change this to being reviewable any time soon?

Will having a power play help the Wild because they can ice the puck to kill time and/or shoot at the empty net?

A shot from the middle of the point was tipped and went off the inside of Filip Gustavsson’s left arm and rebounded out to the slot where Wild F Freddy “The Stick” Gaudreau quickly shot it down the ice and it was center cut like a beautiful putt to seal the victory!

So… uhh… yes!  

0:33 – Goal (SHG) – Minnesota – Freddy Gaudreau – Unassisted

And that’s a 3-point lead in the Central Division, ‘Puck Fans!!!

Wow! What a game!!!

HUGE WIN for the Wild!

The Colorado Avalanche outshot the Wild 19-4 in the 3rd period (44-29 overall) which would lead some to think they dominated that period but there’s something to be said about the Wild’s defense & poise in their own zone. 

They don’t panic. They just continue to defend with great sticks and great reactions to rebounds to clear pucks or get their sticks to pucks to keep the opponent from getting better or more scoring chances.

––––– CP –––––

Final
Minnesota Wild 4 | 2 Colorado Avalanche

Goals
MN: 1. Marcus Johansson(16), 2. Sam Steel(9), 3. Freddy Gaudreau(15)-SHG, 4. Freddy Gaudreau(16)-SHG
COL: 1. Bowen Byram(10), 2. Lars Eller(10)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal

Assists
MN: 1. Joel Eriksson Ek(36), Matt Dumba(10), 2. John Klingberg(20), Ryan Hartman(20), 3. Jonas Brodin(11)-SHG, 4. Unassisted-SHG
COL: 1. J.T. Compher(33), Jack Johnson(6), 2. Devon Toews(34), Samuel Girard(27)

Goalies
MN: 
Filip Gustavsson
42 Saves on44  Shots, .955 Save% – 20th Win
COL:
Alexander Georgiev 
25 Saves on 28 Shots, .893 Save% – 16th Loss

Shift Chart

Game Notes
*
Goalies Playing Turning Over the Puck

Goalies seem to have a lot of trouble deciding what to do when they stop the puck behind their net. What do they usually do? They stop it then send it around where it was already going in the first place. And what usually happens when they throw it around the corner? It goes to the other team. Oops.

How frustrating is that for a defenseman? Just make the simple play or leave it for the defenseman to take it. In the play on the first goal above, Alexander Georgiev never looked to the other side of the ice which is where he ended up sending the puck and he had a teammate 5 feet from him so he could’ve easily just left the puck there and quickly gone back to the front of the net but… 

Are the defenseman talking to their goalies to help them make the right or simple play? It’s amazing how much easier talking to your teammates makes the game. Do it and do it as much as possible, telling them where you are, if they have time or not and what to do with the puck. It can be a huge help in avoiding turnovers and bad plays all over the ice.

**
Unleash the Backhand!

If you ever coach kids in hockey, especially shooting, and say you want them to work on their backhand shots, 9 times out of 10 you will hear groans because they don’t like their backhand shots. That’s because they never work on them or they’ve been told by coaches not to use their backhands. They’d rather work on their slapshots which is usually a less useful shot than the backhand. 

Unleash Your Backhand!
Get it out of storage, remove the dust and USE IT!


Use the backhand shot! Work on it to make it a weapon like Sidney Crosby, Pavel Datsyuk and many other NHL players. It’s a hard shot for goalies to read to begin with so if you make it a weapon, it’ll be that much harder to stop for those goalies who are trying to keep you off the scoreboard.

Having a very good backhand can also help your entire game because now you can go either way when handling the puck and most defenders will try to make you go to your backhand. If you have a good backhand, you can use it to make passes and clear the zone rather than trying to go to your forehand which can take that extra 2-3 seconds and give the defense time to get to you or the goalie more time to get in a better position to make a save!

***
“Would you say Milan Hejduk was an underrated player?”

NHL on TNT analyst Ed Olczyk asked this question to between-the-benches analyst Keith Jones and Jones said he absolutely was underrated. 

