CreaseAndAssist

Or, maybe he's just not that good? He wouldn't be the first #mnwild prospect we ever had whose totals were inflated by playing on a really good team. Sokolov has been playing well lately and showing off his NHL-calibre shot. Iowa plays Chicago today at Noon which should be a pretty spirited game.

I agree with @IllaZilla about Rask. I'm pretty pleased with how he's playing. As far as my list... Above... Soucy Fiala Brodin Stalock Suter At Spurgeon Rask Greenway Kunin Parise Staal Eriksson Ek Donato Zuccarello Hunt Pateryn Hartman Below Dumba Dubnyk Koivu Zucker Seeler

That is a damn good Jagr mullet. Just about perfect. The shoulder patch is epic!

No points again for Boldy this weekend against UMass-Lowell. By that same token, McBain and Warren didn't register any points either for BC even though they won both games. Boldy played on the wing again, with McBain as his center...not many shots either. I suppose the Boldy lovers will still rationalize this as him just struggling to adjust, blah, blah, blah... Firstov had two goals last night though...leads UConn in scoring. Same age, came from the same developmental league playing in their freshman season in the Hockey East Conference...but Boldy is the more promising prospect?!?!

Wild Power Play Strikes 3 Times in 7-0 Rout of Dallas on Hockey Day Minnesota The team started the game by being physical and seemed to want it more than Dallas did in the important areas of the ice. Stalock was solid, making the timely saves to keep Dallas off the board and the team was able to take advantage of some of its opportunities to pull away for its most one-sided victory of the season. I don't know about you, but I didn't miss Koivu one bit. I have a full game recap, Iowa Wild highlights and prospect news too!

Gritty Effort Is Rewarded in 3-2 Wild Win Over Tampa Bay The Wild are lucky Tampa Bay was overlooking us tonight. We were able to get enough offense to win and defend when we needed to. Stalock made the key stops to keep Tampa Bay sleepwalking...not pretty, but we'll take it. Foligno had another great game, and so did Greenway. Koivu stayed on the 4th line, and that's where he needs to say. He can't freakin' move, almost at all. I have a full game recap, an extended Iowa Wild report, prospect news and the latest MN High School hockey rankings...enjoy.

The skating is still bad. I don't think its going to get much better, only hope it happens is because he adds strength. But I'd find it hard to believe the USNDT didn't emphasize strength training a lot already.

Thanks for the assist. I'm not sure why it didn't work.

Pronman's Top 72 Players outside the NHL 3 Wild players made this list including (spoiler alert) Matt Boldy. Not sure I agree with it, but even he agrees the reports are mixed on this guy.

https://thesportsdaily.com/2020/01/16/game-preview-minnesota-wild-vs-tampa-bay-lightning-1-16-20-700pm-cst-at-xcel-energy-center/ Minnesota Wild (20-20-6) 46pts 7th in the Central 2.98 Goals For Per Game (18th in the NHL) 3.37 Goals Against Per Game (29th in the NHL) 17.5% Power Play (22nd in the NHL) 76.5% Penalty Kill (26th in the NHL) Top 5 Scorers: 1. #12 Eric Staal ~ 16G 17A = 33pts 2. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 6G 24A = 30pts 3. #11 Zach Parise ~ 16G 12A = 28pts 4. #22 Kevin Fiala ~ 9G 17A = 26pts 5. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 12G 12A = 24pts Top 3 PIM’s: 1. #38 Ryan Hartman ~ 50 PIM’s 2. #18 Jordan Greenway ~ 37 PIM’s 3. #19 Luke Kunin ~ 34 PIM’s Top Goaltenders: 1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (8-11-2) 3.16GAA .898%SP 1SO 2. #32 Alex Stalock (9-7-3) 3.01GAA .903%SP 1SO Vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (28-14-4) 60pts 2nd in the Atlantic 3.57 Goals For Per Game (3rd in the NHL) 2.89 Goals Against Per Game (9th in the NHL) 27.4% Power Play (2nd in the NHL) 83.1% Penalty Kill (5th in the NHL) Top 5 Scorers: 1. #86 Nikita Kucherov ~ 18G 32A = 50pts 2. #91 Steve Stamkos ~ 18G 27A = 45pts 3. #77 Victor Hedman ~ 9G 32A = 41pts 4. #21 Brayden Point ~ 18G 22A = 40pts 5. #17 Alex Killorn ~ 19G 19A = 38pts Top 3 PIM’s: 1. #98 Mikhail Sergachev ~ 39 PIM’s 2. #37 Yanni Gourde ~ 32 PIM’s 3. #81 Erik Cernak ~ 27 PIM’s Top Goaltenders: 1. #88 Andrei Vasilevskiy (23-9-2) 2.58GAA .916%SP 2SO 2. #35 Curtis McElhinney (5-5-2) 3.10GAA .904%SP MNSOTA wrote up the game preview, I'll be on the post gamer. As rough as it was for this team against Pittsburgh, I think this game could even be worse. The Lightning are on fire lately, and playing that deadly combination of putting 4+ goals easily per night and not giving up much defensively. That doesn't bode well for the Wild who are playing about as bad defensively as they have all season, especially on the penalty kill where they can't they're are almost money for giving up (at least) one power play goal per game. What do you all think?

