A Minnesota Wild Blog that WON'T make you sick and kill you!
The Minnesota Wild are at the center of a hockey conversation and it's not for a good reason. During their Tuesday night matchup against the Nashville Predators, Wild winger Marcus Johansson scored one of the most controversial goals in recent memory. As the finisher of an impressive passing pl...
3 months ago | 4 reads
The Minnesota Wild's Saturday night win over the Vancouver Canucks was necessary to turn down the heat. Losing eight of nine games, including the first four of a six-game homestand, was threatening to boil over. But the win just lifted the pot from the flame for two days. A loss tonight against the...
3 months ago | 4 reads
With the Minnesota Wild in seventh place in their division after going 2-5-3 in their last ten games, there’s a lot to criticize about the way they have started the season. Brock Faber is having issues, Father Time might finally be catching up to Jared Spurgeon, and so on. In all the doom and...
3 months ago | 2 reads
The guys get back together to discuss all things Minnesota Wild including, the state of the team, Yurov's benching, Zuccy return, and what it could mean for the Wild moving forward. Leave any comments or questions below and we'll address them in the next episode!
3 months ago | 3 reads
Bill Guerin didn’t want to blame Dean Evason when he fired him after a seven-game losing streak during the Minnesota Wild’s 5-10-4 start in 2023. "It had just gotten to that point where almost no matter what they did, the guys were having a hard time executing and generating offense," Guerin s...
3 months ago | 4 reads
That's Wild The Minnesota Wild are not going to lose every game for the rest of the season! Thanks to the Vancouver Canucks having their own massive problems, the Wild snapped a five-game losing streak after taking on the team from up north at home over the weekend. [Pioneer Press] And...
3 months ago | 8 reads
October was rough for Minnesota Wild fans. We don’t need to go into specifics, but it’s been a slog. So, let’s kick it back a few years and relearn hygge. The concept of coziness derived from simple pleasures originated in Denmark, but I think we could use it in these trying times. So, what wo...
3 months ago | 2 reads
Last year, the Minnesota Wild's motto was "Choose Your Hard." We don't know what their motto is this year, but "Choose Your Harden" is as good a guess as any. That's a Pokémon joke, so let's explain that real quick. Pokémon evolve into stronger forms throughout the games, and Caterpie might be...
3 months ago | 3 reads
In the 2003 Michael Lewis book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game," the Oakland A's acquired David Justice. Justice was a two-time 40-home run player who gave the Athletics what hockey men call Rings in the Room, but that's not nearly why the A's targeted the 36-year-old for the 2002 seas...
3 months ago | 3 reads
In an interview with The Athletic, Dean Evason revealed how emotional he and Bill Guerin got when Guerin fired him in 2023. Evason said he walked into Guerin’s office and immediately knew why Guerin had summoned him. “Are you firing me, bud?” Evason said he asked Guerin. “He said, ‘Yeah,...
3 months ago | 4 reads
That's Wild It's no secret that the Minnesota Wild are essentially Kirill Kaprizov. Where he goes, they go. With some early-season struggles in all three zones (and especially at 5-on-5) that lead to losing possession of the puck just so easily, is Kaprizov trying to do too much? Does he fee...
3 months ago | 2 reads
We’re only two weeks into the regular season schedule, but the Calder Trophy race is already shaping up to be thrilling. Three names stand out above the rest: Montreal Canadiens winger Ivan Demidov, New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer, and Minnesota Wild defenseman Zeev Buium. T...
3 months ago | 3 reads
There’s no sugarcoating it; the Minnesota Wild stink so far this season. The reasons for that are up for debate, but the results are not. A 3-5-3 record through eleven games and a humbling start to the home stand has left both the team and its fans searching for answers after their most recent defea...
3 months ago | 3 reads
That's Wild The Minnesota Wild clearly want something else on their blue line. Yes, there are so many good and solid players on it but they want that extra grit and grind and physicality and roughness to it that can take them to the next level. It is an issue that started to become more prom...
3 months ago | 3 reads
The Minnesota Wild lost 7-6 in overtime to the San Jose Sharks last Sunday, despite being heavily favored at -220 (FanDuel listed the Sharks at +185). The Sharks entered the game and were 1-5-2, dead last in the standings. The Wild also had a tough start to the season, having lost 5 of their last 6...
3 months ago | 2 reads
In a normal season, you would consider Marcus Johansson a bargain. Playing on a minimum salary contract for $800,000, Johansson has four goals and seven points in his first 10 games. He went from cheap insurance in case former first-round pick Liam Ohgren didn’t leap to become a full-time NHL player...
4 months ago | 3 reads
The Minnesota Wild were undoubtedly hoping for a better start to the season than their 3-5-2 record. While the campaign is still early, 10 games are enough to gather some data on how a team is playing. Little has gone right in Minnesota, but it's easy to pick out a few areas where the team has strug...
4 months ago | 3 reads
You may have heard about this: The Buffalo Sabres are bad. Again. You also may be aware: The Minnesota Wild need scoring. Again. And perhaps you've known: The Wild used to have this fella in Buffalo named Alex Tuch. Are we all caught up? Great. Because you're going to hear a lot about...
4 months ago | 5 reads
How much can you panic about a 3-5-2 start? While the Minnesota Wild are in seventh place in the Central Division, it wouldn't have taken much for a few games to break differently. If one of four shots in overtime goes in on Sunday night, for example, the Wild would have entered Monday at a mu...
4 months ago | 2 reads
The season is not even one month in, and the Minnesota Wild are sitting in last place in the Central Division with a 3-4-1 record (7 points). How does a team with this much talent sit in last place in their division? They have not been consistent all season long. The Wild have looked goo...
4 months ago | 2 reads
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...
4 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...
4 months ago | 14 reads
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...
4 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...
4 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...
4 months ago | 6 reads