Former Colorado Avalanche F Milan Hejduk played 1,020 games with the Colorado Avalanche from 1998 to 2013. Add another 112 games to that from the postseason. He scored 375 goals (805 points) with 14o of them coming on the power play (285 points). He had 20 or more goals in 11 of his 14 seasons with an average of 31 goals in those 11 seasons (26 in his 14 seasons). He won the Maurice Richard Trophy for the leagues’ top goal scorer with 50 goals in the 2002-3 season and his 375 career goals is tied for 126th for most in the history of the NHL.

He was a 4th-round pick in 1994 who kept playing in the Czech Republic until he made the jump across the pond to the US and stepped right into the Avalanche lineup and never looked back. He finished 3rd in the Calder Trophy for the league’s best rookie* after his first season (14g, 34a – 4ppg, 11ppp). He then scored 36 goals in his 2nd season and on he went scoring goals for the Colorado Avalanche.
*His teammate (linemate, too?) Chris Drury won. 

The only time he would’ve been “underrated” is that first season but that’s even seems like a stretch since he was on the power play since he was a goal-scorer.

Wild fans surely remember him being a sniper for those 14 years. Hejduk… Hedge Duck? More like Hey, Duke scored again!

Postgame

“You Can’t Have Passengers” Head Coach Jared Bednar Explains Why Avalanche Couldn’t Stop The Wild

Wild Head Coach Dean Evason Postgame

––––– CP –––––

Next up: 

The Wild will head to Las Vegas and not play those Vegas Golden Knights until Saturday night at 9pm CST on Bally Sports North.

So Vegas Nights before Vegas Knights? That could be trouble for other Wild teams but not the 2022-23 Wild who are leading the Central Division and surely remember that 5-1 loss that triggered the postgame closed-door meeting & the 17-2-5 run they are currently on that put them in first place.

This should be another great game!

Thanks for Reading!!! 

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

AND…as always…

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Minnesota Wild Recap vs the Seattle Kraken – March 27th, 2023

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Robb

The Minnesota Wild were leading the Central Division for the first time this season as they were a point ahead of both the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars with 9 games to play (10 for Colorado.) They were seeing the Seattle Kraken for the first time in 136 days as they played 2 games in 8 days back in November when they were shut out 4-0 on November 3rd & then shut out the Kraken in a 1-0 win on November 11th.

NHL Western Conference Hockey Standings before the games on March 27th, 2023

The Seattle Kraken are holding strong in the 1st Wild Card spot, 7 points ahead of the Calgary Flames and 8 points ahead of the Nashville Predators. The Kraken have 2 games in hand on the Flames as well. 

The Predators, at 8 points behind with 10 to play and a negative goal differential, have a pretty impossible task as 8 of their last 10 games are against teams currently in a playoff spot. The Preds are just 5 points behind Winnipeg for the final playoff spot with 2 games in hand & 1 of those final 10 games is in Winnipeg, their 4th to last game of the season. They will face the Minnesota Wild in their 2nd to last game of the regular season so it’ll be interesting to see what the standings look like then.

Seattle is a hard-working team in year 2 of their existence so they’re still building and need more talent but they are building a winning culture as was shown by the way they began the season and that 24-9-4 record on the road so far this season which ranks 4th in the NHL and 2nd in the Western Conference but the Wild were 23-11-3 at home which ranks 6th in the NHL and 2nd in the Western Conference so something had to give in this game.

Alright. That’s way too many words. Let’s…

Drop the ClutterPuck!!!

––––– CP –––––

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Scratched: Sam Steel, Calen Addison

Injured: Kirill Kaprizov (lower body), Gustav Nyquist (shoulder), John Klingberg (upper body)

Status Report

Klingberg skated but the defenseman will miss his third straight game.

