CreaseAndAssist

Great question... Why in the f%ck didn't you wait until closer to the trade deadline, before you decided extend #36, #17 and #38? Do you think Kirill Kaprizov is going to stick around long enough before this team gets out its own way?

I have to admit this decision really seems odd. He had a not-so-great junior year. I know the Wild act like he's grown so much, but everyone else I heard thought he regressed a bit. If your Peart why do it? Wait a year, have a solid senior season...be a free agent and get a better opportunity.

No doubt. And Russo has hinted at this more and more. This team has to show him its a winner otherwise he has ZERO reason to stay and this summer is the point of no return. The team has to really think about whether he's likely to stay or if he's going to move on. Because his no-trade protection kicks in starting next year.

(shrugs) Khusnutdinov isn't going to be on a line with Kaprizov if he doesn't have a lot of offensive ability. Firstov...another long shot to be one of his linemates. The linemates that should matter to Kaprizov is Boldy...maybe Rossi and Yurov or some other player that isn't with the organization yet. Otherwise, I don't see the arrival of the Russian players really changing Kaprizov's mind about leaving or staying. He might like having them around for right now, but I don't think they do enough that would make him less likely to go somewhere else at the end of this contract.

This was a long time ago. But I only met Jeff one time; a friend of mine was part of his hockey show he was doing for a podcast network run by Tom Bernard's son called the Alive & Social Network. Dubay, being an experienced KFAN guy was the host and they had a Wild-focused one called Wild Wednesdays. So one time when I was in town over the holidays, @MNSOTA and I went to Burger Moe's right near the X where they were recording and he was going to have me come on. I had never been on a podcast before. He seemed to have kind of a nervous / anxious when the show wasn't live (like during an ad) but then get laser focused as soon as you were live. He gave me a brief introduction and I was super nervous, and then he's asking me what the team needed to do. I gave my two cents, he didn't scoff or make me feel like a complete dope. I shared my thoughts and then we kept talking about the Wild and then Gopher hockey for about 30 minutes. This had to have been shortly after he was let go by KSTP 1500 around 2015 would be my guess. As he'd get into trouble again, he didn't want to kill the momentum of Wild Wednesdays so he passed it on to some others. Other shows on this network included the first edition of Russo's Male Pattern Podcast. Gorg had a short-lived show on here too as well as others about fishing, police, movies and restaurant reviews and other things. I was part of a few episodes of Wild Wednesdays with this new crew, where they broadcast the shows from Bennett's Chophouse farther down 7th Ave. It was a nice location, but they put us right in the middle of the restaurant and you kind of felt like you were everyone's way. Anyways, back to Jeff...he was very kind but you could tell he was being chased by demons of some kind. He had a girlfriend arrive at Burger Moe's, she was cute and her arrival didn't exactly calm his nerves. I said this on Twitter, but I really hope he finds and receives the help he needs to get and stay clean. I didn't know he had moved to Grand Forks, the last I had heard he was working as a bartender / podcaster at a place in Oakdale, Minnesota.

Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub...not very far from Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. https://tomreids.com/ 258 7th Street West, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102, United States

@MNSOTA and I will be there. I will throw it out to the podcast listeners too. It should be a fun time regardless what the #mnwild do.

Oh and one last thing. Minnesota signed Riley Heidt to a 3-year entry level contract yesterday. And last night he had a hat-trick in his last regular season WHL game; finishing the 2023-24 reg season with 37 goals and 117 points in 66 games.

Firstov hasn't done THAT much in Iowa. Two not real great penalties so far. He's trying to get involved, but no points yet. As far as this game went, Matt Boldy not forcing Binnington to freeze the puck in OT opened the door for the rush the other way and the game winner by the Blues. For a team that is allegedly fighting for its playoff lives, that is a game YOU HAVE TO WIN! But they didn't...sure another loser point and now they have to wait in Thursday while they fall farther and farther behind. it will be nice when this lame hope will come to an end. And we all know how it will end for this Wild club. Good on Rossi for scoring 20 goals this season after not having any goals through his first 19 NHL games. Beyond that...another disappointing Wild game IMO. A classic teaser...

Brodin gets hit, and you kind of look over at Marcus Foligno and he looks back at you and goes...What? Do you want me to do something? And we're like...

Iowa sweeps Chicago this weekend in a two-game series at home keeping their barely alive playoff hopes going. Luke Toporowsky has 3 goals, 6 points in 7 games since we traded for him. It may have been seen as a bit of homer pick by trading for the Iowa-native, but he's been productive so far. Firstov still hasn't had any points, but he had another bad penalty and luckily for him and Iowa it didn't cost them. Turner Elson isn't the scoring threat Nic Petan was, but he does the little things right and kind of reminds me of Don Bebee from Mystery, Alaska...a veteran leader who does the ugly, little things to make plays that help you win games. It will be interesting if they decide to keep him around on an AHL deal for next season. Simon Johansson is on a bit of a heater, scoring his 8th goal of the season this weekend.

