Alexandron

I agree. It seems Hill is a crucial factor at this moment for these finals. And now is 0:6 so far for Panthers in 2 Stanley Cup finals appearances. I was hoping for Panthers too, but my hope is draining away quickly with each game. Hope they will do better on their home ice. Kind of skeptical already.

Goaltender Jesper Wallstedt delivered three strong performances in net for Sweden at 2023 IIHF World Championship, which went 6-0-1 in the opening round. Wallstedt posted a 0.67 goals-against average and 0.947 save percentage en route to three consecutive victories. Sadly, he played only 3 games at this tournament in the opening round, but not after that round. Maybe with him a Sweden team would do better in quarterfinals. But Congrats to our Wild defenseman Jacob Middleton!!!!! who has got a Gold Medal there with a Canadian team. He had 5 assists; +/- +12 in 10 played games there.

A must win tonight for Panthers to break first of all a losing streak in finals. So far is 0:5. They lost first 4 games in 1996 against a Colorado team. I just do not want to see a repeated scenario. In my opinion, Vegas is a beatable team, especially if Panthers were able to win over such a most difficult NHL opponents before finals (Boston, Toronto, Carolina). Hope they didn't lose a lot of energy after that rally. And Vegas didn't have such a difficult opponents like Panthers had.

200% agree (to give teams 2 total challenges per game and 1 more for OT only in PO's). It makes sense. And not only for the playoffs, but for the regular season too. Because often penalty for challenges destructing team's results too. Why you didn't propose this long time ago when this strange rule was inserted in NHL (penalty for challenges)? And I agree too that game 1 in finals was really good one until late in 3rd. A must win tonight for Panthers to break a losing streak in finals. So far is 0:5. They lost 1st 4 games in 1996 against Colorado team. I do not want to see a repeated scenario. In my opinion, Vegas is a beatable team, especially if Panthers were able to win over such a most difficult NHL opponents before (Boston, Toronto, Carolina). Hope they didn't lose a lot of energy after that rally.

It is reminding me what Benn did with Stone in game #3. Same thing he did with a Stone's head and neck. He was more focus to make an injury to Marc Stone than to control the puck. Surprise that Vegas was not able to finish these series in games#4 or #5. Now we are going to see this monster again in game#6 and maybe game#7. And maybe in finals too. This dangerous player should be suspended to entire playoffs games. Here is how he did : https://www.nhl.com/video/benn-suspended-two-games/t-277440360/c-17345795

I agree Vegas can wait. Too short NHL history for this team and probably 2 Final Cup appearances already in 5 years(2018 and 2023). I think Vegas would finish this round#3 with a win at their home ice tomorrow. Dallas has a Cup, but Panthers do not since establishing this team in 1993. Actually Eric Staal needs a Cup for his brother Marc who doesn't nave it yet. That is all he needs at this moment. Both Eric(38 y.o.) and Jordan(34 y.o.) have a Cup , and now Marc(36 y.o.) needs to have it for making a unique professional NHL family which never happened in NHL history. 3 brothers who won Stanley Cups in their career in NHL. Fantastic dream hopefully will transform into the true goal in 2023.

That is true. And now their Captain disqualified for 2 games. At the end of the game Dallas fans were booing badly on their team and throwing bottles and pop canes on the ice. Definitely frustration was there with a score 0:4 and team's play. Another better example, Carolina team played extremely hard every game despite of losing all 4 games.

I think only Fleury did after game#2 when we loss 3:7. Regarding Eric Staal. He was our single Triple Gold Club member who played for our team. He was a 2nd player after Gaborik who placed most goals(42) in a Wild history. Personally for me he was a very hardworking player who could be a nice example for our youngsters. Interesting, after trading from us to Buffalo and then to Montreal during the same season he was able to reach Cup finals with Canadiens. And now he is helping to Panthers and to his brother Marc possibly to get a Stanley Cup for him.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know about this injury. Such a nice creative player.

Here is some info from Wikipedia: "The Panthers began playing in the 1993–94 NHL season, where they set the record for the most points by an expansion team in its inaugural season until surpassed by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017–18. The team has made one appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996, eventually losing the Finals to the Colorado Avalanche. Since then, the Panthers have only qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs seven times, not winning a playoff series again until 2022, and have struggled to find sustained success. In the 1996 playoffs, as the fourth seed in the East, the Panthers faced the Boston Bruins in the first round and won in five games. Bill Lindsay's series-clinching goal is still a trademark image for the run the third-year franchise went on. The Panthers went on to upset the top-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six games followed by the second-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in seven (with Tom Fitzgerald scoring what would end up being the game-winning goal) to reach the Stanley Cup Finals against the Colorado Avalanche, another team making its first Finals appearance.[14] The Avalanche, however, swept the Panthers in four games. Despite losing in the Finals, the Panthers set a record for most wins by an expansion team in their first postseason appearance with 12 victories (this record would later be broken by the Vegas Golden Knights during their inaugural season in 2017–18)." Probably these 2 teams (Panthers and Golden Nights) will meet in finals together this season. Impressed already by Florida Panthers achievements these playoffs.

