Hockey Wilderness

Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via The big man has been as good as we hoped for. Whether you liked or disliked the trade for Ryan Reaves that the Minnesota Wild made two weeks ago, there is no denying that he would be a big personality and a presence in the locker room, to be there to lighten the mood whenever needed. Jobs are jobs — some are a little more public and abnormal than others — and having someone in your workplace that can be depended on to read the room and be pleasant to talk to when needed, just feels crucial. Almost everyone can relate to having that...

Photo by Andy Devlin/ Some prospects are hoping to get a spot at the World Juniors. If you feel like we just had the World Junior Championships, and wondering why another one is happening so quickly, well you would be correct in doing so. With the 2022 World Juniors rescheduled and played in August, this is a lot of prospect action on our televisions within the last several months. Nevertheless, the 2023 World Juniors will be starting up on Dec. 26 this year in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick. And the Minnesota Wild will be represented. Each nation is...

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. During Sunday’s game against the Dallas Stars, the Minnesota Wild gave up four third-period goals that eventually forced overtime. But according to head coach Dean Evason from a recent post at The Athletic, there was no panic within the Wild’s lineup. “It was calm. It was, honestly,” Evason said when explaining why he didn’t try to stop momentum himself. “We had a good discussion with the group after. A lot of coaching staffs would call a...

Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports There are just too many reasons why this should happen. The Minnesota Wild have been searching for that high of last season for the last few months. It felt like a fever dream — the Wild we know and love were able to score a billion goals while also providing enough defense to win a bunch of games. Except for the small blip of goaltending crisis, this was a team that felt so good to watch and before the playoffs (oof) could have realistically done anything against anyone. Well, the team is a little bit different this season. After having...

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. How much worse would we all be feeling if the Dallas Stars ended up walking away with the win on Sunday afternoon? Now, we can just breathe easy and have that game as a memory of stressful times, while we can still accept that the Minnesota Wild earned two points. If the Stars ended up coming back from a 5-1 deficit and won? Well, we would be hooting and hollering until some transaction happened or another game was won. It would be extremely...

Photo by Sam Hodde/NHLI via My heart can’t take another game like this. The Minnesota Wild had a seemingly herculean task this afternoon in keeping red-hot Jason Robertson from taking advantage of them. The Dallas Stars were coming off a few days of rest, while the Wild likely had tired legs from a back-to-back. Furthermore, Dallas annihilated a Ducks team on Thursday that the Wild had to steal a messy overtime win from. Granted Dallas didn’t have an easy task with the Wild either, their defense has been outstanding as of late, and the GREEF line had made a rather...

Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Robertson looks to continue his 17-game streak, while Kirill Kaprizov can build on his 11-game streak of his own. After a sloppy shootout win over the Anaheim Ducks, the Minnesota Wild find themselves in possession of a tidy little string of victories, a fully-operational top line, and a reunited GREEF line. Kirill Kaprizov is —in NBA Jam terms— on fire. Our diminutive forward is boomshakalaka-ing all over other teams to the tune of 18 points in the last 11 games. It’s fun when the Wild are winning, and while they weren't able to...

Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports Kaprizov’s late game heroics and shootout goal highlight another come-from-behind win. The Minnesota Wild must be out of Turkey leftovers, because they roasted some Ducks this afternoon. The game started with two sluggish shifts from the GREEF line and then Kirill Kaprizov’s line. Both seemed trapped inside their own blue line, until they finally broke through with a fanned-on four-on-two rush into the Ducks zone. This got the wheels back on the tracks, eventually leading to a heavy shift from Ryan Reaves and several quality shots....

Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. The Minnesota Wild played a hell of a game against the Edmonton Oilers last night, but the 5-3 win wasn’t the only thing that got recorded in the record books. Marc-Andre Fleury and Kirill Kaprizov got to break some franchise and NHL records along the way, as well. With Kaprizov’s two assists that he earned against his No. 97 rival Connor McDavid, he broke the franchise record of most consecutive games with an assist with nine in a row. Not that...

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports All 21 players put in the work and provided a vintage Minnesota Wild win. A game like this hasn’t happened in a while for the Minnesota Wild — and we needed to see it, so damn bad. Last season, the Wild sprinkled in these performances where they took on Goliaths of the league and peppered and peppered them and aggressively took them down to make them feel small. Minnesota had its first true performance like that again tonight as they took a commanding 5-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers. Kirill Kaprizov said Hell no, Connor and...

Harrison Barden-USA TODAY Sports McDavid and his buddies are here. The Minnesota Wild are back in action after taking a few days off and having some transactions. Marco Rossi is down in the AHL, Andrej Sustr is back to hang out whenever the team needs a blueliner, and the GREEF line is reunited. Now, they’re facing the Edmonton Oilers tonight. Wild vs. Oilers When: 7:00 p.m. CTWhere: Xcel Energy CenterRadio: KFAN 100.3 FM Projected Wild lineup Kirill Kaprizov — Sam Steel — Mats ZuccarelloJordan Greenway — Joel Eriksson-Ek — Marcus FolignoNic Petan —...

Harrison Barden-USA TODAY Sports Brodin’s out, but GREEF is reunited. How do you solve a problem like McDaaavid? Well, the Edmonton Oilers has only eight wins over its last 28 meetings with the Minnesota Wild. That’s a great record for Minnesota’s abilities to shut down the league’s biggest star. However, usually that’s with the help of Jonas Brodin who normally is lights out defending against him. Wild vs. Oilers When: 7:00 p.m. CTWhere: Xcel Energy Center Radio: KFAN 100.3 FM Not to put too fine a point on it but this was last night: Connor McDavid doing...

Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. We all know that Kirill Kaprizov is very good and has been a revelation for the Minnesota Wild since crossing the Atlantic. But it is always nice to hear how damn good he is from the mouths of some other elite NHL players and we recently got to read some juicy quotes. “I like him,” Kucherov said. “He’s a nice kid, funny. A hell of a player. He’s got some loose hips, that’s for sure. Good hips, fresh probably. “He’s skilled, but he’s dirty — in a good way. He’s gritty....

Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via In his first game since being sent down to Iowa, Rossi showed everyone he’s too good to be there. I will be the first to admit that I waited with bated breath as Marco Rossi made his AHL season debut, just a couple days after being sent down to Iowa by the Minnesota Wild, with the hope that he can rejuvenate his season and gain some confidence. The worst-case scenario would be that the 16 NHL games he played this season and the single assist he earned during that stretch, would put him in such a mental hole that he couldn’t climb out...

Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. After Marc-Andre Fleury went down with an injury earlier this month, we were all extremely concerned for how an already-struggling Minnesota Wild team would cope without arguably their most important player. Well, thank goodness for Filip Gustavsson, who stepped up in Fleury’s three-game absence and delivered some sensational performances. Unfortunately, the injury bug caught Gustavsson as well just before Sunday’s game against the Arizona...