CreaseAndAssist

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!  

14 hours ago, wildstars95 said:

16 th pick overall for the wild right now in nhl draft 

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.  

19 hours ago, Icechipper said:

Are teams targeting Brodin and Spurgeon? Crosschecks hard on hips, knees and shoulders.

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.  

17 hours ago, bbgarnett said:

I ain't lookin' for nothin' but a good time And it doesn't get better than this are the lyrics that pop into my head thinking about the old Wild boards. Those were some good times for sure. I literally probably would have gone insane watching this team had I not had an asylum to go to and chat/rant, So thanks to all of you for that. Do I think this team will become a Stanley cup contender this decade? I mean my heart says yes but my knowledge of this team just knows it won't be so until Leipold is gone. One thing I do know is that regardless of how this team fares I know I'll have a bunch of inmates to talk to about this maddening organization and that's good for me. I mean yes I want us to win first and foremost but you guys are a close second.

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

18 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Better without necro-bump... It is our history, in my opinion.

I always addressed for a long period of time to you very simple as LIG. Now I don't know how to address to you ? Killer Carlson sounds scary; CreaseAndAssist sounds  kind of a long composite name for me. LIG name is still okay?

It seems from that list not many boarders remained from the old message board : You; IllaZilla; bbgarnet and me. MNSOTA became a part of your blog. And the other one became not active. Or maybe we missed some one from the old board who changed their names?

 You made good questions. 

1. I am still here, because that became so far a part of my life. It doesn't matter where I am: at work; at home; at driving between Litchfield and home; at ice fishing or river fishing(my new interest now), I am trying to watch on TV or to listen on RadioFM. Most of the time listen radio, because I like our commentators. They bring some new news, new ideas, new opinions for me.

2. That question is more complicated. But I think we are moving slowly in a right direction since Guerin became a GM. With him I do see more life for this club in comparison to what we had before. Of course, every one can make mistakes, but he makes them less than others did before. I do see more positive stuff for the team he did. And I am getting more interest to our prospects which he chose to keep Kaprizov, Boldy, Rossi, Khusnutdinov, and probably we will see also Firstov, Yurov, Ohgren, Kumpulainen in the main club too. I understand, it is a lottery, which not everyone can win in the same uniform. But who knows? And I understand also how difficult decision is to keep some veteran players by giving NMC, because that gives them some attraction to stay here at their age. And, I think, Coach and GM need them for their experience. Personally , for me, very hard position for GM to make the right contract, because it is a serious business. Without the risk we will never will drink a glass of champagne after the win.  Forgot to mention about our Coach. Very smart, very risky ( I will remember till the rest of my life how he pulled our goalie in OT just to get 2 points against Nashville), he is not afraid to experiment too. That brings more intrigue and more interest to the club.

Anyway, I feel more optimistic for our future playoffs standing because we are getting a team's level better than before.

 

 

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?  

21 hours ago, Icechipper said:

Chris Simon a first round draft pick, played for Quebec, Colorado, Chicago, Washington, Islanders, Wild. Five years in Russia, where he was an all-star. Documented suffered from chronic brain injuries. 

(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

4 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Interesting, never heard of Ovchinnikov. I looked through eliteprospects.com site. Wild signed him, probably for the Iowa Wild team. Kumpulainen has more promise according to his stats. Strange regarding Petrovsky about not going to sign him. 3 seasons in a row in OHL more than 50 points per season. They should pay more attention to that player if lots of European clubs have an interest in him. 

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.  

10 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

Iowa’s struggles to me show how little depth the Wild truly have. Dakota Mermis staying with the Wild torpedoed the Baby Wild’s season? Really? 
 

I mean, I’m glad Mermis got his shot in the NHL. But just him leaving Iowa killing their season? Mermis is a defenseman. Where are the scorers? Why is the defense so terrible? is Wallstedt really the brick wall we’ve been lead to believe?
 

