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Hockey Wilderness

https://www.hockeywilderness.com/ | 234 entries published

A Minnesota Wild Blog that WON'T make you sick and kill you!

Latest Entries

Jesper Wallstedt Withstands Comeback, Wild Beat Hurricanes

That's Wild Jesper Wallstedt led the Minnesota Wild with a strong performance in between the pipes and he prevented the Carolina Hurricanes from fully coming back to earn the shootout win for his team. Two goals in the third period to eventually tie the game and force overtime and then the s...

3 months ago | 4 reads

Danila Yurov Is Passing His First Test

In the age of analytics, player tracking, and data overload, sometimes the good, old-fashioned eye test gets overlooked as fans and media scrutinize players. There’s a reason for that, of course. History has proven that the eye test alone isn’t sufficient for overcoming biased perceptions or imperfe...

3 months ago | 1 read

Trading Danila Yurov Would Be A Massive Mistake For the Wild

The Minnesota Wild seem to have recovered from their early-season struggles, at least for now, but that isn’t stopping people from discussing how Minnesota could improve its roster. Trade talks are running rampant, with Joe Smith and Michael Russo confirming that Bill Guerin is looking to improve th...

3 months ago | 1 read

Wild Turning Season Around In Couple of Weeks

That's Wild It was all doom and gloom for the Minnesota Wild early on. They could barely keep the puck out of their net while never even scoring on the other one. At 5-on-5, the team was miserable to watch and the only points they earned in the early days of the season was because of a red-h...

3 months ago | 4 reads

Keeping It Boring Is Key To the Wild Turnaround

Minnesota Wild Hockey is back, baby! It's good again. Awoouu (wild Howl) Don't look now, but the Wild are back to the playoff bubble. After a slow start in which they didn't look like their usual, structured selves, Minnesota has ripped off four wins in their past five games and picked up a los...

3 months ago | 1 read

When Grief and Hockey Are Connected Forever

When a hockey team is painful to watch, it’s important to find a deeper reason to keep watching. The Minnesota Wild have been struggling, with a current record of 7-7-4 as I write this. While I’m a perpetual “rose colored glasses” sort of fan, not everyone can manage that. They need a deeper reason...

3 months ago | 1 read

David Kampf Isn't A Marco Rossi Replacement

Marco Rossi has been sidelined by a lower-body injury, according to a report from The Athletic’s Michael Russo. As a result, Russo and I must (separately) write about David Kampf. It would be one thing to write about Kampf joining a team other than the Minnesota Wild. Kampf is a solid role pla...

NHL

3 months ago | 4 reads

Make-or-Break Stretch Coming for Minnesota Wild

It's no secret that the Minnesota Wild are not having the best first month of the season. They might have recently started to get out of a season-destroying skid with earning nine of the 12 points available to them in the last six games, but that still leaves them at NHL .500 and out of the playoff...

3 months ago | 4 reads

Can A Healthy Wild Team Get More Out Of Vladimir Tarasenko?

In life, sometimes someone gives you something for free just to get it off their hands. On the surface, it looked like a tremendous deal. A low-risk, high-reward deal that has no real downside. The Minnesota Wild pulled off such a trade on the eve of free agency, when they accepted a trade with...

3 months ago | 3 reads

Is Jordan Kyrou A Big Enough Fish For the Wild To Reel In?

Since before the summer, the NHL has been waiting for the next big name to shake loose. The Minnesota Wild are, finally, no exception. But just as they regained their flexibility to make moves, the trade market dried up. There were no Matthew Tkachuks or Mikko Rantanens ripe for the plucking. There...

3 months ago | 2 reads

Macklin Celebrini Embarrasses Wild in 2-1 Loss

That's Wild Macklin Celebrini and his band of San Jose Sharks came to town and just made the Minnesota Wild look a little silly. Despite outshooting them by a substantial margin and having chances that they never really connected on, the Sharks walked over the Wild to earn a 2-1 overtime win...