It didn't matter. The team as a whole wasn't ready to play. That's not on Boudreau. Boudreau owned up to the mistake, many of the veterans continue to believe they never make mistakes even if they were on the ice for 6 out of the 7 goals scored. Then you have, 'everything is just fine' Dubnyk who acts like this is just a minor bump in the road and that we'll be in the playoffs for sure after any loss he has. The only honest broker in this 'room' is Marcus Foligno. Parise, he seems to almost enjoy not getting along with this coach.

Sam Anas has also been playing very well as of late. That was a nice rebound win for them after their previous outing against Bakersfield. Gerald Mayhew is just a machine and I hope he gets another shot with the big club.

It might be even uglier tomorrow night against the Lightning. I don't think its a stretch to say we have a good chance of losing by 6-7 against them too.

Uh huh. So that's why they keep playing him to death on the power play. Or is it a vet that doesn't want to practice anymore? Oh, we're supposed to work on the penalty kill? Ah crap...my ankle hurts Gabby...sorry. Boudreau turns to another coach, that's the 5th time he's done this during PK practice.

I don't get this one at all. The Golden Knights are playing up-tempo fun hockey, they've had nothing but success. Yes, they didn't win the Stanley Cup but got super close. They were good last year, and they're good this year. I agree with @IllaZilla, this reads like an Onion article to me. Did he say or do something to just trigger a termination? This just seems terribly odd at a really strange time to do it. Wasn't he supposed to be the Pacific All Star coach too?

Nice! Do you get paid for that gig or is that strictly volunteer with free beers or something like that?

I think the Wild will look extra sluggish like they played the night before in Vancouver and hopped on board the red-eye to Pittsburgh. The Penguins embarrassed the Wild last time with kids from Wilkes-Barre making our regulars look like crap.

I listened to the game in Bakersfield. The Wild started out ok, but then the wheels fell off quickly.

Wild vs. Penguins Game Preview Minnesota Wild (20-19-6) 46pts 6th in the Central 2.98 Goals For Per Game (18th in the NHL) 3.29 Goals Against Per Game (26th in the NHL) 17.5% Power Play (22nd in the NHL) 76.5% Penalty Kill (25th in the NHL) Top 5 Scorers: 1. #12 Eric Staal ~ 16G 17A = 33pts 2. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 6G 24A = 30pts 3. #11 Zach Parise ~ 14G 12A = 26pts 4. #22 Kevin Fiala ~ 9G 16A = 25pts 5. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 12G 12A = 24pts Top 3 PIM’s: 1. #38 Ryan Hartman ~ 50 PIM’s 2. #18 Jordan Greenway ~ 37 PIM’s 3. #19 Luke Kunin ~ 34 PIM’s Top Goaltenders: 1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (8-10-2) 3.16GAA .898%SP 1SO 2. #32 Alex Stalock (9-7-3) 3.01GAA .903%SP 1SO Vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (28-12-5) 61pts 2nd in the Metropolitan 3.36 Goals For Per Game (9th in the NHL) 2.71 Goals Against Per Game (7th in the NHL) 18.9% Power Play (20th in the NHL) 81.5% Penalty Kill (13th in the NHL) Top 5 Scorers: 1. #71 Evgeni Malkin ~ 13G 31A = 44pts 2. #17 Bryan Rust ~ 18G 20A = 38pts 3. #58 Kris Letang ~ 10G 18A = 28pts 4. #19 Jared McCann ~ 13G 13A = 26pts 5. #24 Dominik Kahun ~ 10G 16A = 26pts Top 3 PIM’s: 1. #71 Evgeni Malkin ~ 34 PIM’s 2. #17 Bryan Rust ~ 24 PIM’s 3. #72 Patric Hornqvist ~ 19 PIM’s Top Goaltenders: 1. #35 Tristan Jarry (15-6-1) 2.08GAA .932%SP 3SO 2. #30 Matt Murray (13-6-4) 2.91GAA .896%SP 1SO MNSOTA wrote up the game preview, I'll be on the post gamer. This game could very well be a major embarrassment for this club. National television, Guerin against his former organization...and a team that is playing like the Country Club is back together. I know MNSOTA's preview isn't too hopeful, but isn't that the kind of vibe around this team right now? Enjoy and discuss...