Seattle Kraken

Scratched: Cale Fleury, Jaycob Megna

Injured: Joonas Donskoi (upper body), Andre Burakovsky (lower body), John Hayden (lower body)

Game Recap

1st Period

Seattle was showing that hard work and great road game early but the Wild’s defense & G Marc-Andre Fleury were up to the task every time.

4:43 – Goal – Minnesota – Jake Middleton from Jared Spurgeon & Marcus Johansson

The Wild’s confidence and awareness on the defensive end allowed them to keep the game tied so they could eventually get some offense going and Marcus Johansson was a huge part of it as he retrieved a puck that was sent deep by Matt Boldy.

Johansson came around the right corner, skated up the boards and passed it to Jared Spurgeon. The Captain looked like he was going to take a slapshot but as he saw 2 Kraken in front of him he faked the shot and passed it over to his defensive partner Jake Middleton who had all kinds of time & space so he skated in and took a shot and beat Kraken G Philipp Grubauer just over his outstretched left pad & under his catcher glove.

There was a lot of puck-chasing on that goal including Kraken F Matty Beniers literally following the puck as it moved from Johansson to Spurgeon to Middleton to the back of the net! Will that be in the next Seattle Kraken Film Session?

1-0 Wild

Kraken D Vince Dunn took a hooking penalty on Wild F Ryan Hartman so the Wild went on the Power Play for the second time and it took 29 seconds for the Wild to double their lead.

14:22 – Goal (PPG) – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from Marcus Johansson & Jared Spurgeon

The Kraken’s penalty kill may have shown why they’re ranked 26th in the league as F Brandon Tanev goes to defend Joel Eriksson Ek in the left slot but forgets about that Matt Boldy guy who has scored 6 goals in his last 4 games and now 7 in his last 5. Oops!

No. You can’t just defend a hot player while killing a penalty but you should know where he is, especially if you just vacated the area where he was, and get your stick in the passing lane. Also, is this said in almost every article we write/publish? Don’t puck-watch or chase the puck, especially on the Penalty Kill. Why? Who wants to answer it?

Because you will watch the puck go into your own net!

You’re not a spectator on the ice. You need to “learn to read” the play! 

Don’t be Wayne Campbell (or Garth Algar):

But do “Party On!”

 Wayne Campbell: 
“Am I supposed to be a man? Am I supposed to say, “It’s OK, I don’t mind, I don’t mind”? Well, I mind! I mind big time! And you know what the worst part is? I NEVER LEARNED TO READ.”

Cassandra:
“Is that true?”

Wayne Campbell:
“Yes, everything except the reading part.”

2-0 Wild

Boldy was at it again about 9 minutes later…

5:01 – Goal – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from Joel Eriksson Ek

On a faceoff at the right dot (to the goalie’s left), Matt Boldy was on the boards. Joel Eriksson Ek won the draw back toward the right defenseman but Boldy skated back that way then curled to his left back towards the boards. He had Seattle F Jared McCann chasing him then Seattle F Matty Beniers left his man to go to Boldy but he did nothing with his stick except defend a pass to nobody beneath the goal line so Boldy made a move to make a quick shot at the net. That shot went through Beniers legs then hit the far post and went in. Was Boldy aiming for that? Who knows but either way, it’s a helluva shot and his 2nd goal of the game. Everything he touches turns to… 

BOLD!

3-0 Wild

3rd Period

50 seconds into the 3rd period, Wild fans were throwing their hats on the ice because that tricky Wild F Matt Boldy lit the lamp yet again for his 9th goal in the last 5 games.

19:10 – Goal – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from Joel Eriksson Ek

4-0 Wild

Ahh… a forecheck (or forechEk because it’s Joel Eriksson “Ek”) forces a loose puck and Ek feeds Boldy for a one-timer and the hats start flying onto the ice for the Matt Boldy Pure Hat Trick!* So Pure!
*Who started the hat trick tradition of throwing hats on the ice after 3 goals by one player?

Yeah. Maybe get rid of the puck quicker there, Mr. Schultz. Minus 1 for you but NO SOUP!