I'm game for it. We should be in town a few days for a family X-mas in June event. So we might as well stay a few days and enjoy &/or console ourselves when the #mnwild have another milquetoast 1st round selection. At least we'll be able to enjoy some decent food and some beers as we do so.

Episode #38: The Ides of March @MNSOTA and I discuss the Wild's playoff chances, the return of Vladislav Firstov and we play game. We also answer listener questions and Theresa unloads on the league over some comments it made in the wake of yet another former enforcer dying way too young. Give it a listen!

That's the worst part; we're going to scratch and claw our way to another mediocre 1st round selection. There are some good defenseman in this draft, but we'll probably take one of the smaller, puck moving types because that's all they seem to want to draft at that position. 6'1" - 5"11", 190-180lbs puck mover types with limited offense.

I didn't catch this one. I took a nap and that extended into the game. Woke up at about 10:50PM CST and turned it on, saw we were down 5-0 and went back to bed. By what I read on Twitter and from here it doesn't sound like the team showed up for this game. You basically see the microcosm of this Wild season in these back to back games. They can beat an inept Anaheim Ducks team but when they play against a playoff-bound quality opponent they get demolished. If we have Brodin and Eriksson Ek back...maybe we can compete but without we look like a pretender.

I think Jared Spurgeon was slowing down last season. His body is more fragile and being pint-sized probably hasn't helped. That contract we gave him was an albatross as soon as they made it. Brodin is currently their best defender, but Brock Faber isn't far behind. Brodin also has a penchant for getting hurt; not fragile...but his injuries usually bring about a free fall in the standings. The Killorn hit was 100% needless. It wasn't a blindside hit, but he had no real reason to expect to be hit though. The puck had gone away a while ago. However I'd say teams (especially Nashville) have tried to just resort to beating up Kaprizov. Dallas too at times. It's been a way to get Minnesota out of its game and worrying more about hits and being hit than playing the game for a while now.

Oh, and necro-bumping was certainly something that was a part of the old Wild.com message boards. We never wanted to let a good thread stay dead. Even if it was just to look back and laugh at the insanity it contained...it was fun to have it around once again.

I agree with you, 100%! Glad to know we're still near the top of the list...;)

No worries on the Killer Carlson name, I took it because of Dave "Killer" Carlson from Slap Shot. A lot of people just called me KC back in those days. Litchfield, MN eh? Piratical Pat and my whole family is from Hutchinson just about. Spent a lot of time hunting along the country roads near Litchfield. Joe O'Donnell is a great guy and I know some aren't big fans of Tom Reid but I still enjoy listening to him. Love his restaurant and have had fun meeting some of you there. Heck, the last time I saw @IllaZilla I was there for a draft get together; that was the draft we took Filip Johansson. Even though we were baffled at who the Wild selected since I had a heckuva time trying to find anything about him after the pick despite my small collection of scouting publications...we still enjoyed some beers and burgers and had fun just hanging out. Rotten, I am sorry your wife had to deal with myeloma. I'm glad to hear she's in remission and despite the cooking challenges it sounds like life has returned to normalcy on some level. As for the grand kid, I can tiny bit relate as my brother had his kid a few years ago and @MNSOTA became an uncle & aunt. We got him a net and some hockey sticks for his 1st birthday but I haven't seen them out yet. He's a very precocious 2 1/2 right now and he seems to simply enjoy making noise more than anything else. So hopefully he'll be a chirpy hockey player in the future. I don't doubt that Covid and being a part of the Health Department was a nightmare; it was no picnic for schools either who had to fight those same battles you did. The only difference was we didn't call those shots; but we were the ones that had to enforce them. Surprisingly, even where I live...we didn't get a lot of resistance, probably because we went back to face-to-face learning the next fall after it all went down. Still, it was a ton of extra work for the few that would be gone and the endless cleaning of tables. I am glad to hear your son is graduated from college and well on his way career-wise and the other son is doing well at the U of M, my brother graduated from U of M in engineering too. Maybe your salesman son can take his dad to a few games to pay him back!?!? Which son did we meet one time at Reid's? No one is chopped liver, it's just that I have more of a history with some of these people than with others. I don't have a hard time getting together with anyone when hockey is involved. It seems like more and more people are coming to the conclusion that Leipold's stubborn insistence on the playoffs is what is hindering this team from the true rebuild it painfully needs. Would anyone be interested in getting together for the NHL draft in late June?

(sigh) Yes and the correlation between himself and many of the other enforcers of the past is hard to deny. So few of them reach the age of 60 before dying of suicide, substance abuse, mental health deterioration or a combination of all three.