Well I think the team makes it obvious when its really trying to set up Dumba for a goal. Where players don't take advantage of a shooting lane to try keep sending passes to Dumba and hoping he'll just blast one in. If Dumba was smart, he'd try to get one by moving in close and crashing the net instead of trying to score on a big slap shot.

You are probably right. Some that may watch will wonder why the North Stars changed their name.

Markstrom, Canucks Shut Down the Wild in 4-1 Victory Kind of predictable. Another 2 day lay off and we look like the tired team while Vancouver was ready to play and outworked us most of the game. Pateryn didn't do anything for me, and neither did Zucker beyond yapping at the officials and taking some lazy penalties. Embrace the tank is back in full swing folks! Full game recap, an Iowa Wild report and a ton of prospect news. Enjoy...

And you know I said the same thing...

Woo hoo...the Blues. Yea, that really gets Wild fans riled up. I guess that will mean Keith Tkachuk will get to cross-check Wes Walz in the throat again, if it keeps Wes from talking so much during the broadcast maybe its not so bad afterall.

Boldy had a big night last night, for him at least. A goal and an assist. But still...pretty mundane. I watched part of his game last night against UMass. I see a kid that has the lateral quickness to win some of the small races in the offensive zone, but no real speed. Decent stickhandler...I'll give him that, but not a lot of forward lean. Kind of a take 2-3 strides and glide kind of a player. This kid played for the U.S. National Development program where he had the probably the most attentive training a young player could ask for in the U.S. and he's still skating like that. Boston College is a high quality program as well. Luckily for them, they have enough other players performing well they don't really have to care too much he's not pulling his weight scoring-wise. Boldy is tied for 2nd on the team with 54 shots on goal. Just to make some easy comparables with other kids he was drafted with in the 1st round last summer that are playing college hockey. Mind you, these are all kids like Boldy who made the jump from Jr. A or High School to the NCAA ranks. So all of these kids are freshman, probably all 18 years old... MATT BOLDY (Boston College) - 2G 4A = 6pts 54 SOG's Drafted BEFORE Boldy Alex Turcotte (Wisconsin) - 6G 10A = 16pts 42 SOG's Trevor Zegras (Boston U.) - 6G 13A = 19pts 46 SOG's Drafted AFTER Boldy in the 1st round Alex Newhook (Boston College) - 7G 9A = 15pts 35 SOG's Cole Caufield (Wisconsin) - 13G 9A = 22pts 86 SOG's John Beecher (Michigan) - 5G 5A = 10pts 44 SOG's Forwards Drafted in 2019 AFTER Boldy in the 2nd round or later playing college hockey this year AS FRESHMAN Shane Pinto (North Dakota) - 10G 6A = 16pts 55 SOG's Bobby Brink (Denver) - 8G 9A = 17pts 60 SOG's John Farinacci (Harvard) - 6G 8A = 14pts 24 SOG's Nick Ambruzzese (Harvard) - 6G 12A = 18pts 31 SOG's Trevor Janicke (Notre Dame) - 7G 3A = 10pts 51 SOG's Owen Lindmark (Wisconsin) - 4G 6A = 10pts 19 SOG's Patrick Moynihan (Providence) - 8G 6A = 14pts 61 SOG's Aiden McDonough (Northeastern) - 8G 10A = 18pts 41 SOG's Andre Lee (UMass-Lowell) - 6G 9A = 15pts 48 SOG's Robert Mastrisimone (Boston U.) - 4G 8A = 12pts 57 SOG's *Vladislav Firstov (UConn) - 6G 7A = 13pts 39 SOG's * - Wild prospect