2 minutes later, Wild F Connor Dewar was carrying the puck in the offensive zone & Brandon Tanev bodied him off the puck but Dewar grabbed his glove/arm which made Tanev fall awkwardly into the boards. Dewar was then checked into the boards by Seattle & former Wild D Carson Soucy. Then Seattle & former Wild F Ryan Donato skated up to Dewar and they ended up dropping their mitts and throwing down:

You can hear Wild Captain Jared Spurgeon say “Instigator” to the official wondering why that’s not instigating by Ryan Donato. We wonder that, too, so… 

Here’s the rule right from the 2022-23 NHL Rulebook:

2022-23 NHL Rulebook – Rule 46.11 – Instigator

You can get a PDF of the 2022-23 NHL Rulebook here.

“…a player who by his actions or demeanor demonstrates any/some of the following criteria: distance traveled; gloves off first; first punch thrown; menacing attitude or posture; verbal instigation or threats; conduct in retaliation to a prior game (or season) incident; obvious retribution for a previous incident in the game or season.” 

It’s hard to tell who dropped the gloves first or who threw the first punch but Ryan Donato went in there to do one thing & one thing alone and that was to retaliate for the incident that just happened. It’s not called an instigator* and the Kraken get a power play out of it.
*Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.  

1:15 into the Seattle power play, the Wild were able to make a rush and Seattle F Oliver Bjorkstrand took a slashing penalty to take a scoring chance away from Marcus Foligno.

The Wild scored again about 6 minutes later.

9:39 – Goal – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman from Mats Zuccarello & Jon Merrill

Seattle kept working on the offensive end and got a tip of a Vince Dunn point shot off the stick of F Morgan Geekie that went off the left post and wide right where Jaden Schwartz got to it as fast as he could just to throw the puck back towards the net. He did and it was heading through the crease but Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury pushed and extended his left leg but the puck ended up going under that leg and off of his right leg and into the net to take away his shutout.

9:00 – Goal – Seattle – Jaden Schwartz from Morgan Geekie & Vince Dunn

5-1 Wild

Matt Boldy tried to go between his legs to his backhand to score a 4th goal. Geez!

Wild F Mason Shaw threw a body check on Carson Soucy in open ice as he was trying to catch a puck in the air knocking him down. Soucy didn’t like it so he got up and cross-checked him and chopped down at the back of his legs. Then Yanni Gourde and Mason Shaw dropped the gloves and fought:

It was a dominant 5-1 win by the Wild and we’ll assume the Kraken just had a bad night but their home record is only 16-15-4 so we’ll see how they do in their last 9 games. 6 of them are home games & 3 are road games remaining and it doesn’t seem to matter if the opponents are in or out of the playoffs. Wild fans saw how hard the Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks played against their team. The Vancouver Canucks and the Vegas Golden Knights are 8-2 in their last 10 games and the Los Angeles Kings are on a 12-game point streak.

It’s always fun to watch the end of the regular season as teams are battling for playoff position and to stay in the mix.

––––– CP –––––

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Final
Seattle Kraken 1 | 5 Minnesota Wild

Goals

MN: 1. Jake Middleton(3), 2. Matt Boldy(26)-PPG, 3. Matt Boldy(27), 4. Matt Boldy(28), Ryan Hartman(14)
SEA: 1. Jaden Schwartz(18)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal

Assists

MN: 1. Jared Spurgeon(22), Marcus Johansson(23), 2. Marcus Johansson(24), Jared Spurgeon(23)-PPG, 3. Joel Eriksson Ek(33), 4. Joel Eriksson Ek(34), 5. Mats Zuccarello(43), Jon Merrill(9)
SEA: 1. Morgan Geekie(17), Vince Dunn(48)

Goalies

MN: 
Marc-Andre Fleury
35 Saves on 36 Shots, .972 Save% – 24th Win
SEA:
Philipp Grubauer
9 Saves on 13 Shots, .692 Save% – 13th Loss
Martin Jones
6 Saves on 7 Shots, .857 Save%

Shift Chart

Game Notes
*
Was Boldy snubbed for an NHL Star of the Week?

