A Minnesota Wild Blog that WON'T make you sick and kill you!
The Minnesota Wild have come out of the gates cold. Their five-on-five performance has been dreadful, whether measured by results or underlying metrics. On the Wilderness Talk Podcast, I identified two main culprits for Minnesota’s inept five-on-five play: young defensemen and a thin for...
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
That's Wild Charlie Stramel needed a good start to his season. After the change from Wisconsin to Michigan State before last season propelled him to a solid 27-point campaign that got him back in as one of the Minnesota Wild's good prospects, the 2023 first-round pick could build the hype even...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Let’s be real, it’s been rough going for the beginning of the Minnesota Wild season. While some may try to compare it to the rough start of 2023 (insert pointed stare), we don’t need to get too ahead of ourselves. Let’s all unwind at the bar together and get a drink. In fact, let’s invite some of th...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
As they say, shooters shoot. And right now, few in the NHL know the meaning of that phrase like Matt Boldy. The fifth-year winger may have started the season with back-to-back three-point games, but his most dominant game so far was probably his effort in Dallas on October 14. He scored just one goa...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
The Minnesota Wild’s five-on-five play has been a major disappointment this season. This year was supposed to be different. Injuries have plagued the past two seasons, including Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek missing 41 and 36 games, respectively, last season. The hope was that bringing...
about 2 months ago | 4 reads
David Jiricek probably would have liked to have drawn in for the Minnesota Wild’s home opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets on October 11. Instead, the Wild stuck him in the press box four booths down from Don Waddell, the general manager who traded him after 53 games. While they removed J...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
The Minnesota Wild are used to leaning on Jake Middleton, and Middleton is used to delivering for the team. Since the Wild acquired him from the San Jose Sharks at the 2022 trade deadline, they've entrusted him with increasingly demanding workloads. He went from 19:02 in his first full campaign in M...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
With special guest Tony Abbott, the guys go over whether or not the Wild can break the shackles of their even-strength play and get back to playing complementary hockey or will they need to look outside of the organization for help?
about 2 months ago | 1 read
That's Wild The Minnesota Wild are not having a good time. After their 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, they suffered a brutal 1-3-1 record on their road trip that took them through a variety of opponents and not so much a variety of results. [The Athletic] Brock F...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
Outlets ranging from ESPN to the Star Tribune reported the Minnesota Wild’s decision to trade Calen Addison and acquire Zach Bogosian as a tandem deal in 2023. “It’s not a knock on Calen,” Bill Guerin explained. “It’s just a change in direction.” Addison had played 100 games for the Wild,...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
The Minnesota Wild must upgrade their top-six. Mats Zuccarello is still injured, and they are stuck with slotting both Vladimir Tarasenko and Marcus Johansson in their top six. Both Marco Rossi and Joel Eriksson Ek have to deal with their production plummeting when they’re not playing with Kirill Ka...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
That's Wild It's always nice to see a player's first. Danila Yurov was able to net his first NHL goal during the Minnesota Wild's 3-1 win over the New York Rangers Monday night. Kirill Kaprizov was his typical self, Jonas Brodin got on the stat sheet, and Filip Gustavsson was cool and collec...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
The arrival of Canadian junior league talent into the NCAA has been one of the most intriguing stories in the hockey world this season. The change has completely reshaped the development path for prospects, with several high-end junior players making the jump to the collegiate ranks. It’s an e...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
That's Wild The Minnesota Wild were on top of the world with an unbeatable power play heading into this weekend on the east coast. But after falling 5-1 to the Washington Capitals -- a game that should be instantly forgotten about -- the Wild continued on up the Atlantic and were struck down...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
The premise of the latest Trending Wild video is that Marcus Foligno, our precious Mama Moose, is in cahoots with the admin to call and tell his teammates to have a good night. This is a trend that was popular over the summer, but was a fun addition to the team’s first long road trip. Here’s w...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
The Minnesota Wild are going to take on Alex Ovechkin and the Metro Division Champion Washington Capitals tonight with their biggest weapon intact. Kirill Kaprizov (tied for second in the NHL with 9 points), Matt Boldy (T-sixth, 8 points), and Marco Rossi (4 points in 4 games) will start the game pl...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
It's hard to emphasize just how weird this feels to type: The Minnesota Wild have the best power play in the NHL. If that's ever been true before, it's never been for long. Since the Wild's inception in 2000-01, their power play percentage has been 18.0%, 24th of 32 teams. (I refuse to split up...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
The Dallas Stars entered Tuesday’s national TV game on a 14-game point streak against the Minnesota Wild (9-0-5). Dallas made it 15 after an 8:50 pm puck drop on ESPN. It’s unwise to make sweeping generalizations about early results. Still, it’s also wrong to dismiss them entirely. The Wi...
about 2 months ago | 4 reads
Joel Eriksson Ek is back to full health and has resumed his role as a key player for the Minnesota Wild, especially on the power play. He’s averaging 19:55 time on ice per game (TOI/G) through the Wild’s 4 regular season games, has scored a power play goal, and has 3 assists. Although they los...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
That's Wild No one truly expected Minnesota Wild rookie Zeev Buium to score a boatload of points in his first ever regular season games. Especially after he somewhat faltered during his debut in the playoffs last season, Buium was largely seen as someone who might need a few weeks to get the fe...
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
The Minnesota Wild were always going to be walking on a high wire this season. They're a playoff-caliber team laden with veterans who've been in the fold for a half-decade or more. It's also the case that they're working on bringing along four rookies into the NHL (as well as not-a-rookie-but-21-yea...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Ryan Hartman had a turbulent season with the Minnesota Wild last year. He only registered 26 points in 69 games, his lowest scoring total since the 2020-21 campaign. The pesky forward also drew the longest suspension in the league when the NHL banned him for 10 games (later reduced to eight) after a...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
When Marco Rossi scored a goal to put the Minnesota Wild ahead 1-0 in the fourth round of the shootout, all eyes went back to the other end of the ice. How would Jesper Wallstedt -- who'd already turned away Adrian Kempe, Trevor Moore, and Kevin Fiala -- hold up in a huge-pressure situation? If...
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
That's Wild The Minnesota Wild are back to their winning ways. After dominating the St. Louis Blues and following up that season-opening win with a floundering loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Wild were able to survive a late-game comeback against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night...
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Two games into the season, and it's important to take a deep breath and remember that, good or bad, we can't overindex on anything we've seen so far. It's easy to get caught up in the hype of a small sample size and let it deceive you. That happened last season, when Matt Boldy put together not...
about 2 months ago | 0 reads