Or maybe this is an outcome of the Wild’s continuing preoccupation with making the playoffs. They continue to strive for the playoffs, get a low first round draft pick, and then act surprised when they get bounced in the first round. 
 

Nothing is going to change until the Wild decide to rebuild. They’ve done this “retool on the fly” for years and have continued to get the same result: a first round exit. 
 

But hey, as long as Craig gets his playoff money, who cares, right?

Iowa looked like it had some scoring depth going into the season, at least in theory.  

Nic Petan (23 goals in Iowa last year), Sammy Walker (27 goals last year in Iowa)...along with Vinni Lettieri were supposed to be the pace-setters offensively for Iowa.  Lucchini, Teasdale (23 goals last year in Laval), Fogarty (19 goals a season ago in Iowa) and Beckman (24 goals a season ago in Iowa) were supposed to also be solid secondary scoring.  Almost none of that really came into fruition.  Petan was their most dangerous player, but between call ups and and not a decent playmaker to work with (he had Rossi last year) his scoring was muted.  Yet so was everyone else.  Novak got sent down to the ECHL to get more ice time.  Jujar Khaira started out pretty well, but he's been hurt since probably early December.  

Current Stats

Petan - 12 goals in 44GP (before he was traded to the Rangers)

Walker - 12 goals in 57GP

Lettieri - 4 goals in 10GP (up with the MN Wild)

Beckman - 16 goals in 48GP (up with the MN Wild not playing)

Fogarty - 14 goals in 56GP

Lucchini - 11 goals in 30GP (up with the MN Wild)

Teasdale - 6 goals in 57GP

Bankier - 9 goals in 38GP

Elson - 5 goals in 43 GP (he was who we traded Petan for)

Just before the season began, Mermis was named captain of their team.  But he's spent almost no time in Iowa.  So they didn't have any vets on the blueline until they signed Andy Welinski.  Welinski helped out a lot until he got hurt.  Mermis had been a rock in Iowa for the previous two seasons.  Did a little bit of everything.  They also won't admit it but they never really replaced Joe Hicketts; who was their other veteran workhorse on the blueline who also chipped in a fair amount of points too.  

Simon Johansson has had his best year offensively but he's still frail.  Daemon Hunt has been called up a fair amount, and has been Iowa's best young defenseman.  Carson Lambos has looked like a junior player having a tough adjustment to the professional game.  He has the Dumba-like penchant for the catastrophic turnover.  Mobile, but he too needs to add strength.  O'Rourke, coaches apparently really like his game.  Other than a few glimpses I don't think he stands out.  David Spacek has been somewhat similar to Lambos minus the catastrophic turnovers.  Kyle Masters was sent down to the ECHL to get more ice time and has done fairly well there.  

Adding Will Butcher helped add a bit more offense and a power play QB to this team.  

Toporowski has been a decent add so far.  But all in all, they've had a lot of guys regress.  Speed-wise, they really missed Michael Milne on their lower lines in the 1st half.  Call ups for players like Lucchini, Raska deprived the team of some speed as well.  

Wallstedt has been their most consistent player game to game.  Zane McIntyre hasn't played all that much and at times he looks good but at others he's had some rough games too (perhaps from not playing as often as he did last year where it was more of a 50/50 rotation).  

It's been a season of frustration in Iowa.  A horrid January (just 2 wins that month) and they're still trying to scratch and claw for the last spot like the big club is doing.  I don't think losing one of their coaches (after Dean and Woods was let go) helped either.  Cody Franson replaced Dwyer.  Brett McLean at times has appeared to be a bit overwhelmed and effort and consistency has been an issue all season long. 

They go on the road and look great in Hershey against the defending Calder Cup champions and then come back and look like crap against a far weaker Rockford team.  

I've probably watched about 95% of their games.  They rarely ever make their games look easy, even when they are playing well.  Everything is a grind or one step forward and two steps back with this team.  