(Well, he started the new week with a hatty.)

As if to say, maybe they’ll see this. 

Here’s who they had for the 3 Stars for last week:

Will he make it next week? Or maybe be player of the month?

The week? We’ll see. The month? Ughh… Probably not! Some McDavid guy seems to be playing very well.

**
Flower voted Best Guy in the Locker Room by NHL players

Are any Wild fans surprised by this?

***
What is Instigating & why isn’t it called?

If you didn’t see the Instigator rule above, here it is again:

Basically, it’s a player initiating a fight after a body check or some kind of incident against their team. There is a lot more to the rule and that’s likely why it’s not called more often. This isn’t one of the rules where the league leaves the call up to the discretion of the referee so if they call it, the player is out for 17 minutes with a 2-minute minor, a 5-minute fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct. 

This was one of the topics at the recent GM Meetings. The Athletic wrote a whole column about it and here’s a quote from that article:

“It’s a way to avoid handing out 17 minutes of penalties, and Walkom admits there’s probably a reluctance by his officials to go that route.”

That quote right there is a big problem in our opinion. Officials should call the game the way they see it, not worry about a player getting a lot of penalty minutes.

Most players and fans are not fans of the officials but you have to appreciate the job they do and acknowledge how difficult it is to do. If you don’t then you should go out and officiate a game so you can get a little taste of how difficult it is to do.

*From The Athletic so you’ll likely need a subscription but it’s only $1/month right now & it’s well worth the normal price!

––––– CP –––––

Next up: 

Off to Colorado to face the reigning Stanley Cup champs who the Minnesota Wild have lost to twice this season so this is their last chance to beat them during the regular season:

🗓️

Wednesday, March 29th, 20223

🕘

9pm

📺

Thanks for Reading!!! 

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

AND…as always…

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

Minnesota Wild Recap at the Philadelphia Flyers – March 23rd, 2023

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Robb

The Minnesota Wild traveled to the City of Brotherly Love to take on the Philadelphia Flyers who actually fired their General Manager Chuck Fletcher 13 days ago. Chuck was the Minnesota Wild’s General Manager for 8+ years & 9 seasons from May of 2009 to April of 2018. Say what you will about Chuck but he put the Wild in a spot to have success during a lot of those seasons. They didn’t reach their potential in most of those seasons, never getting past the 2nd round.

The Philadelphia Flyers are a team in rebuild mode since they now know they won’t make the playoffs this season and now 4 straight seasons but games against teams that are out of the playoff race are sometimes the most difficult because you don’t really know what to expect out of them. The Wild had to be ready and had to play their game.

Alright. Enough words. Let’s…

Drop the ClutterPuck!!!

––––– CP –––––

Here’s how the teams lined up:

Minnesota Wild

Wild projected lineup

Forwards
Marcus Foligno — Ryan Hartman — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt Boldy
Brandon Duhaime — Frederick Gaudreau — Oskar Sundqvist
Mason Shaw — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves

Defensemen
Jake Middleton — Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin — Matt Dumba
John Klingberg — Alex Goligoski

Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustavsson

Scratched: 
Samuel Walker, Calen Addison, Jon Merrill, Sam Steel
Injured: 
Kirill Kaprizov (lower body), Gustav Nyquist (shoulder)

Status report 

Spurgeon will return after missing a 2-1 overtime win at the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday because of the flu. … Dumba and Reaves missed the Wild morning skate for maintenance Thursday, but coach Dean Evason said each will play. … Evason there was one injury-related lineup question but wouldn’t say which player was involved. … Fleury will start after Gustavsson made 47 saves Tuesday.

John Klingberg was scratched. He left the morning skate early but Jared Spurgeon was back in the lineup for the Minnesota Wild. 

Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers projected lineup

Forwards
Joel Farabee — Noah Cates — Owen Tippett
James van Riemsdyk — Kevin Hayes — Wade Allison
Brendan Lemieux — Morgan Frost — Tyson Foerster
Nicolas Deslauriers — Scott Laughton

Defenesemen
Ivan Provorov — Cam York
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler — Tony DeAngelo
Egor Zamula

Goalies
Carter Hart
Felix Sandstrom

Scratched: 
Kieffer Bellows, Justin Braun, Tanner Laczynski
Injured: 
Sean Couturier (back), Travis Konecny (upper body)

Status Report

The Flyers did not hold a morning skate Thursday. … Philadelphia could dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the second straight game.

Game Recap

1st Period

The Wild were a little off to begin the game as they weren’t connecting with their passes and maybe their mental game. Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury was keeping them in the game with a lot of big saves. The defensive detail of good sticks and clearing pucks was still there for the Wild, too. That seems like a constant right now.

But a few too many mistakes eventually cost them as they were caught puck-watching on the backcheck which allowed a 2-on-1 to develop quickly when a puck was chipped by Jake Middleton. Flyers F Travis Sanheim raced past Middleton then sent a pass to a driving Scott Laughton and he deflected it past Fleury.

7:02 – Goal – Philadelphia – Scott Laughton from Travis Sanheim &  James van Riemsdyk

1-0 Flyers

A little more than 3:30 minutes later, the Wild responded. Freddy Gaudreau fed Oskar Sundqvist a pass in the right slot for a quick one-timer but it went wide left and wrapped around the left boards. Wild D Jake Middleton made a good play to keep the puck in the zone then passed to Gaudreau at the left half-wall who sent it right back to Middleton for a shot that  Oskar tipped in. 

3:25 – Goal – Minnesota – Oskar Sundqvist from Jake Middleton & Freddy Gaudreau

1-1 Tie

A bad turnover quickly followed the tying goal and it required a big save from Flower. 

Shots were 10-4 in favor of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1st period. 

2nd Period

Early in the 2nd period, Wild D Jake Middleton was beaten with speed on the outside by Foerster but he recovered by getting around the outside of his stick and knocking the puck off of his stick. 

A minute later, Zuccarello drew a holding penalty & during the delayed penalty time, a pass was deflected by a Flyers player that cleared the zone and went off the far boards forcing the Wild to skate hard to make sure it didn’t go into the Wild’s net. Would that have counted since it was deflected by a Philadelphia player? 🤔

Philly had the better of the chances on that power play and Marc-Andre Fleury had to come up with some big saves to keep the game tied. 

The Flyers continued to put pressure on the Wild and finally got a tipped shot to get past Fleury. It came not too long after  Zuccarello was hit with a high stick as he drove to the net but there was no call.

12:34 – Goal – Philadelphia – Joel Farabee from Cam York & Noah Cates

Just the tip needed on that goal. Being able to tip shots is definitely a huge skill to have in your repertoire.

2-1 Flyers

Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek made a great play to intercept a centering pass in the defensive zone then fed Matt Boldy at the top of the circle. Boldy made a great move to avoid Rasmus Ristolainen’s poke check then passed it across the ice to Marcus Johannson going up the right side. Johannson was given a decent gap from Flyers D Nick Seeler likely because of the speed he possesses. Joel Eriksson Ek drove through the center lane and D Jared Spurgeon was skating hard to get into the play as well. All of this was happening and Matt Boldy was just laying back finding some space for a pass and an opportunity to shoot and he put the puck in the upper right corner to tie the game once game.

4:19 – Goal – Minnesota – Matt Boldy from Marcus Johannson & Joel Eriksson Ek

Flyers D Rasmus Ristolainen actually took a look while he was skating back but apparently didn’t see and forgot about Matt Boldy. Oops! Minus 1 for you, Risto.