Necro-bump.... I didn't say this before, but I was LemaireisGOD but then at some point I think I may have gotten banned or I couldn't log back in so I became KillerCarlson with my picture of Gilmore Tuttle (of the Syracuse Bulldogs) from Slap Shot. Unfortunately, after I got my post count back up to something like 1,700 the NHL took over all of the boards and there was a guy on the Chicago boards that had the same name earlier than I did and I lost the post count. Meaningless yes...but it was annoying. Things may not be as lively here as it used to be, but it's another place to discuss the team and the prospects. The prescribed threads made by the powers at be is more than a bit heavy handed, but to quote Todd Bertuzzi (who was also known for being a bit heavy handed himself) "It is what it is." So to any of you old Wild.com message boarders out there @MNSOTA, @IllaZilla, @Gnarkill, @Lonkkis, @rottenrefs, @bbgarnett, @Alexandron, @Fargocase, @Rickyd what have you all been up to? Will this Minnesota Wild team actually become a Stanley Cup contender in this decade?

Minnesota Wild (33-27-8) 74pts 5th in the Central 3.07 Goals For Per Game (18th in the NHL) 3.18 Goals Against Per Game (21st in the NHL) 21.7% Power Play (13th in the NHL) 74.3% Penalty Kill (28th in the NHL) Top 5 Scorers: 1. #97 Kirill Kaprizov ~ 35G 41A = 76pts 2. #36 Mats Zuccarello ~ 11G 44A = 55pts 3. #12 Matt Boldy ~ 24G 29A = 53pts 4. #38 Ryan Hartman ~ 17G 21A = 38pts 5. #7 Brock Faber ~ 6G 32A = 38pts Top 3 PIM's: 1. #5 Jake Middleton ~ 70 PIM's 2. #17 Marcus Foligno ~ 57 PIM's 3. #24 Zach Bogosian ~ 49 PIM's Top Goaltenders: 1. #29 Marc-Andre Fleury (16-11-4) 2.67GAA .906% 2SO 2. #32 Filip Gustavsson (17-15-4) 3.26GAA .894% 2SO Vs. Anaheim Ducks (23-42-3) 49pts 7th in the Pacific 2.50 Goals For Per Game (30th in the NHL) 3.63 Goals Against Per Game (31st in the NHL) 18.4% Power Play (24th in the NHL) 73.1% Penalty Kill (31st in the NHL) Top 5 Scorers: 1. #77 Frank Vatrano ~ 29G 21A = 50pts 2. #19 Troy Terry ~ 19G 29A = 48pts 3. #23 Mason McTavish ~ 17G 23A = 40pts 4. #16 Ryan Strome ~ 11G 25A = 36pts 5. #4 Cam Fowler ~ 4G 27A = 31pts Top 3 PIM's: 1. #44 Ross Johnston ~ 106 PIM's 2. #23 Mason McTavish ~ 80 PIM's 3. #77 Frank Vatrano ~ 73 PIM's Top Goaltenders: 1. #36 John Gibson (13-23-2) 3.38GAA .892% 2. #1 Lukas Dostal (10-19-1) 3.58GAA .899% Lines: Anaheim Ducks Killorn~L. Carlsson~Terry R. Strome~McTavish~Vatrano M. Jones~Lundestrom~Silfverberg Johnston~Groulx~Leason Fowler~Zellweger Vaakanainen~G. Lindstrom Mintyukov~LaCombe J. Gibson Dostal Minnesota Wild Kaprizov~Hartman~Boldy M. Johansson~Rossi~Zuccarello M. Foligno~Khusnutdinov~Shaw Beckman~Lucchini~Gaudreau Middleton~Faber Brodin~Bogosian Chisholm~Merrill M-A Fleury Gustavsson

That's the deal, we did trade for him. But apparently we're not even asking Toronto to give him to us. He's still playing for the Marlies. They just wanted the contract off the books. Not sure why we keep doing Toronto favors like this even if it's just for a pro contract.

Former Wild forward Chris Simon has died, he was 52 years old. Or we simply drafted Rasmus Kumpulainen because we hoped he could develop into a big-bodied center. He certainly seems more promising than the guy we drafted in the 1st round that year.

Firstov is going to play in Iowa according to Russo. One would think this is make or break time for him now that he's had time to develop since being drafted. Also in that report, the Wild are not going to sign Servac Petrovsky. He can re-enter the draft but already has a bunch of European league deals on the table. The Wild did sign Rasmus Kumpulainen to a 3-year entry level deal that starts next year. Ovchinnikov is never going to play for the Wild either; they've even let him stay and play in Toronto. I guess it was to say we got something besides just a pick for Dewar...literally in name only.