After the game yesterday Carolina players reaction similar to our Wild fans reaction:

That was crazy. Yesterday Florida was able to beat Carolina with a crazy score in playoffs regulation 1:0 after such an intense game. I would prefer to see this round in Cup finals instead of Conference finals. I just looked for Staal brothers (Eric 38 y.o.; Marc 36 y.o; Jordan 34 y.o.) career achievements. All 3 brothers were round 1 drafts and all passed 1000 NHL games. Eric a Triple Gold Club Member; Jordan won 1 WC and 1 Stanley Cup; Marc reached 1 time Stanley Cup Finals. I really would like that Marc will get a Stanley Cup too. What a professional family!!!

I agree. I expected his much better play at this championship. He has so far only 1 goal in 7 games especially against some very low level teams. Not acceptable for our round 1; #9 overall draft in 2020. I do not know what happened with our Sammy Walker prospect ? He suppose to be playing for USA team there. His name was before, but then his name disappeared at team's roster.

Here is an interesting article to think about: https://hockeywilderness.com/news-rumors/minnesota-wild/the-wild-may-have-to-downsize-their-grit-r29408/

4OT during the 1st game of round#3 was a very rare event happening in NHL. An interesting also during this round, 2 Staal brothers from Florida are playing against the other Staal brother from Carolina which is a rare event too.

Our goalie prospect Wallstedt is doing pretty well at IIHF. He has 3 wins already. And his Sweden team(17 points) merit attention as well as USA team(18 points) and team from Switzerland (18 points) where our formers players are playing now (Kevin Fiala and Nino Niederreiter). Our other former player Nico Sturm is playing for Germany team and is having 5 goals and 1 assist in 6 played games so far. I liked his speed when he played for the Wild team as well as Nick Bjugstad's speed.

Finally Marco Rossi was able to place a nice goal against Hungarian team at the IIHF World 2023 Championship. So far he has 1 goal and 5 assists out of 7 games played there. Unfortunately, Austrian team was not able to win any games even including against evident outsiders. Here is his goal:

Me too. I also really do not want to see series between Vegas vs Kraken who both started recently as an expansion teams their NHL professional journey. Vegas already reached Cup finals during their 1st year in NHL in 2018, but lost to Capitals. Kraken during their 2nd year in NHL passed round#1 of playoffs this season by beating a top Avalanche team , who was a previous year a Cup winner . We didn't have this success long 23 years ago at the initiation of our team.

One Canadian team(Oilers) is still remaining, and one (Leafs) is gone already. Why I stay more for Oilers? That team has a none stop motivation/ an outstanding stamina which we(Wild) do not have for decades during playoffs time. Our energy was usually enough for 3-4 games of the round #1 and that was it. Then a complete lack of energy to show some special an outstanding play; lack to play entire 60 min. per game; an absolute lack of interest to finish with a win in front of our fans especially during a crucial game #5. Referees or not referees mistakes, goalies soft goals should not be a real barrier for the extremely motivated team for the win capable to place 6-8 goals. Recent examples for us were playoffs this season against Dallas and last season against St. Louis. I am still thinking if Fleury will not play game#2(we badly loss 3:7 that game) then our motivation would be better?, but I still doubt. We do not have a long run playoffs stamina for the team. Short run stamina is just a joke for the playoffs team which was able persistently to get into playoffs for decades and not able to pass round#1. Why I am also stay for Oilers? Because of Connor McDavid who is not only a star player but he is a genius player which is rare combined trait. Definitely this player is a Hall of Fame solid candidate.

Nick has now 3 goals with Oilers in 10 playoffs games.

Just imagine if two Canadian teams(Oilers and Leafs) will reach finals despite Bettman's wishes. Actually 38 y.o., round 7 draft; 205 overall Joe Pavelski reached Stanley Cup finals 2 times(2016 with Sharks(14 goals) and 2020 with Stars(13 goals)), which is very impressive record already. This season he already has 7 goals in 6 played games. Some games he missed because of collision with our Dumba.

I am still thinking that Dallas team was a beatable team for us. Then we should be playing against Kraken now which is also a beatable team. We had a real chance to pass 2 rounds this season. But team didn't put enough efforts to produce well in a last 3(three) games of the round#1. 3 goals in 3 games. Especially the last 2 games didn't look for us like a playoffs games but a regular season games when we didn't show a lot of success against Dallas then during the regular season(we had only 2 SO wins). Maybe the team was not prepared well mentally and physically for the long run?

I found an article from hockeywilderness.com which is giving some thoughts. And the comments below it as well as too: https://hockeywilderness.com/news-rumors/minnesota-wild/stanley-cup-playoffs-checklist-joel-eriksson-ek-matt-boldy-kirill-kaprizov-prospects-offseason-number-one-center-trades-free-agency-contract-filip-gustavsson/

I agree. Reaves is a specialist too mainly to police other teams. Surprisingly, he was not able to protect Kaprizov from Suter every game entire round#1. And Foligno was mostly blocked by referees mistakes to provide in full his main physical work for the team. Addison was a PP specialist who didn't play at all in playoffs this season. His 3 goals and 26 assists in PP during the regular season helped us to get into playoffs because our general production on 5-on-5 this season was very limited. Probably, with him we would have more success on PP during playoffs, which was a crucial part of our elimination because our PP stats without him were one of the worst among 16 playoffs teams. I think, in general, we need specialists for the team. Sometimes a narrow one to provide a better team's outcome.

Our former player Nick Bjugstad from Blaine,MN. Already has 2 goals in 8 playoffs games with Oilers. The other players didn't play with Wild.