2-2 Tie

Matt Boldy is on Fire! That’s his 5th goal in the last 3 games and his 7th goal* since Kirill Kaprizov was injured on March 8th 7 games ago. 
*24 goals in 72 games this season so far… but there was still time remaining in this game!

Be Boldy, Matt! Be Boldy!!!

2:35 later, Wild D Jake Middleton broke up a one-man Flyers rush when he poke-checked the puck away from Joel Farabee then Wild F Ryan Hartman beat Flyers F Noah Cates to the loose puck at the right boards then headed up ice and cut to the center when he saw teammate Marcus Foligno cut in front of him. He was able to avoid Nick Seeler’s attempted poke-checks then dropped the puck to Mats Zuccarello who held the puck then sent a quick pass to Foligno who caught the pass then shot it past Flyers G Carter Hart to put the Wild up by 1!

For some reason, Flyers D Nick Seeler went to Ryan Hartman but only went so far as to make a couple of poke-checks that missed even though at the time it was a 2-on-3 so he probably could’ve just kept pursuing Hartman to try to end the play. You can see the 3 Flyers players puck-watching instead of reading the play and covering a player and/or getting in the passing lane.

For some reason, Flyers D Nick Seeler went to Ryan Hartman but only went so far as to make a couple of poke-checks that missed even though at the time it was a 2-on-3 so he probably could’ve just kept pursuing Hartman to try to end the play. You can see the 3 Flyers players puck-watching instead of reading the play and covering a player and/or getting in the passing lane.

3-2 Wild

Did Joel Eriksson Ek get a penalty for standing in front of the net and having Flyers D Rasmus Ristolainen run into him? They didn’t show a replay of course. I found it on ESPN+ and yep, he leaned into him but he does have a right to the space he is in and Ristolainen was skating right into him so is he just bracing for the impact? That’s somewhat of a tough call.

He’s ran into the boards and fell down before:

WOW!

Maybe Rasmus needs some glasses so he can see things better. Or better yet, help from his teammates telling him & anyone else who to cover.

And of course they score, on a shot from the point as Fleury is being screened…

3-3 Tie

3rd Period

With 8:15 left in the 3rd period, Wild F Marcus Johansson sent a pass to the front of the net as Freddy Gaudreau was driving to the net and Gaudreau tipped it but Flyers G Carter Hart was able to keep the puck from getting through him to keep the game tied. 

1:45 or so later, the Wild won a faceoff and Matt Boldy had the puck in the left corner and wrapped it around to the right point where Matt Dumba sent it back around the right corner. Matt Boldy had moved behind the net but he let the puck go to Marcus Johansson. He sent it to D Jonas Brodin who took a shot from the left point that was going well wide but Joel Eriksson Ek tipped it on net.

<iframe src=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/boldys-no-look-backhand-goal/t-336563840/c-16141611?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″></iframe>

Carter Hart made the initial save on the Ek tip with his blocker but it deflected to his left. Matt Boldy had moved to the front of the net and he saw the puck and either knew it was between his legs or felt it hit his skate so, with his back to the net, he just threw it back towards the net with a backhand and it went between the goalie’s legs and off his pad and it.

4-3 Wild

It took just 42 seconds for the Flyers to respond as Tyler Foerster took a shot that appeared to go off Wild D Jon Merrill’s stick and in…

Did the Wild go into their prevent or zone defense? They had just a one-man forecheck which allowed the Flyers to easily get out of their own zone and get through the neutral zone without really any resistance. Foerster then got the puck at the blue line while standing still and was able to skate in and take a shot. Standing still in your own zone isn’t a great way to play defense. Merrill was the left defenseman and he was to the right of the middle of the ice so he wasn’t even close to Foerster when he got the puck. That’s not how the Wild have defended through the majority of this great stretch they are on.

4-4 Tie

The Flyers took a hooking penalty on Matt Boldy with 1:34 remaining in regulation but the Wild 

The Wild couldn’t get set up so this game went to…

OVERTIME!