3 months ago | 11 reads

Filip Gustavsson's Season Is Still On Track

When Filip Gustavsson signed his five-year, $34 million extension before the season started, the Minnesota Wild's plans didn't actually change all that much. The Wild may have secured a starting-caliber goalie for the long term, but there was plenty of room for Goalie of the Future candidate Jesper...

3 months ago | 5 reads

Where Does Brock Faber Stands In Team USA’s Olympic Picture?

Hockey fans around the world rejoiced last season when the 4 Nations Face-Off showcased international best-on-best hockey for the first time in nearly a decade. While the event was a smash hit, it was only a prelude to the real main event — the Winter Olympic Games. With national teams finalizi...

NHL

3 months ago | 3 reads

Where Does Brock Faber Stand In Team USA’s Olympic Picture?

Hockey fans around the world rejoiced last season when the 4 Nations Face-Off showcased international best-on-best hockey for the first time in nearly a decade. While the event was a smash hit, it was only a prelude to the real main event — the Winter Olympic Games. With national teams finalizi...

NHL

3 months ago | 1 read

Wild Reportedly Looking to Trade For Key Forward

That's Wild The Minnesota Wild are a team that want to get better and aren't fine with just being near the bottom of the Western Conference standings. Even before the season, it was clear that they wanted to add a scorer of some sort but now that they're desperate for more of an offensive pu...

3 months ago | 3 reads

The Buium-Hunt Pairing Could Transform the Wild Blue Line

Rookie defenseman Zeev Buium has hit the ground running in his first NHL season, displaying the skating, creativity, and playmaking skills that make him one of the best prospects in hockey. The 19-year-old phenom has nine points in his first 16 games, which is tied for third in rookie scoring and 20...

NHL

3 months ago | 2 reads

Marco Rossi Is Continuing His Climb To Top-Line Center Status

Marco Rossi came into this season with something to prove for the third year in a row. In take two of his rookie season, he proved that he could stick as an NHL player. Last year, he proved that he could be a top-six player... or, so he thought. After a postseason where he was stuck on the Min...

NHL

3 months ago | 1 read

What Does Mats Zuccarello Bring To Save the Wild's Season?

If you're a Minnesota Wild fan who hit the snooze button on the start of the season, let's catch you up: The Wild are tied with the San Jose Sharks for 13th in the Western Conference because they can't score. Their scoring is bad. Real bad. They have 20 5-on-5 goals in 15 games, tied with the...

3 months ago | 8 reads

Wild Humbled Further With 4-3 Loss to Hurricanes

That's Wild It seemed like no matter what the Minnesota Wild were able to throw in the direction of the Carolina Hurricanes during their collision on Thursday night, the home team was able to solve it and throw it right back at them. In the 4-3 loss that has now earned them a 5-7-3 record fo...

3 months ago | 2 reads

The Wild's Youth Movement Has Reached An Awkward Stage

The Minnesota Wild are not where they expected to be right now. Eleven months ago, they were one of the best teams in the NHL and had their eyes on a deep playoff run. Even though they lost in the first round of the playoffs the following spring, general manager Bill Guerin felt comfortable en...

3 months ago | 7 reads

The Wild Are Witnessing A Marcus Johansson Renaissance

The Minnesota Wild woke up on the Wednesday after their overtime victory over the Nashville Predators still in desperate need of saving their season. Two straight wins in the books are nice, but Minnesota is still three points back of a playoff spot, needing to jump at least three teams to secure a...

3 months ago | 2 reads

The Wild Should Benefit From Positive Regression Soon

For a team with the Minnesota Wild’s skill and talent, it’s hard to be this bad for this long. As it stands, the Wild are the third-worst team in the Western Conference at 5-6-3. It’s a far cry from their pace of play last season, when they were leading the NHL in points at the start of December....

3 months ago | 2 reads