Alexandron

Agree regarding St.Louis Cup win. Even Vegas team was a miracle to win a Cup last year who led mainly by Mark Stone (6th round draft) and Marchessault (undrafted). But for me the most miracle was Canadiens team which was the last team to get to the playoffs in 2021 and was able to reach finals.

Some Wild players recognized that the team didn't have enough pride for that regular season. They were not prepared mentally to play in a winning mode not with Evason , as well as not with Hynes (except maybe for few games when Hynes started his job). Agree, the last home game against Seattle was horrible, not motivated to win game for the Wild team.

It took nine years (missed playoffs 3 times). And without him by having only #1 overall RNH they were not able to make playoffs till 2017. Agree, round 1, #3 overall Draisaitl is pretty good. Still, in my opinion, without McDavid, Oilers wouldn't be so successful. That level of talent comes probably once in a Century.

I am always trying to be more optimistic. How many years passed for McDavid and his team to get first to the playoffs and then to reach the finals this year? Gradually they built a nice very enthusiastic team,but mainly based /dependable on one an outstanding talent of McDavid.

Or at least to give them a chance to play few games in NHL. Without that impossible to find out if they are a promising NHLers. Tell you a truth, that part is very disappointing for me in our club. That happened even with undrafted star players like Panarin and Zuccarello. Without their tryout in NHL they would not be playing there.

Here is a list of best players at the 2024 World Hockey Championship: https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2024/wm/skaters/scoringleaders Boldy was the 1st at that list. Interesting that USA team was 5th at team's standings there. Sadly they lost with a minimal score(0:1) to Czechia team(the tournament winner) in quarterfinals. Interesting also that US team head coach was John Hynes (our Wild coach). Here is more to read about Boldy: https://hockeywilderness.com/news-rumors/minnesota-wild/team-usa-could-help-with-matt-boldys-consistency-problem-r30062/

None of them moved to finals. And who is going to win 2024 Stanley Cup? That is a most intriguing question so far. Western or Eastern Conference winner?

You are right. Just looked for Spacek's stats. He had 5 assists; +/- +1 in 10 played games during the tournament. And he got the gold medal for Czechia team. Sweden team (5 Wild players played for it) got the bronze medal by beating the Canada team in a final game. They lost only 1 game during that championship (to Czechia team). I think it is not bad at all achievement for our players. Gold and bronze medals for 6 Wild players at this 2024 tournament.

And they lost to Oilers. Probably, there were (Oilers vs Stars and Rangers vs Panthers) the most intriguing semifinals.

Matt Boldy has the most points(14) at the World Championship, but was not able to score today against team from Czechia. USA team lost that game in quarterfinals 0:1. Sweden team was able to beat in a tough quarterfinal game team from Finland(2:1 OT) and will meet Czechia team in semifinals.

Nice, that means we have 5 Wild players for the Sweden team in World Championship (Czechia): 2 forwards (EEK and Johansson); 1 defenseman (Brodin) and 2 goalies (Gustavsson and Wallstedt).

Who is going to win a 2nd playoffs round from a Central Division? Colorado Avalanche or Dallas Stars? Brandon Duhaime or Sam Steel? Parise or Suter? Who from our former players will pass to a 3rd round?

Interesting, in that Sweden vs USA team (score was 5:2 respectively), our Wild players produced too. EEK had 2 goals and 1 assist; Johansson had 1 goal and 1 assist for Sweden team. Brodin played there as defenseman and Gustavsson was in their net. Total 4 our players are playing now for Sweden team at the World Championship in Czechia. Boldy had 1 assist for USA team in that game.

Now we have 2 players who have got a Gagarin Cup (Kaprizov and Yurov) in their career. Metallurg is a pretty good team, which has already 3 Gagarin Cups in their history. And, I think, it is good for Yurov to get more experience from that team's performance. Interesting fact, that Gagarin Cup is heavier than Stanley Cup (40 lbs vs 34.5 lbs respectively).

Nice video was recently presented regarding Toronto Leafs struggles at leafs preview... thread.