The Wild started the overtime with 26 seconds of power play time remaining so it was 4-on-3 to begin OT!

The Wild lost the puck on a bad pass so those 26 seconds went by quickly. 

There weren’t a ton of chances but Matt Boldy had a mini-breakaway late and he chose to fake a shot and go to his backhand but shot it way wide. 

Marcus Johansson had a decent chance in a final rush but he shot it wide so they went to a shootout. 

Shootout

––––– CP –––––

Final-SO
Minnesota Wild 4 | 5 Philadelphia Flyers

Goals

MN: 1. Oskar Sundqvist(10), Matt Boldy(24), Marcus Foligno(7), Matt Boldy(25)

PHI: 1. Scott Laughton(17), 2. Joel Farabee(13), 3. Rasmus Ristolainen(3)-PPG, 4. Tyson Foerster(2)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal

Assists

MN: 1. Jake Middleton(12), Freddy Gaudreau(19), 2. Marcus Johansson(22), Joel Eriksson Ek(32), 3. Mats Zuccarello(42), Ryan Hartman(19), 4. Joel Eriksson Ek(33), Jonas Brodin(10)

PHI: 1. Travis Sanheim(13), James van Riemsdyk(16), 2. Cam York(14), Noah Cates(21), 3. DeAngelo(28), Joel Farabee(20)-PPG, 4. DeAngelo(29), Morgan Frost(22)

Goalies

MN: 
Marc-Andre Fleury
30 Saves on 34 Shots, .882 Save% – 4th Overtime Loss

PHI:
Carter Hart
20 Saves on 24 Shots, .833 Save% – 20th Win

Shift Chart

Game Notes
*
Matt Boldy scored 2 more Goals 

He now has 25 goals on the season including 6 in the last 3 games and 8 in the last 7 games or since Kirill Kaprizov has been out of the lineup with a lower-body injury.

So, Mr. Boldy has stepped up his game as he, like the rest of the team, knew they would need to do more to make up for #97 not being available to put the puck in the net.

Scoring goals is really nothing new for Matt Boldy. From 2017-19, he scored 62 goals in 126 games with the United States National Team Development Program and 29 goals in 62 games when the USNTDP played in the USHL. 

He struggled in his first season of Division I hockey with Boston College scoring just 1 goal (& 4 points) in his first 17 games but he ended that first season scoring 8 goals (& 22 points) in the last 17 games while helping BC win the Hockey East Conference. He also made the Hockey East all-rookie team. 

The next season he scored 11 goals (& 31 points) in 22 games. He had no goals (but 6 assists) in 2 Hockey East tournament games & the lone goal for the Eagles in their NCAA Tournament game.

That season, he also was counted on to score goals for Team USA (5 goals in 7 games) to help them win gold in the 2021 World Junior Championships.

So… in the long run, will we look back at this Kirill Kaprizov injury being a chance for Matt Boldy to grow into or get back to the goal-scorer he was developing into?

Ahh… only time will tell but it sure has looked good so far!

**
Not tied for 1st in the Central

When the game started, the Wild had the same amount of points, 90, as the Dallas Stars so some reporters like to say they are “tied for 1st place” but there are tiebreakers that show they aren’t tied which you would think reporters would know. Those are:

  1. Points Percentage (P%)
  2. Regulation Wins (RW)
  3. Regulation or Overtime Wins (ROW)
  4. Total Wins (W)
  5. Points earned in the games between the two or more teams
  6. Goal Differential (DIFF)
  7. Goals For (GF)

Dallas has more regulation wins so… they were still in first to begin this game and also after the game since they won and thus have more points.

Is it possible the “reporters” don’t know this? 

Sorry. This has happened every time the Wild has had the same point total as Dallas and, if you couldn’t tell, it’s annoying.

Next up: 

The Wild face the Chicago Blackhawks at home at 4pm CST on Bankrupt.. Bally Sports North!

Thanks for Reading!!! 

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