(shrugs)  It makes sense.  Also, Minnesota is really finding its groove now.  Kendall Coyne-Schofield is finding the back of the net with more frequency and Michela Cava, Denisa Krizova are starting to light the lamp too to go along with Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle.  A bit of an interesting choice not to keep Abby Boreen on the club after scoring 4 goals on her two 10-day PTO's.  

Now if they can only get Kelly Pannek and Sofia Kunin to get rolling offensively (goal scoring-wise) they could be pretty scary.  

https://www.thepwhl.com/en/stats/standings

Currently in 2nd place with 1st place Toronto having a game in hand.  Big week this week with games against 3rd place Montreal.  It will either preserve the log jam or Minnesota will open up some space between the two clubs.  

Iowa Wild 3-2 over Chicago

A good game that came down to the bitter end.  Wallstedt had some great saves but he also made a big mistake too which you will see in these highlights.  However, they found a way to earn a victory this afternoon.  

Iowa has lost back-to-back games to Grand Rapids on Friday and last night (Saturday).  Yesterday they got out to a 2-0 lead only to give up five unanswered to get blitzed 5-2.  I know Michael Russo thinks the Wild will bring in Vladislav Firstov and then send him to Iowa but what's the point?  Iowa doesn't look like they'll make the playoffs and I can't imagine the kid who bolted for the KHL because he didn't want to play in the AHL will just be thrilled to go back to the AHL upon arriving back in North America.  

I didn't see this one, I had friends over.  Theresa kind of described it as kind of a slow and sleepy 1st period and then they picked it up in the 3rd.  Had some opportunities to take the lead but couldn't bury it.  As much as in past years where we'd probably be pleased with a shootout loss, now the team can't afford to come away with anything less than 2 points.  

Certainly sounded like a game where we missed Eriksson Ek big time.  

On 3/13/2024 at 9:26 AM, Jimtown guy said:

Fun fact: Did you know that Khusnutdinov has one of the longest surnames in NHL history?

With 12 characters in his name, Khusnutdinov poses a challenge for all #mnwild merchandise shops.

The league hasn't seen many longer names:
Brackenborough (14), Makhamadullin (13), Vanbiesbrouck (13), Langenbrunner (13).

Khusnutdinov has the same number of letters as Konstantinov or Marchessault.

In fact, there have been longer surnames in the league, but they were compound or two-word names (Forsbacka Karlsson, Lavallee-Smotherman, or Létourneau-Leblond...).

I saw that on Twitter.  At what point does the uniform guy have to consider using a smaller font?  

Episode #37: Wild Ride the Fleury bus?

In this episode, @MNSOTA and I discuss the resurgence of Marc-Andre Fleury, the future of Filip Gustavsson and the NHL debut of Marat Khusnutdinov.  We answer listener questions and Theresa talks about possible NHL expansion to Alpharetta, Georgia.  Give it a listen!  

I didn't like how the Wild decided not to use Marat Khusnutdinov in the 3rd period.  IMO, give him ice time...let the vets rest a bit.  Instead of they shortened their bench and basically used their 1st and 2nd lines throughout most of the 3rd.  

2 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Kalisha wrote a pretty nice article about Marat Khusnutdinov:

https://hockeywilderness.com/news-rumors/minnesota-wild/marat-khusnutdinovs-leadership-can-help-improve-wilds-consistency-r29945/

Thanks for dropping that here.  I thought he looked pretty good last night, albeit against Anaheim.  But he looked fairly comfortable.  Won some draws, delivered a few checks, played attentive defense and even used his speed a bit too.  Not sure why the Wild decided to nail him to the bench for the 3rd.  

I think he has the potential to be a very important role player for the club.  And still just 21 years old too.  

They got the two points, but this is against another bottom feeder.  Got to feel for Lucchini trying to stick with the big club to have another goal undone by it being waived off (although rightfully so) because of Lettieri's goaltender interference.  The biggest thing from this one is the injury that had Eriksson Ek leaving the game.  If he's out for even a week or two that will probably be the final nail in this season's coffin.  Not that I'd complain about that...but they have to have him in order to have a chance to win IMO.